Courtesy of Linda Newman.
Tommy Pilling — who gained fame in the United Kingdom after he and his wife, Maryanne, became one of the first couples with Down syndrome to marry in the country — has died ofcoronaviruscomplications.
In was in July 1995 thatPilling and Maryanne exchanged vowsat a church in Essex after they met two years earlier at a training center for people with learning difficulties.
While the two were the target of critics who believed their marriage wouldn’t work because of their disabilities, they remained together until Pilling’s death from coronavirus-related pneumonia on Jan. 1, just months after he and Maryanne celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in July.
According to the family, Pilling, 62, had been in isolation during the pandemic but contracted the virus during a recent hospital visit.
“Our beautiful Tommy peacefully passed… after a battle with covid pneumonia,” Pilling’s sister-in-law, Lindi Newman,wrote on the couple’s Facebook page on Monday. “Thank you for showing me what unconditional love was, I will remember your beautiful ways forever, your pure heart, your love of music, Elvis, your dancing. Your positive attitude and how you appreciated the small things. Thank you for making Maryanne so happy.”
In a 2017 interview withThe Express, Maryanne called her wedding “the best day” of her life, and Pillings her “best friend.”
Their union was a historic one: the two are one of the first couples with Down syndrome — a genetic disorder that causes intellectual disabilities and developmental delays — to marry in the country, according to theBBC.
Newman previously toldPEOPLEthat one of the keys to Pilling and Maryanne’s marriage was their trust in one another.
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“They love one another dearly, respect one another and are completely honest,” she said.
Linda Martin — Pilling’s mother-in-law — said the loss of her daughter’s husband “has left a vast hole in our lives that no one will ever fill.”
As of Tuesday morning, more than 86 million people around the world have contracted coronavirus, and 1.8 million others have died from it, according to aNew York Timesdatabase.
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source: people.com
