'I couldn't have asked for a better wife'

The funeral will take place next week for a Melton woman who died following a fall while staying with family for Christmas.

Carole Pacey, who was 78 and had been suffering from cancer, worked at a number of prominent organisations, including Pera and Latham House Medical Practice.

She and husband of 58 years, Tony, were staying with their daughter, Alison, and her partner in Yorkshire when the tragic accident happened on Boxing Day morning. Carole fell down a flight of stairs and suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. She passed away the following day.

Tony told the Melton Times: "We had a lovely Christmas Day with the family, including our first great-grandchild, Archie, who is six-weeks-old.

"We intended to come back on Boxing Day because I had a doctor’s appointment and then the accident happened that day about 10am.

"She was on the top floor and I was on the middle floor watching TV when we heard this almighty bang.

“It was a terrible thing to happen.”

Carole was born at Grantham Hospital in May 1945.

Tony and Carole Pacey, pictured on their wedding day in 1965

Her family moved to Redmile and then to Harby when she was growing up.

She met Tony in 1962 and the couple married three years later at Harby Parish Church.

They also had a son, Stephen, who died in 2008, and Carole also leaves a grand-daughter, Charlotte.

Carole started her working life in the accounts department at the former Sharman and Ladbury garage in Melton before taking up a similar role at Pera for 17 years.

She then had a job at the holiday company, Experience Worldwide, and latterly worked as a data inputter at the town’s Latham House Medical Practice for 10 years.

Carole enjoyed theatre trips, holidays abroad, bingo, reading novels and listening to orchestral music.

She also played darts for the Rutland Arms pub and won five trophies with the ladies’ team in the local league.

Tony, who lived with Carole in Melton, added: “She was very warm, kind and friendly.

"Everybody liked Carole – I could not have wished for a better wife.”

Carole’s funeral service is at Loughborough Crematorium at 2.45pm on Tuesday January 16, followed by a wake at the Sysonby Knoll Hotel in Melton. Donations are invited in lieu of flowers for Cancer Research UK.