Popular Rolls-Royce worker Carolyn Hole died after a 16-month battle with leukaemia on 3 March, 2010.

Her husband Mike paid tribute to his "best friend and beautiful wife".

The 48-year-old, who worked in imports and exports at Rolls-Royce for 32 years, died at Nottingham City Hospital.

Mike said: "One of the last times I spoke to her, she was lying in her hospital bed and I leant over and said to her, 'Come on, you need to fight this, I want you back home'.

"She lifted her oxygen mask and said, 'I may not be coming home this time' and she gave me a look that I knew meant that might be it.

"She had battled the disease for nearly 18 months and a third lot of chemotherapy was going to be just too much for her.

"That was the last conversation I had with her.

"I sat and held her hand for as long as I could."

Carolyn lived in the family home, in Pear Tree Street, Derby, for all of her life.

She and Mike met six years ago and had been married for two years but never managed to celebrate a wedding anniversary together because Carolyn was in hospital.

Mike said: "We used to visit a lot of museums and we had a standing joke when we got there.

"She used to say to me, 'You will never forget me because Rolls-Royce is everywhere' and she was right.

"It seemed like every museum we went to had a piece of machinery on display that was either made by Rolls-Royce, was powered by a Rolls-Royce engine or had a Rolls-Royce badge fixed to something.

"On our honeymoon in Jersey, we went into a museum and there was even an aircraft with a Rolls-Royce engine."

Mike said that since his wife's death, her sister, Christina Garcia-de-la-Pena, had been a tremendous support to him. And he has been overwhelmed by the scores of sympathy cards from people who knew Carolyn.

http://www.thisisderbyshire. co.uk/news/Beautiful-wife- loses-fight-cancer/article- 1905206-detail/article.html [thisisderbyshire.co.uk]