When Lindsey Burrow listened to the message from her late husband she heard him tell her to find happiness again
Rob Burrow’s widow, Lindsey, has revealed the moving voice message he left for her to listen to after his death, urging her to find love again and be happy.
Lindsey revealed Burrow recorded messages for her and her children using specialist voice equipment after losing the ability to speak as his MND took hold. She admitted she had dreaded listening to the message but has now eventually taken the emotional step.
Their children, Macy, 14, Maya, 10 and Jackson, seven, are yet to listen to theirs.
The typically selfless gesture from rugby league icon Burrow again shows how he put his family first at every moment despite the cruelty of what was happening to him.
In an interview with the Telegraph, little more than 18 months after his death at 41, Lindsey said she still doesn’t feel ready to move on, insisting her only concern is for her children.
“Not a day goes by when I don’t think about him and talk about him. Rob was so positive in his lifetime. He wanted us to be happy. He showed us how to live life in the moment – and now I cope by not thinking about the future.”
She also disclosed how Burrow kept her going during the darkest days of his illness, using an eye-controlled computer to text her with messages like ‘I love you darling’ and ‘I can’t wait to see you’. The couple would have been married 20 years this September.
Lindsey initially put off listening to the message Burrow left for her to receive after his death, fearing it would make her too emotional.
When she eventually downloaded it, the words she heard were ones of love, telling her to find happiness.
“I don’t think about that,” she said. “People do say to me, ‘I hope you move on,’ but it’s not about that. My priority is the children, first and foremost. I don’t know what the future holds but [finding love again] is not on my agenda.”
Of the fact her children have yet to listen to their messages, she added: “It felt too raw at the time. But I feel bad now. I know when the time is right, they will listen to them. There’s never pity. They just get on with life.”
Rob and Lindsey met as teenagers in school and it proved to be a love that would never break. In the darkest moments she would care for him, bathe him and carry him upstairs at their home.
“Rob was my one true love and always will be,” she said. “We were together at school and by the time he died, we’d spent more of our life together than apart.”