LOVING husband Donald Duxbury told an inquest how his wife collapsed and died in front of him.

The retired road sweeper said that in 42 years of marriage he had only been separated from his beloved Alice on three occasions -- when he went into hospital for one night, when she went into hospital for a night and when she went on a weekend trip to Blackpool.

And he revealed that Alice had been buried on what would have been their 43rd wedding anniversary.

"I am really missing my wife," said Mr Duxbury, of Audley Lane, Blackburn. "We had no children, we were on our own together all that time and we loved each other all through that time." He told how in the last few months of her life Alice, 62, a retired cleaner, had suffered from breathlessness and had struggled to sleep at night.

He had slept on the settee downstairs when his wife came down at 5.15am and went to the back door saying she needed some air. Mr Duxbury said his wife came back in and told him to call an ambulance and then collapsed on the floor.

"That was it," said Mr Duxbury. "They tested her and she was gone. I was so disappointed after all those years together."

Dr Richard Prescott, who carried out a post mortem examination, said there was no obvious cause of death. He said that because he had been told there had been an episode of shaking before death he had considered the possibility that she had suffered an epileptic fit but there had been insufficient evidence for that to be given as the cause of death which remained unascertained.

Coroner Michael Singleton recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.