Heartbreaking tribute to Kelly Clarke from her husband

Chase Clarke arrived at his wife’s funeral wearing her wedding ring on his left little finger and an Armani watch she gave him the day they married on his wrist.

He left with his wife’s coffin resting on his left shoulder. 

There were just six months between the carpenter marrying the nurse in Sydney and her death in Fiji earlier this month.

Kelly, 24, died of severe bilateral pneumonia on October 7 less than two days after falling ill.

Her husband, 28, led hundreds of mourners at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church at Forestville, in Sydney’s north, at a service on Tuesday afternoon.

Chase Clarke (pictured) was seen nervously preparing to deliver an emotional goodbye to the wife he lost on their Fiji honeymoon ahead of her funeral on Tuesday

Mr Clarke exited the church following his wife’s funeral with her casket on his left shoulder

Kelly Clarke (left) was only 24 when she died of bilateral pneumonia just 30 hours after complaining of stomach pains

The grieving husband delivered a moving tribute to his wife on Tuesday afternoon after nervously rehearsing outside the church

Outside the church before the funeral began Clarke practised the eulogy he would deliver for his departed bride.

‘To my beautiful wife, things shouldn’t be this way,’ he said.

‘(You were) everything that I wanted in a woman.

‘You would have been the best mother for our kids. That didn’t come to be.’

Mr Clarke remembered a beautiful, intelligent, caring woman with whom he shared a short but normal married life.

‘I’m sorry for all the pain and fights,’ he said. ‘But I can’t remember them.

‘I know this isn’t goodbye. I will talk to you every day and think of you.

‘I know I will see you again. I just don’t know when.’

Pictured: Mr Clarke is comforted by his mother outside the church in Forestville on Tuesday

Mourners were seen comforting each other near the hearse which carried Kelly’s body to Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church at Forestville, in Sydney’s north

Mr Clarke paid tribute to the beautiful, intelligent and caring woman he had devoted his life to

After the funeral, a mourners gathered with Kelly’s family at a nearby Rugby Club

Mr Clarke walked out of the Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic church, flanked by grieving family members

Kelly and Chase had been in Sigatoka celebrating their honeymoon while they attended a friend’s wedding

Chase had his speech handwritten on palm cards ahead of his emotional delivery in the church

The 28-year-old was seen rehearsing his tribute outside the chapel as he prepared to farewell the love of his life

Kelly had been a well-regarded nurse who was a ballerina as a child.

Mr Clarke’s lasting memory of her would be perched like a dancer on the edge of a pool in Fiji.

The couple had been in Sigatoka celebrating their honeymoon while they attended a friend’s wedding.

They had conquered fears together on the trip, kayaking from one island to another just to find a cheaper meal.

But before the end of their holiday Kelly fell seriously ill.

She died in Lautoka Hospital, north of Nadi less than two days after first complaining of stomach pains.

She went into cardiac arrest five times in her final hour.

Chase Clarke (right) told mourners he would continue to speak with his wife ‘every day’

Since her tragic death, Mr Clarke has been wearing Kelly’s wedding bands alongside his own

Kelly’s funeral service opened with Ed Sheeran’s Perfect and closed with You Raise Me Up by Secret Garden

The young Sydney couple had been married only six months before Chase became a widower 

Doctors originally suspected she was suffering from typhoid and she had been put into an induced coma.

Mr Clarke’s last conversation with his wife was by telephone shortly before she lost consciousness.

‘I just told her I loved her, stay strong, we’re going to get out of this,’ Mr Clarke previously told Daily Mail Australia.

‘She just told me she was scared she was going to die.

‘She was panting through her breath. I never spoke to her again.’

Mr Clarke was later forced to identify Kelly in a refrigerated shipping container containing other bodies.

He then had to dress his wife’s body for her return to Australia.

Mr Clarke has since spoken of the poor medical facilities in Fiji.

‘It’s not something I’d want anyone to experience,’ he has said. ‘It’s just gut-wrenching.’

Kelly worked as a nurse at Westmead Hospital, and was remembered as a ‘dedicated nurse who loved working with children’

In her final conversation with her husband, Kelly told him she was afraid she would die

Mr Clarke was still thinking of others on Tuesday as he warned travellers to be aware of the dangers of falling ill in countries like Fiji.

‘Just remember you’re just a number to them,’ he said.

Tuesday’s service began with Ed Sheeran’s Perfect and also included eulogies by Mr Clarke’s mother Linda, Kelly’s father Ian Shaw and her best friends Tam Brown and Imogen Payter.

The service ended with Secret Garden’s You Raise Me Up.

Mr Clarke was comforted by a sea of friends and family who came to pay their respects to his wife

Mr Clarke has since come out to slam the Fijian health system, saying there were still a lot of questions surrounding his wife’s sudden death

Mr Clarke was unsure if better treatment could have saved his wife’s life.

‘There are a lot of possibilities that we don’t really understand at the moment,’ Mr Clarke said.

The couple, who married in April, had been planning on having children.

‘We were moving forward as a couple. It’s just one step at a time now.’

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead where Kelly worked issued a statement after her death.

‘Kelly was a dedicated nurse who loved working with children and will be greatly missed by her colleagues and patients,’ it read.

A haka after the service recognised Mr Clarke’s father Doug’s New Zealand heritage.

Mr Clarke, his father, mother Linda and Kelly’s parents Ian and Karen Shaw walked ahead of the hearse. 

Mr Clarke says he had a future planned out with Kelly, and his life had now become a case of ‘one step at a time’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk