PC Andrew Harper’s widow has “found love with another paramedic” four years after his tragic death.
Lissie, 32, tragically lost her husband in the line of duty when we responded to a burglary just four weeks after they married.
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Andrew Harper’s widow Lissie has found love again four years after his deathCredit: PA
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Andrew was killed in 2019 after responding to a burglaryCredit: PA
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The couple married just four weeks before Andrew’s death
Andrew, who was just 28 at the time, was trailing the getaway van at 100km/h for more than a mile when he tried to stop three teenagers stealing a quad bike.
The horror of 2019 saw his clothes and body armor ripped off on the country roads of Sulhamstead, Berkshire.
Andrew suffered “absolutely catastrophic, unsurvivable injuries” which saw Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 17 at the time, and Henry Long, 19, jailed for a total of 42 years.
A fourth defendant, Thomas King, was also jailed for two years in 2020 after admitting conspiracy to steal a quad bike.
Andrew was the first police officer to die in the line of duty since Westminster PC Keith Palmer in March 2017.
In an attempt to get over her broken heart, widow Lissie meanwhile entered into a new relationship.
Lissie told The Stigma of Grief podcast that she felt pressured to be seen as grieving all the time – but she had to “find happiness again”.
She said: “There’s this expectation that we’re this figure, the grieving widow… like we’re expected to wear black for the rest of our lives and sit around and mourn. That’s not sustainable… and it’s not fair.
“And while some people accept being alone forever, that’s not the case for me.
“It’s normal to feel scared and wonder if you’re doing the right thing.
“It’s a common feeling of ‘Do I deserve to feel happy again?’ ‘Am I betraying the person I love who is not here?’
“It won’t be the same, it won’t be better or worse, it will just be different and it was very important for me to find that again.
“There is no right or wrong moment, no matter what anyone else says.”
After meeting Andrew at the age of 16, Lissie said the first date she went on with her new partner felt “weird” but she had to take the plunge.
She added: “You become a different person when you go through something like this.
“You kind of outgrow the person you were before because you don’t have a choice.”
Lissie, from Oxford, said the fact her new partner is a 999 worker makes it easier for him to understand her tragic ordeal.
After Andrew’s death, Lissie began to fight for a change in the law and began campaigning for Harper’s Bill.
After she successfully won the battle, Harper’s Law was introduced.
This now means that anyone who unlawfully kills emergency workers while committing a misdemeanor – including police, firefighters or EMS workers – is punishable by life in prison.
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Source: HIS Education