The childhood sweetheart of a 30-year-old British man who tragically died after falling off a 500ft cliff during their anniversary trip in Ibiza said she is determined to keep his memory alive.
Richard Canavan of Kensington in England, and his girlfriend, Rose Phillips were celebrating their 16th anniversary in Ibiza in August last year when he tragically slipped and fell 500ft from a beauty spot on the Spanish island.
Philips was left heartbroken after watching him fall to his death. The tragedy caused the 29-year-old to "literally shut down". She said she pretends her childhood sweetheart is still with her.
"I was just obsessed with him, anyone who knew me knew I was, and we just stayed together for years, we had our own style of relationship," Philips told the Echo.
"It was the first day we got there that he slipped off the mountain."
"I feel like now he has gone, we were together in a past life and I was always going to be with him."
Philips said she tried to drink away her grief and "lost a lot of weight" as she grieved.
"I didn't believe it and I didn't want to believe it for a long, long time," she said.
"I was drinking a lot if I am honest with you. I literally just shut down and the only way to make myself feel like it wasn't real was drinking and partying and I lost a lot of weight."
After spending a week at a meditation retreat with no contact with the outside world, Philips says she has found a purpose in life again.
"Just after the year anniversary, I knew I was either going to go two ways," she said.
"I could either die because of my lifestyle, I was running myself into the ground in the name of him or I could bounce back try and do something in honor of him and live for him."
She said she is now trying to live her life how Canavan would have wanted, adding that she wants to dedicate her life to honor and celebrate his life and memory "in every sense possible".
"He was my whole life," she said.
"I still pretend he is still here but just not with me."
"I knew I had to do something and the universe has put a lot of things in my path through him."
"The way things have happened in the last few months I couldn't go the other way, the only way is up."
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