Friday, May 2, 2025 - A woman has shared her heartbreak after her husband took his own life just a day after they returned from their honeymoon, only for her to receive flowers from him months later on Valentine’s Day.
Isabel Coles, 32, had just married 28-year-old Christopher
Coles in September 2024 after a whirlwind romance that began on a dating app.
The pair, both music lovers, celebrated their union with a beachfront honeymoon
at the Sea Hear Now music festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
Isabel said the couple were “insanely happy” and showed no
signs of trouble.
But just one day after they returned to their home in
Southern Pines, North Carolina, Christopher — a serving military officer began
behaving unusually.
Isabel said he stayed up all night finalizing details for their upcoming wedding reception, but the next morning, something felt off.
“He was folding laundry and acting a
little weird,” Isabel recalled. “I asked him what was wrong, and he said
‘nothing’.”
Moments later, he left the house with a handgun and walked
into a nearby forest. Despite Isabel’s desperate attempts to follow, he
disappeared.
The next day, his father discovered Christopher’s body in the
woods.
Isabel was left in shock. “We were so happy. There were no
signs,” she said. “He was successful, driven, kind — I just didn’t see this
coming.”
Then, on Valentine’s Day 2025, a bouquet of flowers arrived at her door — ordered months earlier by Christopher before his death. She contacted the florist and learned he had scheduled the delivery in anticipation of being away on military duty around that time.
“He
knew he might be deployed,” Isabel said. “He always wrote to me every day when
he was away, telling me about his day, asking about mine — even when I couldn’t
respond. That’s who he was.”
The couple had legally wed in a
courthouse ceremony in September and were planning a larger celebration with
family and friends.
Christopher had even proposed
romantically after running a marathon. Their love story, Isabel said, was
filled with music, laughter, and dreams of a future together.
But in the aftermath of his death, she
has faced not only grief but harsh judgment. “Some people say it’s my fault or
that I shouldn’t have shared our story,” she said. “But I know we were happy.
No one can take that from me.”
Isabel, a mother-of-one, is now
preparing to run the Chicago Marathon this October in Christopher’s memory and
to raise awareness around mental health. She will be raising funds for the
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
“There’s
a part of me that is gone forever,” she said. “But I want people to know that
even those who seem strong and happy can be battling invisible struggles. He
didn’t do it to hurt me — he just thought people would be better off without
him. But that’s never true.”
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