Terry Prone never doubted her love for husband Tom despite public backlash

The communications guru opens up about the opposition she and her late husband Tom faced at the beginning of their relationship - but believes love conquered all

Terry Prone says being so madly in love with late husband Tom Savage helped them get through tough times at the beginning of their relationship.

Tom, who passed away from cancer six years ago, left the priesthood to be with communications guru Terry and as a result the pair endured strong public, church and family opposition.

But Terry insists their love for each other triumphed over the backlash.

Read more: Terry Prone feels 'rage' at the ageism she has experienced - but she doesn't allow it to affect her

She told RSVP Magazine: “That time wasn’t as difficult as it should have been because we were so much in love.

“It was the most fantastic time in my life even though all of this weird opposition to us was going on.

“I knew that Tom’s family regarded me as the embodiment of evil, but I also knew there was nothing I could do about that.

“In time they began to realise she isn’t even that interesting, never mind a major biblical seducer!

“So being that much in love was the ultimate protective factor.”

Tom suffered “desperately” because priests that had been friends with him sent him “the most appalling letters”, according to Terry, but her husband had “merciful amnesia”.

She added: “Years later I mentioned something that some priest had said in a letter and Tom looked at me wide eyed and said, ‘Did he say that?’.

“He never remembered bad things, even after he had cancer people would say to him that he really suffered with it and he’d shrug it off.”

Even at the height of the opposition to their relationship, neither Terry nor Tom ever doubted what they were doing.

She said: “Neither of us ever had the smallest moment of doubt. Tom drove my mother nuts by telling her that he could dig roads if he needed an income and of course my mother did not want her daughter married to anyone who was digging roads [laughs].

“He also said we could go to Australia or anywhere in the world. We knew we were absolutely doing the right thing and he believed he had to continue doing the priestly function, which he totally did all of his life. He was always the go-to guy if your life was in rag order.”

Terry says Tom never felt hostility towards the church but his beliefs changed over the years.

“I asked him if he believed in anything about three months before he died and he said, ‘I believe in you and I believe in Anton and that is enough.’

“It wasn’t a sense of not wanting to be part of a bunch who treated me so badly.

“For years he worked with priests, with Catholic charities – he never had an enmity towards the Church.

“In the last 10 years of his life he gradually ceased to believe – it was no more than that.”

Terry was heartbroken when her husband was diagnosed with cancer.

“His cancer was awful,” she said.

“He diagnosed it himself while in France where he was training people. He realised what was wrong while sitting on the banks of a river.

“The people on the course said when they asked at reception for directions to the room [where the training was taking place], they were told to listen out for laughter.

“Tom never told jokes, but he was desperately funny and particularly at the beginning of a course there would be laughter. He managed to do that even at a time when he had just self diagnosed his cancer.”

Terry doesn’t believe that she will meet Tom again, six years on from his death.

“Anyone will tell you the people who manage grief the best are those with a strong religious faith, but you can’t force yourself to have that belief,” she explained.

And she doesn’t feel grief gets easier with time, even thought she thought it would.

Terry added: “Every second thought is of him – he was the laughter, the problem solver, he was everything.

“When he was here I knew that someone was looking out for me every day, every hour.

“Having that gone is such an amputation. But I am not as introspective and miserable as this most of the time because nobody would hang around me if I was.”

Read the full interview with Terry in this month's issue of RSVP Magazine, on shelves nationwide now.

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