A young widow who poses in her wedding dress every year in memory of her late husband has roped in her new boyfriend to help pay tribute.
Vanessa Lanktree, 29, married her high school sweetheart Eric in September 2012 but two months after their second anniversary he was killed in a motorbike accident.
Since his death she has carried out the annual custom as a tribute to the 25-year-old and this year Kurtis Isbister agreed to take pictures of her in the gown and rubber boots in a field of sunflowers.
Vanessa, who lives in Saskatchewan, Canada, said: “It’s my way of celebrating and remembering that special day and keeping Eric’s memory alive.
“Most people get to go out with their husband for supper or a date night on their anniversary and this is my thing that I get to do without him.
“I try to do it on our anniversary or as close to it as possible. I will probably do this every year for the rest of my life.”
Recalling how they met at school, she said: “We had such an amazing relationship. We met when I was in grade 10 [aged 16] and he was in grade 12 [aged 17].
“He was my first boyfriend, my first love. Our relationship through the years was so strong because it started so young. I had no doubt about our lives together.”
Eric, a custom installer and volunteer firefighter, proposed to Vanessa on Christmas Eve 2011 and they tied the knot the following year.
Vanessa added: “We got married in a beautiful church ceremony. As I walked down the aisle with my dad, Eric was bawling his eyes out.
“I already knew I wanted to marry him but when I saw him crying, I thought how lucky I was.
“The best part of our day was being surrounded by our family and friends. At the reception, we did not leave the dance floor. If anyone wanted to see us or talk to us, they had to dance.”
Eric sadly died in a motorbike accident on November 3rd 2014, while on vacation with friends and his dad Brian Lanktree, 55, in Las Vegas.
Vanessa said: “Eric always went down to Vegas for the SEMA car show. That year they decided to rent motorbikes and head down to California. The accident happened on the way back.
“Eric was an hour outside of Vegas and there was a head-on collision with a truck that took his life. I couldn’t believe it.”
When Brian called Vanessa and told her that Eric had been airlifted to a hospital, she held out hope for her husband’s life.
She said: “I thought it would be alright. I kept thinking: ‘He is strong. He is a fighter’. I didn’t realise how severe it was.
“I was packing my bag to go to Vegas because I thought he’d need to see me when he woke up.
“When my father-in-law called me and told me that my husband had passed away, I just threw my phone and walked out of the house.”
In September 2016, the day after what would have been the couple’s fourth wedding anniversary, Vanessa found herself putting on her bridal gown.
She had never dry cleaned the dress and it still had dirt from the dance floor on the hem.
Vanessa put on Keith Urban’s song 'Making Memories Of Us', a track which was played at her wedding, and danced around the kitchen.
“Grief doesn’t go away but somehow you find little things to help you cope, like putting on your dress,” she said.
The next year she put on the dress again and posed for a picture in the yard of her home, a house she and Eric had built together.
Last year she took a simple snap of herself in the gown.
This year Kurtis, a 29-year-old electrician in the oil industry and her boyfriend of 18 months, took pictures of her in a field of sunflowers.
She explained: “It was a little chilly but I love those sunflowers. It felt so fun. I had my rubber boots on and I was running around while Kurtis took photos.
“I was just being me. Life doesn’t stop and it pushes you forward. We still want to find happiness in our lives. I know Eric wouldn’t want me to be miserable.
“He was such a happy person. He taught me to look for the best in life.”
Vanessa added that she has no plans to ever put away her wedding dress.
She said: “I’m never going to get it cleaned and I am never going to have it boxed up. As long as it fits me, I’ll wear it.”
