IPSWICH: Heartbroken Natasha Hockley-Wright is today struggling to come to terms with the sudden death of her fiance.

Just hours after he proposed, Dominic Cole, 28, died in his sleep.

On Friday Natasha, 22, had everything to look forward to, Dominic, a qualified fork-lift truck driver, had got down on one knee and the happy couple were planning their wedding for March 11 next year, the anniversary of their engagement.

But tragedy struck when she woke on Saturday at the room they were staying in a Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Vernon Street, and after getting ready and popping out to get her new fiance a drink she realised something was wrong.

“I tried waking him up,” she said. “I was shaking him, shouting at him to wake up, but he wouldn’t.

“He looked so peaceful.”

Desperate to rouse the dad-of-one, Natasha called staff at the pub to help, and emergency services were called.

“One minute I am OK, and the next I am sobbing my heart out,” she added. “We were going to get married on March 11 next year, he got down on one knee and everything.

“He was a loving, caring man, he cared about others more than himself.

“He had a little boy Jamie Lee Cole, he is only four. It is heartbreaking.”

The couple had known each other since meeting through family friends when Natasha was about nine years old.

She said they started going out when she was 15, calling him her “first real love”.

Today dozens of questions remain unanswered for Natasha, who is struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

“I am devastated, this is the hardest thing I have ever had to face.

“I have lost people in the past, but to lose the man you love, let alone wake up to find him dead, is horrendous.

“Things were looking so good for us, he was doing well looking for work and we had found somewhere to move into.

“I just want to know why, why when we were so happy?”

A Suffolk police spokeswoman said officers were alerted by paramedics at about 12.20pm on Saturday.

She said: “They were treating a man in cardiac arrest. He died at the scene.”

A post mortem examination is being carried out and Natasha said she is hoping it will reveal what caused Dominic’s death.

“I just want to know what happened,” she added. “At least he died in love, peaceful, knowing he had so much to look forward to.”

n Did you know Dominic? Pay your tributes. Call the newsdesk on 01473 324788 or e-mail starnews@eveningstar.co.uk