RTÉ's Una O' Hagan pays emotional tribute to husband after losing him to cancer
"I know I am going to the light"
Former RTÉ broadcaster Una O' Hagan has paid a moving tribute to her late husband.
Her husband, documentary-maker Colm Keane sadly died in January at the age of 70.
Speaking about the harrowing loss, Una told RTÉ's Ryan Tubridy that it feels like she has lost half of herself.
She told the broadcaster, "Every now and again I think, ‘Oh, I must tell Colm that’."
Una said Colm had a peaceful passing despite his illness.
"You know when you’re on a flight and you’re coming into land and it’s the perfect flight. You feel the engines slowing down and that was Colm.
“The engine slowed and slowed and then you find you’re on the ground and it’s just so peaceful. He just slowed and slowed and then passed away."
@RyanTubridyShow Una O’Hagan speaks so loving about her husband and son and eloquently about her grief of losing both. These conversations are so useful to help us learn how to genuinely accommodate peoples grief rather than avoid the ‘unmentionable’ which must be so isolating
— Louise O'Brien (@Lmrobrien) April 6, 2022
She said there was an incredible "sense of peace" when her husband died.
Shortly before he took his final breath, Colm told Una that he knew where he was going. He told her, "I know I am going to the light’."
Una said she knows her husband is in a good place, but she misses him like crazy.
The couple was together until Colm's final moment.
Una added, "After 36 years, it feels slightly as if half of you is gone or you lost your right arm.
"It was such a privilege to be with him. It was in the Waterford Hospice, I held his hand. I told him I loved him.
"I told him that Sean loved him, that he was a great dad, and that he had left a wonderful legacy."
Una and Colm also lost their son Sean to cancer. The 20-year-old sadly died on Christmas Day in 2007.
