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Grateful fiancee values memories

Special bond: Simon Burnell and Linda Keane.

The fiancee of a man who was killed in a windsurfing accident in the South West has revealed her grief over losing the love of her life shortly before they were to be married.

Bunbury resident Simon Burnell, 44, died after he was swept away in rough seas while windsurfing in a popular surfing break, known by Margaret River locals as Cow Bombie, on March 22.

At his funeral on Saturday, his fiancee, Perth-based Director of Public Prosecutions prosecutor Linda Keane, described how she and Mr Burnell were preparing for their wedding and had been looking forward to building a home and starting a family.

She said she could not "imagine a better person to spend my life with" and a more "wonderful man" to be the father of her children. "When Simon asked me to marry him last November, it was the happiest day of my life," Ms Keane said.

"Moments later he grabbed his phone and asked: 'Family selfie?'

"I no longer have Simon but I still have that photo and many others together with a lifetime of memories crammed into only a few years.

"We were meant to have so many more but I will be for ever grateful for the time we had."

At Mr Burnell's funeral, held at the chapel at Prevelly overlooking the ocean, friends and family fondly remembered the man who had two clear passions in his life - winemaking and the ocean.

Mr Burnell, originally from South Australia, was chief winemaker at Willow Bridge Estate for five years and was last year awarded the best winemaker in the Geographe wine region.

Patrick White, a long-time friend and sommelier, said he was yet to find anyone who he could talk about wine with "with the same passion, candour, intelligence and passion" as Mr Burnell.

"The great pleasure of wine has always come in the sharing of great bottles," Mr White said.

"In Simon, I had my greatest drinking mate."