Heartbreaking reason husband didn't respond to texts

A woman has recounted the heartbreaking moment she realised her husband hadn't responded to her text messages while away with his friends — only to find out the tragic reason why a few hours later.

Bonnie Caldwell, 26, shared her heartbreaking story on TikTok, admitting she was initially furious when her husband Matt Caldwell, 25 didn't respond to her, discovering later he had been in an accident and died.

The New Zealand woman shared her shocking story in a short clip, starting with her looking annoyed at the camera with a caption of: “me getting s***ty my husband was on a boys’ trip and wasn’t replying to me" written underneath before cutting to an image of a memorial for her husband with “he was dead" written below it.

The clip was viewed over 2.8 million times, with thousands asking for more details about the accident.

Bonnie Caldwell 'expected the worst' when he didn't text her back

In a follow up video, Ms Caldwell explained her husband had gone to a city a couple of hours away from where they live to watch a rugby game with some friends in August 2021.

"I talked to him that night, at like midnight on the phone, which was really nice that we had that conversation, obviously didn't know what was about to happen," she said.

"But I woke up the next morning, and I text him just to say like 'morning, I love you, we had a good time coming to see you tonight'. And he didn't reply, which I thought was a bit weird of him".

'I started to realise something was really wrong'

Thinking he was hungover, Ms Caldwell went about her day but when he still hadn't replied a few hours later she began to worry, knowing they were meant to have checked out of their accommodation already and seeing on Snapchat maps that his friends hadn't started to make their way home yet.

“I started to realise something was really wrong,” she said. “A couple more hours went past and I got a text from Matt’s brother to come over to their house right now, and I flew out the door.”

When she got to her brother-in-law's house, the police were there delivering the devastating news that Matt had passed away.

"You kind of expect the worst, you don't want to believe that they have died," she said.

Ms Caldwell said her husband had misjudged the ledge of an embankment and fallen down as he walked to the toilet.

"We think he just misjudged and went off the end and he fell, and he died on impact," she explained.

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"So really horrific freak accidents that none of us could have really prevented, unfortunately."

Ms Caldwell said she shared a dark sense of humour with her husband which has been “a coping mechanism” since he died.

"We're all doing as well as we could be," she said.

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