A RETIRED florist died less than two years after her partner due to years of alcohol abuse, an inquest heard.

Lynne Meryl Williams, of Park Avenue, Mynydd Isa, died of alcoholic liver disease at the Wrexham Maelor hospital in November last year.

The Mold inquest  was told her long-term partner had lost his life to the same illness just 19 months earlier. Daughter Leanne Williams said her 47-year-old mother drank whisky and vodka throughout the day and used to hide bottles around the house.

She said: “They always drank together. It was only when I got older and went round to friends’ houses that I realised it wasn’t normal.”

Mrs Williams had been admitted to hospital several times in the years leading up to her death as she was suffering from alcoholic pancreatitis.

Miss Williams said: “She promised to stop drinking as much and said she would switch to wine instead of spirits.

“When my dad died it just got worse. She was depressed so she started drinking even more, which stopped her anti-depressants from working.

“But she just thought they didn’t work, so she would drink even more. She was in denial.”

North East Wales deputy coroner John Gittins said he was surprised that the death of her partner had failed to shock Mrs Williams into stopping drinking.

Recording a verdict of death through alcohol abuse, he said: “I firmly believe it is an illness and people have to want to help themselves. The impact it leaves on loved ones is huge.”