A promise is a promise. It is not to be broken – not even by death. The vow Linda Henshaw made to her husband Jim as he slipped away is one she felt compelled to keep. “I will always be a Henshaw,” she told him on the night he died, nine years ago.

When Linda remarried two weeks ago she kept her word, and her name. She remained a Henshaw. And in a break with convention her new husband took her name. Michael Smith has become Michael Henshaw Smith.

This is a love story with several strands. Linda and Michael’s love for each other. And Linda’s enduring love for Jim. She feels lucky to have found Michael, a man secure enough to accept her feelings for the man she lost.

Linda and Jim were married for 28 years. In the 1960s Jim was guitarist with The VIPs. This Carlisle band played with Jimi Hendrix when he first arrived in Britain. Jim wrote songs for The Animals.

He spent his later years in Carlisle, in his and Linda’s house on Hart Street. This is also Lynshaw residential care home, which they ran together.

Towards the end of Jim’s life much of the caring was by Linda for him. He died at home in 2007, aged 65, after a long battle with cancer.

In Jim’s final moments Linda put her arms around her husband and said she would always love him. This is another promise she has kept.

Jim and Linda Henshaw photo

For the next three years Linda cried every night. Now, sitting on the sofa at Hart Street with Michael, she is tearful again as she describes moving on, in some ways, from Jim.

Michael reassures her: the calming presence he has been since they met two years ago.

They first communicated on an internet music forum. Was it an instant attraction when they met?

“Yes, for me,” says Michael, a musician from Warrington. “After texting and phone calls I arranged to come up and meet Linda. As soon as she opened the door, I knew straight away.”

But Linda’s defences were up. She backed out of the relationship before it had really begun. Then music brought them together again.

“He put some really lovey-dovey songs on the internet,” says Linda. “I knew they were meant for me. I got a little bit upset. I thought; ‘this is strange for me’.”

They got back in touch and Linda began to consider loving again after Jim. “I had a bit to think about. And it was just a case of getting to know Michael. He’s got a great nature. He’s really soft. Easy to get on with. A lot like Jim, if I can say that. Probably the closest to him that I’ve known.”

Many men would feel insecure at being compared with a previous partner. But Michael accepted Linda’s feelings for Jim as an important part of the person he was falling in love with. Even to the extent of taking Jim’s name.

Linda says: “When we knew it was going that way, I spoke to Michael about Jim. He’d never heard of Jim but he’d heard of his groups. He said; ‘I wish I had known him.’ He’s such a nice person, Michael.

“I told him about the night Jim died. At four o’clock in the morning I told Jim I would always be a Henshaw. He couldn’t reply. If he could, he’d have said; ‘don’t be daft, just be happy.’ But I made him that promise.”

If she and Michael were to marry, Linda felt unable to change her name. But they wanted to share the same name as man and wife. Would Michael take Linda’s?

Michael and Linda Henshaw photo

“When she mentioned about the name, I said I’d be honoured to take it,” says Michael. “I listened, understood, and accepted willingly.

“She told me so much about Jim. I saw interviews he’d done on TV and videos of him playing live. I feel attached to him in a way. I’m sure I would have got on very well with him.

“I got the paperwork and got my name changed. If I answer the phone or anything like that I always use Henshaw now. Quite early on it just felt like a good-fitting pair of gloves. It just felt right. It felt natural.”

Some might struggle to be as understanding as Michael. He says simply: “I’m sure there will be people that will say negative things about it. The jealous people. We really don’t care because it’s our lives. It’s for us to be happy.”

Photos of Jim remain on the walls at Hart Street. Michael says: “I wouldn’t dream of saying ‘I’m not happy with you still having pictures up.’ If she went to take them down I would put them back up. It just feels right.”

“There’s not many men who would be as accepting,” says Linda. “That’s why I married him. Michael is just so easy-oasy about it. I have thought it must get to him so I’ll hold back from saying something about Jim. Then he says he’s going to the cathedral to sit on the bench [in the cathedral grounds which Linda dedicated to Jim].

“Michael’s a better person than I am. If the shoe was on the other foot I don’t think I could cope with it.”

Linda and Michael married on May 12 at St Aidan’s Church on Warwick Road, not far from home. It was the first wedding to take place here since St Aidan’s was flooded last December. They were given permission to use the chapel as they were a small party.

The Dean of Carlisle, the Very Reverend Mark Boyling, performed the ceremony at Linda’s request. He had also taken Jim’s funeral service. “I felt like it was having Jim’s blessing, having the Dean.”

<div class="PullQuote">Eighteen years is a long time to be on hold. I think Jim would be happy for me with Michael</div>

St Aidan’s is still being dried out. This work was temporarily halted for the wedding. “The blowers had been on just before we went in,” says Linda. “It was hot. We were stood at the altar with fans. We were literally dripping. The little feathers on my hat drooped!

“There were no carpets. I could hear my dress snagging on the stone. But it didn’t matter.”

The couple are now planning a fundraising show for St Aidan’s. Michael will perform, having been a guitarist in rock and blues bands since he was 15. He was pleased to discover that Jim has heard him play.

Jim’s CD collection included an album by trumpet player General Lafayette on which Michael played guitar.

This could be seen as a sign that these three lives are meant to be entwined. But Linda says not all of her and Jim’s friends seem keen on her new relationship.

“There’s a bit of mixed emotion. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve become a sort of musicians’ property, always there if they want tea or coffee. Even though they still come, there’s some that don’t. Which I think is a bit unfair.

“We haven’t done anything wrong. Although I did feel that in the beginning. Am I doing the right thing? Am I letting him down?

“Jim would not want me to be unhappy. It’s just gone nine years now, on the first of May. And he was ill for a long time before that. Eighteen years is a long time to be on hold. I think Jim would be happy for me with Michael.”

Still, replacing her wedding ring inevitably felt strange. So did learning to love another man.

“There were a few tears because I knew I was stepping away from living with memories and having to let memories go. Well, I haven’t let the memories go. He’ll not be forgotten.”

“We’ll make our own now,” says Michael. “For me personally, I think Jim will always be there. That makes me feel very happy and emotional and blessed in a way.”

You sense that he’d do anything for Linda, perhaps seeing the same qualities in her that Jim did.

“Nobody could wish for a better person to be with,” says Michael. “Linda is the most loving, caring, gentle woman I have ever known.”