Year on from murder, organist’s daughter marries at the church he never reached

Alan Greaves, 68, died days after an unprovoked attack on Christmas Eve 2012 as he made his way to St Saviour’s Church in Sheffield, to play the organ at a midnight service.

On Saturday, just over a year after her father’s death, the church was a scene of celebration as Emma Greaves, 38, married David Marshall, 40, surrounded by family and friends.

Emma, a police call handler, and her new husband, who is a chef, followed their wedding with a reception at St Saviour’s Church Hall.

Mr Greaves’s widow, Maureen, 64, said: “This time last year after Alan died we came together as a family and our grief was great. This year we came together as a family and it was a lovely, happy day for us.

“We spent the anniversary of Alan’s death in the church hall getting everything ready for the wedding – it was very therapeutic.”

Mrs Greaves said the couple, who have their own allotment, grew almost all the ingredients for their wedding breakfast themselves, including the wine. They are planning to go on honeymoon in February to see the Northern Lights in Norway. Mrs Greaves has thanked those who made donations to Alan’s Appeal – a campaign to boost the food bank and shop set up by the couple in the weeks before Alan’s death.

Reflecting on her year, she said: “The end of the year has been extremely mixed for me. We had a wonderful response to the appeal with donations of food flooding in. We had a lovely Christmas Day with all the family coming together to go to church and then eat dinner and play games. Then we went into preparations for the lovely wedding day.

“But Christmas Eve was very hard. For us that was the day Alan died. I had a very lonely walk down to the church on Christmas Eve for the memorial service, thinking about Alan.”