The Wanted Lift Late Member Tom Parker's Casket at Emotional Funeral Service: 'He Carried Us'

 

"Marrying you was the best day of my life," Parker's wife Kelsey said in her pre-recorded eulogy.

Friends, family and fans are saying their goodbyes to The Wanted's Tom Parker, who died March 30 of brain cancer.

On Wednesday, family and close friends attended a private ceremony at St Francis of Assisi church in Petts Wood, London for Parker, who was 33. During the funeral, his bandmates served as pallbearers and his wife Kelsey delivered an emotional eulogy honoring her late husband.

Kelsey's words were pre-recorded because it would be "too painful to stand up in front of everyone," per BBC and Sky News, and she said marrying Parker was "the best day" of her life.

In her eulogy, she recalled meeting Parker when she was 19 outside a nightclub. The singer asked if he could add her on Facebook and she said "the rest is history."

"I told everyone from that moment, I'm going to marry Tom Parker," she said, according to the outlet.

"Life with you, Tom, was never boring," she continued. "We spent a lot of our first years together drinking Mahiki dry, dancing all night long, parties in our Battersea flat, and having the funniest, most irrelevant drunken fights."

She later added, "You were the best husband I could ever ask for... You did everything with love and no malice."

Ahead of the ceremony, Kelsey led a hearse pulled by three black horses through Petts Wood. Meanwhile, flower arrangements on the side of the carriage spelled the word "Daddy."

At the ceremony, bandmates Jay McGuiness, Max George, Siva Kaneswaran and Nathan Sykes carried his coffin into the church as "Champagne Supernova" by Oasis played in the background. Fans also gathered outside to watch the service, which was livestreamed. Former One Direction star Liam Payne was also in attendance.

Outside the church, flowers spelled out the words "Glad You Came," the title of The Wanted's 2011 smash hit.

Parker's bandmates also spoke during the funeral and joked about their late friend as they honored him — lightening the mood, per the outlet.

"As we were carrying Tom in, I could actually hear him saying, 'It's about time,' because he's carried us for the last 15 years," George, 33, joked.

"Tom was and always will be a brother to myself and my bandmates. He made such an impact on us from the start, and his love for music and his stride for success outmatched any of us."

He continued: "[Tom] was the only member of The Wanted to have a punch-up with every member of The Wanted." Kaneswaran, 33, added, "He did lose every fight, by the way."

"It is so wonderful to see all the support for Tom," Kaneswaran continued. "There's one thing we can all agree on — Tom Parker was an absolute hero."

George concluded: "He has left us far too early and we will miss him so much. The heartbreak shared here today is a credit to the love Tom shared. The people outside, the people all around the world, is a credit to him. Rest easy, mate."

Kelsey announced last month that her husband Parker had died, almost two years after he was first diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma. In an Instagram post that day, she said he died with friends and family by his side and he "fought until the very end."

Parker and his wife, who married in 2018, are parents to daughter Aurelia Rose, 2½, and son Bodhi Thomas, 18 months.