Always By My Side: Losing the Love of My Life and the Fight to Honour His Memory

Christina Schmid was married to Olaf, a British Army bomb disposal expert killed in action in Afghanistan on 31st October 2009 aged just 30. Olaf ‘Oz’ Schmid was one of only a handful of such experts serving in the UK armed forces and he would later receive a posthumous George Cross which celebrated his ‘selfless gallantry, his devotion to duty, and his indefatigable courage’.
Completely devoted to each other, Christina and Oz planned to embrace civilian life in his native Cornwall just as soon as Oz could take his next leave. Throughout their time apart they had always tried to remain as positive as possible although had often talked candidly of the possibility of his death. But gradually positive thoughts gave way to negative until eventually Christina’s worst nightmare came true and the night Oz was due to come off duty Christina heard the knock at the door to inform her of her husband’s death.

Christina and Oz’s is a powerful story: it’s an old fashioned love story first and foremost yet it offers unprecedented access to behind the scenes of one of the most stressful and lonely jobs in the armed forces and will give strength to any reader who’s ever questioned their luck. Oz asked Christina to speak up on behalf of his fellow soldiers should the worst happen and it is this promise that has kept her going. Since his death, Christina has captured the hearts and minds of the British public as she’s displayed phenomenal bravery and composure in the face of this most shocking reality.