Young widow opens up for the first time about the heart-wrenching moment she watched her husband fall off a cliff during their ‘trip of a lifetime’

A young Australian widow shares the harrowing moment she saw her husband fall off a cliff during a freak rock climbing accident in Canada.

Emma Heritage watched from a few feet away as her husband Daniel, 28, lost his balance and slid down a mountain in Banff National Park on Oct. 5, 2022.

The Adelaide couple had embarked on the journey of a lifetime when Daniel fell during a rock climbing trip in the Canadian Rookies.

Mrs Heritage said she felt the rope that tied them together suddenly loosen. She turned and saw Daniel falling.

“He landed close to where I was, it just happened, he didn’t scream or make any noise,” the devastated widow said. The Advertiser.

Ms Heritage said there was ‘a lot’ of blood coming from Daniel’s mouth and that he lost consciousness very quickly after the fall.

She was able to call emergency services from where she was standing and stayed with her husband until emergency services arrived.

Ms Heritage said she knew Daniel was dead when rescuers said they wanted to get her off the mountain before him.

Mrs Heritage witnessed the horrific moment Daniel (pictured) slipped and fell off a cliff

“I think that was one of the most heartbreaking moments for me, having to leave him,” she said.

Mrs. Heritage had to relive the trauma in the days following the accident because the coroner relied on her story as the sole witness.

The coroner’s report had to rule out that ‘specifically ‘foul play’.

To make matters worse, Ms Heritage discovered that her travel insurance would not cover a fatal accident, meaning she would need tens of thousands of dollars to get Daniel’s body back to Australia.

She said her “biggest concern” was getting her husband back to his family, but without a $12,000 down payment, no funeral home would take him.

Fortunately, Mr. Heritage’s mother was able to pay the down payment right away.

Mrs Heritage (right) said she knew Daniel (left) was dead when rescuers said they planned to pull her off the cliff before he did.

Mrs Heritage had to pay $8,000 to fly her husband back to Adelaide and another $15,000 for his funeral.

Her twin sister Jessica raised $42,830 of the $50,000 needed to fund the arrangements with a GoFundMe campaign.

“The death was very traumatic for Emma as she witnessed the accident and held him in her arms as he died,” Jessica wrote at the time.

‘Please continue to pray for Emma and our families as we process this lifelong grief.’

When Mrs Heritage was finally able to fly back to Australia, she felt insecure about leaving the place where she had last seen her husband alive.

Mrs Heritage said she returned to the scene in 2023 and was left frustrated and confused about how her husband could have died there.

In 2023, she returned to the exact spot where Daniel had died and even climbed the same cliff again to try to understand how he had lost his balance.

‘I climbed back up to the place where it happened. I thought it would be very emotional and I would be a pool of tears, but it was actually [frustration that I felt] “When I climbed above where he fell,” Mrs. Heritage said.

She explained that the frustration came from the fact that they couldn’t understand why Daniel had fallen, even though the climb was within their level.

Mrs Heritage has since tried not to focus on how the tragedy happened. She says she has come to terms with his death and will continue to miss him.