There is a text message on his wife's phone that will forever haunt James Filby.
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Just two days before Danelle Filby's shock death at the family's Talgarno home, a friend sent a text to say she was praying for the busy mum of four who had come down with the flu and lost her voice.
Danelle text back with a smiley emoji: "It's only a sore throat, I'll survive."
James, 38, is still reeling from the fact his beloved wife and devoted mum to Taj, 15, Zane, 14, Ari, 10, and Lawson, 9, is gone.
"It doesn't seem real," the 38-year-old said on Monday after his own three-week fight for survival in intensive care.
James, only released from Albury hospital on Friday, says doctors are amazed at how he pulled through.
"They said I was knocking at death's door," he reveals.
"I had to put my grief aside and fight for my boys.
"If I didn't have the boys I would have died in hospital."
He says it is only now that the grieving process can begin after Danelle's tragic and unexpected death on July 28.
As far as the fit and healthy Filbys were concerned, it was an ordinary winter flu that struck the household that month.
The boys came down with it first before Danelle and James started showing symptoms on Friday, July 26.
"I finished work about 1pm because I felt pretty awful and Danelle had a sore throat," James says.
"On Saturday we both felt like crap; I cared for Danelle as much as I could and went into town to grab her cold and flu tablets.
"Saturday night was a bit of a battle; my joints were aching, I was vomiting and drenched in fever.
"The boys thought I was a lot sicker at the time."
On Sunday, Danelle beat her husband out of bed and had finished breakfast when he emerged at 8am.
"She sat on the couch and said, 'It's not good, it's not good'," James recalls.
In between his own vomiting, he put a jumper on Danelle who was cold and googled a home doctor service.
It was a two-hour wait but James says neither of them was in any condition to drive and they had the boys.
About 10am, James called the doctor service to ask if they were far away.
Less than 15 minutes later, he looked over at Danelle and decided to call an ambulance.
"She was getting clammy and looking dopey," he says.
"She said to me, 'I need you Jimmy' and I said, 'I know dear'."
Even then James says he wasn't "seriously worried".
"I wondered even then if I was doing the right thing in calling an ambulance," he reflects.
He went to the table to grab the phone to make the call and turned to see his precious wife had lost consciousness.
James, trained in first aid, remembers starting CPR guided by the triple-0 operator.
"The guy on the phone asked if there was a defibrillator close by so the older boys took over CPR while I raced to the hall less than a kilometre away," he says.
Local emergency response teams arrived on the scene, closely followed by a MICA ambulance.
James went outside and started crying.
"I knew she was gone before the ambulance woman came to tell me," he says.
Police arrived and the family was not allowed to return inside until investigations were completed.
"When I went back in I snuggled up to her and said, 'I'm sorry'," says James.
"We played her favourite song - When The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash - and we put her bible under her arm."
Later James faced the wretched task of removing the band that signified a 20-year union.
"I put the wedding ring on Danelle and I had to be the one to take it off," he says.
"She will be my wife forever.
"We didn't even put in our wedding vows the phrase 'til death do us part' .
"My wife used to say we were the one flesh ... I don't know how to be me without her."
The coroner's initial tests to determine cause of death were inconclusive.
The family now faces a further 12-week wait from a more detailed autopsy to find out why an otherwise fit and healthy young woman could die so suddenly.
In the days following Danelle's death, James fell violently ill and was on the verge of collapse from dehydration and exhaustion.
I promised them I wasn't going to leave them.
- James Filby
That Wednesday he was admitted to hospital with tests confirming he had Influenza B, two resistant bugs in his system as well as pneumonia and a collapsed lung.
"I promised my boys I wasn't going to leave them," James says.
"Sometimes I was so weak they couldn't even visit me in ICU."
As James summoned his strength to survive, the close-knit community of Talgarno rallied behind the boys and extended family.
Their generosity has completely overwhelmed James.
"There are not enough words ... to say thankyou," he says.
"For people to have come together to do all these amazing things is beyond words.
"It warms my heart when I have such emptiness."
From food to firewood, the community has stepped in with support including a gofundme campaign started by Talgarno Primary School principal Jay Kotzur.
James will need help with the ongoing costs of raising and educating his sons as Danelle had previously home-schooled all four boys.
By far the biggest act of generosity has been a well-hatched plan by James' boss, Andrew Kaye of AK Project Solutions, to finish off the family home the couple had been building for three years.
Tradespeople and residents from near and far have donated their time, tools and materials to make huge inroads on the project.
James admits he was "a bumbling mess" when he arrived to find everyone working at the house on Friday.
"I believe this is Danelle's parting gift," James says.
"She has blessed everyone's hearts in the community to realise our dreams."
This gift will allow James to be there for his boys; in the meantime they are staying with Danelle's parents.
"I am still not physically well enough to be a sole parent," James says.
"I realised when I got out of hospital the grieving has just started.
"I'm scared of how to live my life without her."
With a grief still so raw and jagged, James says the boys and he now have to find a new normal.
A private family cremation will take place shortly followed by a memorial service at Wodonga Baptist Church in coming weeks.
"We want to celebrate the life of an amazing woman," James says.
"I never took Danelle for granted and I'm glad I always held her tightly."
James believes his wife, who had a strong faith, is looking over them from heaven.
"She would tell me to be strong for the boys and that we will see her again soon," he says.
"She would say, 'I'm here waiting for you'."
- To donate to the family and help James with the cost of raising his boys click here.