Ashlee thought her life was complete when Joe asked her to marry him. Days later he took his own life

A mother-of-two who began the new year by getting engaged is now in the process of picking up the pieces after losing the love of her life to suicide.

Ashlee Bunker, 35, from Bribie Island in Queensland, got engaged in February after her long-term partner Joe Bloomfield, 42, popped the question.

Ms Bunker woke up to an engagement ring on her bedside table and a note from Mr Bloomfield asking her to marry him.

But tragedy struck the following week when Mr Bloomfield suddenly and unexpectedly ended his own life on February 26 - before Ms Bunker even had time to re-size the ring.

Two days beforehand they were out shopping for wedding dresses and beginning the preparations for the big day which was scheduled for August 31.

A heartbroken Ms Bunker told Daily Mail Australia that she wished Mr Bloomfield had asked for help when he needed it most. 

'No one has ever loved me like he did, I don't even know how I will remember him because the truth is I just want him back,' she said.

'This was so out the blue, we had the most amazing time together and I just wish he had asked for help. 

'He was literally the happiest person I knew and he just loved everyone. So much I just think he forgot to live himself.

'It's so important to be nice to people and appreciate people for who they are.'

Shortly after the two met in July 2021, they began running a property maintenance business sprucing up houses together. 

Since Mr Bloomfield's passing, Ms Bunker has been left to care for her daughters, Ellie, 12, and Annaliese, 10, while she looks for new work. 

'I lost him and my job,' she said.

'My kids lost the best stepfather I could have ever have asked for.' 

A close friend of the couple, Simone Angus, launched a GoFundMe in the wake of Mr Bloomfield's death which raised more than $7,000.

The money was used to cover funeral expenses and provide financial support to Ms Bunker who was left 'completely heartbroken'.

Ms Bunker and Mr Bloomfield shared many happy memories together online and were always tagging each other in their own posts. 

Last June the pair visited Italy and took photos in front of the Trevi Fountain which prompted a friend to comment that they looked like a couple from the movies. 

'More glamorous that Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni,' they wrote below Mr Bloomfield's new profile picture.

In the picture Mr Broomfield is wearing a blue Bondi Beach shirt that Ms Bunker said was his favourite.

Since his passing Ms Bunker has said that he had two other spares of the shirt that she and her children now choose to sometimes sleep in to remember him. 

To bookend their trip to Italy Mr Bloomfield shared a photo from the Bácaro Jazz Bar in Venice where it is the norm for patrons to leave a memento of their time there. 

Mr Bloomfield and Ms Bunker signed one of her bras which was left at the bar to commemorate the trip and express their love. 

'Ashlee Bunker is now immortalised ... If you ever visit here, please check this bar out and enjoy a cold mail tai and give up your bra,' he wrote in the caption.

Ms Bunker also shared that the note Mr Bloomfield left by her bedside simply read: 'Will you marry me?'

'You knew my answer was always yes but you just loved asking me. I guess you knew that was your last chance to ask,' she wrote.

'I got it resized and finally get to wear it. It's beautiful, you picked well.'

Ms Bunker is still coming to grips with what happened and said the couple had so much to look forward to. 

'I don't think I will ever understand why you choose in that moment to give up your whole life. You had so much life left to live,' she wrote on Facebook.

'We were looking forward to our cruise for your birthday. We had a surprise wedding in August. All you wanted was to be able to call me your wife and now that can never happen. 

'I will wear the ring every day and know that's the last thing I ever got from you.'

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