As I woke my first thoughts
were that it must be about 7 or 8am and it would be my daughter ringing up
to say that one of the children was poorly and could I come down to help;
but it was our son-in-law asking for our help as Debbie was on the bathroom
floor and had stopped breathing.
We both threw on some clothes
and raced down to the other end of the village where they lived, to find the
Paramedics already there, doing their best to try and revive her. Tony (her
husband) who is in the Navy and a qualified First Aider had tried before
they arrived, but by 6.15am they said that there nothing more they could
do.
This was not the end of it,
as with a sudden death like that, the police had to be informed and so the
next to arrive were two Constables who in turn called their Inspector.
While all this was going on the poor children were up in the bedroom
gathered together on their parents' bed, in a somewhat bewildered state. I
found out later that it was Lucy who found her mum on the floor and called
her dad - she must have heard Debbie being sick in the toilet.
Soon after the Inspector
arrived he asked me to take the children out of the way to another location,
so he sympathetically bundled the three children and myself into his car and
drove us back to our house. Meanwhile my husband was asked to stay behind
with Tony as the police would have to ask him a few questions.
The Inspector asked if there
was anyone I could contact to be with me, so I rang a dear friend who lived
in the village and she came down to be with the children and myself. To this
day some of it is still a blur and I thank God for all the wonderful friends
and their support, which helped me to cope.
The three children have been
marvellous throughout and they constantly bring a lump to my throat when
they look up to the sky on a starlit night and say “Look that’s our mummy
star, she is an angel now.”
From
the age of five years, Debbie would occasionally faint and she was finally
diagnosed with mild epilepsy. She would also pass out after some of her
races.
Debbie held the title of
Cornish Rowing Champion in Ladies Pair Paddles racing for over 13 years. On
more than one occasion she was admitted to A&E but they were unable to find
anything wrong. However, the post mortem did not find any signs of
epilepsy, but an arrhythmia problem.
Nobody can prepare you for
pain and heartache of losing a loved one, especially when its one of your
children. People try to tell you that it will get easier, but there are
times when I find that hard to believe.
Debbie was so warm hearted,
well loved and respected by so many people, which was so evident at her
funeral when the church was packed (over 700) and they had to relay the
service to those who could not get into the building.
The only thing I can do now,
as a fitting memorial to Debbie, is to try and bring awareness to other
parents of the work the charity CRY does and why.
Three and half
years on and my goal is to raise sufficient funding to bring a mobile
screening unit to West Cornwall and if in doing so, some young person and
their family are saved from the anguish of loosing a loved one, then I shall
feel that my daughter did not die in vain.
With this in
mind I will be devoting a full day of fundraising on the first day of CRY
Awareness Week 2010, incorporating a Coffee Morning, Craft Stalls and
afternoon tea; and a Concert in the evening involving young instrumentalists
and singers.
Sylvia Pezzack
