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Search forExclusive: Marc Warman's mum tells of heartache
Thursday, November 20, 2008, 07:56
But the mother of one of the victims has found comfort in the fact that her son has transformed the lives of three women through organ donation.
She says Marc Warman, who died with his cousin Neil Barham, will also live on through his three young children.
Speaking about her grief for the first time, Marc's mum Lin Rosevear, who is now looking after two of his three children at her home in Whiteway, has revealed that:
* Marc, Neil and two of the children had been due to move into a house together the weekend after they died;
* her son's memory will live on in three boxes made for his children, Brandon, Bailey and Phoenix, that feature his hand and footprints, which were recorded by the transplant nurse, along with a lock of his hair and pictures;
* They have a tribute wall in their house which is covered with pictures of Marc;
* Marc's recorded voice is played to the children so that they can remember what their dad's voice was like;
* the family are writing a card apologising to the driver of the lorry which collided with the car that he was travelling in;
* minutes before Marc passed away, he looked at his mother and she promised him she would always look after his children and would make him proud.
Marc, 29, of Haycombe Drive, and Neil, 30, of Rosewarn Close, Whiteway, were involved in a head-on collision with the HGV at the junction of Lower Bristol Road and Bellotts Road at about 2.40am on Saturday, October 25.
The cousins had been on a night out in the city centre.
Neil, who was driving his Audi car, died at the scene. Marc died the following Tuesday at Frenchay Hospital, with his family at his bedside.
Mrs Rosevear said: "Neil and Marc were inseparable. They were going to move in together the Saturday after the crash.
"I can't believe that two good guys' lives have been wasted, and the worst thing is that we will not know what happened until the inquest.
"Things have just been spinning in my mind, the 'what ifs'. Two families' lives have been ripped apart over something that could have been stopped or avoided.
"Neither of them would have got into a car if they had been drinking, I don't know what happened. It is a tragic accident.
"We feel so sorry for the lorry driver – he will live with the memory of the crash for a long time.
"We want to write him a card through the family liaison officer.
"But in a way we are grateful it was an HGV and not another car with people in because it could have been even worse and more lives wasted."
She added: "It is so so hard because he was my blue-eyed boy and I am so heartbroken. I am lucky I have my grandchildren, they help take my mind off it."
Marc's family brought his body home the night before his funeral. The whole family sat in the front room with Marc in his coffin and watched his favourite film, Stand By Me.
She added: "We need to keep his memory alive for the kids and so we have put together a box of memories for all three children.
"We have put in pictures of him from when he was a baby to more recent ones. We have also put the hand and footprints the transplant nurse made for them in there. They also have a lock of his hair.
"We talk about daddy and they can hear his voice because we have a recording of it. We also have a wall of his pictures so they can see him all the time."
Neil's father, Dave, and sister Paula have also paid tribute to Neil, who they described as a much-loved son and brother tragically taken from them and who would be "missed more than he knows".
Mr Barham said: "He was well liked by a lot of people we didn't even know.
"We won't know exactly what happened until January because there is a backlog (of inquests)."
Neil's older sister, Paula, 31, said she wished her brother could know how much everyone loved him and how missed he was.
