Auntie who hoped for her own family
AN aunt who died shielding her niece from the blast had been hoping to start her own family.
Kelly Brewster flung herself over her sister Claire Booth, 44, and 11-year-old Hollie – protecting them from the full force of the explosion.
Relatives said that the 32year-old civil servant and her partner Ian Winslow, 36, had been planning to have children of their own and had just bought a house.
Writing on Facebook, Mr Winslow – who has a sevenyear-old daughter from a previous relationship – said Ms Brewster was recently ‘the happiest she had ever been’.
‘It isn’t good news,’ he said. ‘Kelly wasn’t one of the unidentified hospital patients. She has sadly passed away in the terror attack. Kelly really was the happiest she has ever been and we had so many things planned together.’
Mr Winslow’s father John, 62, said Kelly was ‘such a lovely, lovely girl’. He added: ‘Ian told me that they had just put a deposit down on a house and were trying for a baby.’ Apologising for his red, swollen eyes, he said he had been crying all Tuesday evening.
Ms Brewster, from Sheffield, Mrs Booth and Hollie had been walking out of the arena in single file when the bomb went off.
Friend Vicky Smith told ITV: ‘Kelly sort of fell, chucked herself almost over her sister and her niece. Whether that was just natural instinct, either way that’s the protection that she gave to them.’
Asked whether that meant she saved Hollie’s life, she said: ‘Yes.’
Mrs Booth and Hollie suffered serious injuries. They have both undergone surgery to remove shrapnel. Mrs Booth has a broken jaw and Hollie has two broken legs.
Asked how he felt about Ms Brewster being killed by such a despicable act, John Winslow said: ‘I’m still trying to get my head round Kelly being swept up in this. It doesn’t feel real.’