They wanted to be together forever and now they are... grief for blast sweethearts
TWO teenagers murdered in the Manchester Arena bombing had their love story told yesterday.
Inseparable Liam Curry and Chloe Rutherford were two “beautiful young people” who had already mapped out their lives together, the public inquiry into the terror atrocity heard.
“They wanted to be together forever and now they are,” Mr Curry’s mother told the hearing in Manchester. “Life turns on little moments of chance, luck.”
The teens, both from South Shields, Tyne and Wear, died when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his backpack bomb in the arena foyer on May 22, 2017.
Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, introduced the family tributes, saying: “Liam and Chloe were a young couple. This is, as their family wished it to be described, their love story.”
Caroline Curry, Mr Curry’s mother, and Mark Rutherford, Chloe’s father, took turns to tell their tales. Chloe’s mother, Lisa, sat between them, her head often resting in her hands.
Fighting back tears, Mr Rutherford said: “She was growing up, growing up into a beautiful young lady with her life ahead of her. A real English rose, blonde hair and amazing blue eyes.”
Mrs Curry said: “Chloe and Liam were together, falling head over heels in love. She was his Juliet and he was her Romeo.”
Mr Curry said: “I’m in terrible pain that has no ending.”
Chloe had begun an apprenticeship in travel and tourism and Liam had planned to join the police. They also intended to buy a flat and get married.
Mr Rutherford said: “Chloe was 17 and Liam 19, with so much living to be done, all the stories not yet told, all the dreams not yet dreamt.”
Mrs Curry added: “All the rest is just too tragic and so, here we all are now, when we wish we weren’t, trying to make sense of something that will never make sense. Just for today we have been sharing a love story about two bairns who fell in love.”
The inquiry on the background and emergency response to the attack was adjourned to Monday.