Amelie born day after uncle’s crash tragedy
DEVASTATED JACK ON HIS GRIEF AND JOY Brother pays tribute to ‘kind, funny and loving’ Danny, 29
BY JOHN JEFFAY reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk
DEVASTATED Jack Allardyce lost his brother in a horror car crash – then became a dad the next day.
Jack’s brother Danny, 29, died with pal Terence Thornber when their car hit the corner of a building on Friday, July 17.
Their vehicle crashed into the side of a building in Leven, Fife, in the early hours, leaving the family, including Danny’s fiancee Amy, devastated.
The next day, Jack’s wife Joni gave birth to the couple’s second daughter, Amelie.
Jack, from North Queensferry, Fife, said: “While the world has been a dark place over the past couple of days, she’s brightened it up for us.”
The arrival of Amelie, a little sister to Olivia, provided the family with some much-needed joy after Jack also lost his mum Linda, 66, to cancer last November
Jack added: “My dad has lost his son so soon after we lost our mum, and Amy has lost her love and the future they had planned.”
He described the phone call about the crash from his dad Gordon as the “worst moment of his life”.
Jack added: “Dan had already done so much living in such a short space of time but had so much ahead of him.
“He and Amy had so much planned, and I can’t believe I won’t be able to stand next to him on his wedding day, like he did for me, or watch him raise a family of his own.
“I was really looking forward to us growing old, if not wise, together, and I feel like a large part of me is now missing.”
Thanking family and friends for their support, he said: “Much like when we lost our mum last year, it’s been a great support to know Dan was so loved by so many of you.”
Danny was a former Buckhaven High School pupil, and Terence went to Kirkland High School.
Paying tribute to his brother, Jack added: “He grew up into the kindest, most loving, funniest and best young man I’ve ever known – a credit to our parents and a great source of pride for my whole family.”
JACK ALLARDYCE ON BIRTH OF HIS DAUGHTER