Caring and creative, always ready to help other people
WARM AND LOVING WITH A PASSION FOR SWIMMING AND DANCING, YVONNE WILL BE GREATLY MISSED BY HER LOVING FAMILY AND TIGHT GROUP OF FRIENDS
ALWAYS kind and caring, teenager Yvonne Black was someone who valued her friendships and returned them with a passionate loyalty.
“She had a small group who she classed as good friends and if you were in her circle then she would do anything for you,” says mum Gillian.
Yvonne was born and brought up in Bishopbriggs, the second child of Gillian and Charles.
Attending Meadowburn Primary School and Bishopbriggs Academy, she loved drawing and was artistic, most recently developing an interest in photography.
As she grew up, Yvonne was happy to help out in the family garage business and they enjoyed many holidays together, first in Florida and then across Europe.
“She was a real water baby,” remembers Gillian. “She was always first in the pool and last out, and in between she only came out for ice cream or a drink.”
Yvonne was also the victim of abuse, which she suffered from the age of five to 13.
Her parents fought through the legal system for her to get justice, but she was left struggling with ongoing mental health issues as a result of the abuse.
When lockdown came, her ability to cope was severely impacted.
“She just lost her focus,” says her mum. “School got her through any unhappiness in life including the loss of her grandparents. Having that routine was so important to her but unfortunately, when that was no longer there, she was locked in her own head.
“She didn’t have her social group, she was part of the LGBT community and that club was cancelled, and she wasn’t able to see friends.
“She was getting mental health support from CAMHS and they were happy to keep her until she turned 18. It was the only consistency she had, but even that got harder in lockdown because video calls and phone calls just weren’t the same.”
Despite having a very tough few months, Gillian says Yvonne was still focused on her future. She was planning her prom and looking forward to going to college to study towards a career in civil engineering.
“She’d started doing more drawing and Just Dance on the PlayStation for exercise, and she was helping me build a gazebo in the garden.
“During the lockdown, Yvonne decided she would shave her hair for the charity that helped her gran when she had Motor Neurone Disease [MND Scotland], and her sister had found one that used hair for wigs – The Little Princess Trust.
“She was really proud when she did it through a Facebook fundraiser on June 14, it put a smile on her face, and she managed to raise £560 in only seven days.
“The majority of the time she was making plans and being active but she also had days where she was stuck in her own head.” Sadly, Yvonne took her own life, leaving a letter for her parents which explained she couldn’t cope any more, she needed a fresh start and wanted to be with her gran and grandpa. Gillian says the family understood that her pain had become unbearable. “But we remember the happy times she had too. There are loads of pictures of her smiling, joking and carrying on, taking the mickey out of people. She’s still with us, in everything we do, and when we have fire alarms going off at 3.30am, we think that’s her, just playing tricks again.”
During the lockdown Yvonne decided she would shave her hair for the charity that helped her gran Gillian, Yvonne’s mum