‘Jane was our mum, our best friend, our everything’
TRIBUTES have been paid to a cherished mum killed in the Manchester Arena attack ‘who never gave up on smiling and being happy.’
Jane Carolyn Tweddle was among the 22 who died in the atrocity on May 22.
Her family has now released a full tribute to the ‘bubbly and kind’ mum-of-three, who worked as a school receptionist at South Shore Academy in Blackpool, in which they describe their devastating loss.
In joint statement released by daughters Harriet, Lily and Isabelle Taylor, they described Jane as the ‘light of their life’ who always made sure their home was ‘full of laughter and love’.
They said: “There are no words for how we feel – our mum was every part of us. She is our strength, our laughter, our inner warrior, our kindness and our compassion. Forever we will hold on to those traits for it is our mum who instilled them in us.
“If you knew our mum well enough you’d know she didn’t have the greatest luck in the world, and we think back to that night and if only she had one second of luck on her side we wouldn’t be writing this.
“But then we thought maybe our mum was the only person who was strong enough to have all this bad luck and to keep on going, keep on smiling, to keep on helping other people, going out of her way to make sure everyone around her was smiling.
“Our mum never gave up on smiling and being happy. Our house was full of laughter and love – mum was always going out of her way to make sure us girls were happy, even if she had a bad day she’d still put all her effort in to crack a smile out of us.”
The girls shared fond memories of their mischievous mum who would ‘pull the oldest tricks in the book to get us laughing’.
“She was our mum, our best friend, our everything. She taught us everything we know, raised us and she was the light of our life and it’ll never be as bright without her,” they added. “She will always be with us, the three of us together are our mum and we will do our best in life to make her so proud.”
Jane’s family also thanked to those who have supported them since their mother’s death, including two family liaison officers, Dermot Murray and Mike Brook, from Greater Manchester Police. They thanked CitySuites Manchester for making them feel at home in the aftermath of the bombing.