‘I buried my mum day before party at No10’
HEARTBROKEN DAUGHTER’S ANGER AT PM’S ADMISSION
A GRIEVING daughter has spoken of her anguish after burying her mother a day before the Prime Minister attended a rulebreaking lockdown party.
Dawn Johnson, 53, says she feels “bitter” following the revelation that Boris Johnson attended a public gathering on May 20, 2020. Mr Johnson apologised at Prime Minister Questions for attending the “bring your own booze” gathering in the garden of No 10 during England’s first lockdown as he fought to save his premiership.
The Prime Minister acknowledged the public “rage” over the incident but insisted he thought it could have been technically within the rules.
But Nottinghamshire families who lost loved ones during the pandemic are angered by the Prime Minister’s actions and have refused to accept his apology.
Many were unable to properly say goodbye to their mothers or fathers during the pandemic.
Dawn Johnson, of Clifton, wrote to the Prime Minister in May 2020 to request a piece of hair from her mother, Rita Johnson, to keep in a locket after she died.
Dawn says that she never heard back from the Prime Minister.
She said: “I feel really bitter, annoyed, angry, upset, all the emotions that you can think of.
“That stems from the fact that my mum passed away from Covid on April 27, 2020.
“She passed away in a home. I hadn’t seen her for ages apart from through a window.
“It was devastating.
“All I wanted from my mum was a piece of her hair so I could wear it in a locket.
“I wrote to Boris Johnson in the hope that he could do something for me because the funeral director said I couldn’t have any of her hair because of Covid.
“I couldn’t get to see her in the home because of Covid – it was just horrendous.
“I never ever got a reply back and not anything two years later.
“Now you hear all this in the news and what’s been going on and I just can’t get over it – it’s just really upsetting.
“I don’t know why but I just had faith that
by the time my mum was buried on the 19th of May I’d get that go-ahead and I could get that piece of hair before we laid her to rest but that just didn’t happen.
“We had to have a really small funeral. “We couldn’t have funeral cars – we had to go in our own cars.
“There were no pallbearers, she was wheeled in on a trolley and that was heartbreaking to see that as well.
“Heartbreaking to not be able to cuddle each other even at the graveside we had to
stand apart.”
Other families have also spoken out about their dismay over the Prime Minister’s antics.
Nicola Smith, 52, lost her mother Gillian Smith to Covid in April 2020.
She has said that her family were forced to select a small number of people to attend the funeral. She said: “It does anger me. “I’m angry for people who are in the same position as I am and our family are.
“Obviously at the time we could only have ten at the funeral and it’s a case of picking who can and can’t go.
“For us it was just me, my sister and my daughter.
“It shouldn’t be like that. You just sit there and think ‘what kind of send-off is this’
“And then you’ve got the Prime Minister doing exactly what he wants and yet dictating what the rest of the country should do.
“We couldn’t even do a wake after and yet he’s had his party.”
Katie Anthony, 26, from Eastwood, was also appalled.
Katie’s father, 999 call handler Martin Anthony, died in February 2021 and she was not allowed to see him in hospital.
She said: “Personally I’m just appalled that someone with such high standing and importance within our Government could have the audacity to think it’s acceptable to have a party and then try and excuse the fact or not even answer the question.
“When my father passed away 8th of February last year, we were not even allowed to go and see him for the two to three weeks in hospital.
“We couldn’t even have phone calls because he was so ill.
“If we cannot have our freedom what gives them the right to overrule that?”
Another woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, lost her mother to Covid during the pandemic.
Today marks one year since she died.
She said: “Yes I’m really angry about it.
“Of course if you were sat in ICU holding your mum’s hand while she passed away from Covid and witness this first hand like I did, it’s not an image you want to remember, but I do.
“My mum really fought for her life in those six days. You have the nurses crying with you and they work so hard and witness this every day.
“He has absolutely no compassion for the people or their respective families that have lost loved ones.”