She was our Audrey Hepburn,yet so sweetly unaware of her beauty
BRITAIN is full of unsung heroes and heroines who deserve recognition. Here, in our weekly obituary column, the moving and inspirational stories of ordinary people who have lived extraordinary lives, and who died recently, are told by their loved ones . . .
MY DAUGHTER CAITLIN
CAITlIn was a girl who was utterly unaware of how beautiful she was. ‘do I look all right, Mum?’ she’d ask me, seeking reassurance before she went out with her friends.
I could never have dreamed they would be the last words she would ever say to me.
But last July, just 15 minutes after leaving home, Caitlin was killed when the car in which she was a passenger was involved in a fatal collision with a van.
The driver of the car was also killed, while the back seat passenger survived with multiple injuries and spent four months in hospital.
They were all 18 years old, excited to be heading for a meal out with friends, a meal that never took place.
That single, tragic event rewrote so many futures and brought an end to Caitlin’s dreams and plans.
our lovely daughter had wanted to be a criminologist, and hoped one day to marry and have children of her own.
She had already worked so hard to find her place in the world. when she was only three months old I noticed that not everything was happening quite as it should be with our gorgeous baby girl.
Caitlin tended not to use her right hand when reaching for things. After several stressful medical appointments, a paediatrician diagnosed her as having a mild version of hemiplegia, a congenital condition which resulted in weakness down the right side of her body.
It meant that Caitlin had to wear a hand and leg splint in her early years and have regular physiotherapy sessions to ease the tight muscles on her right side.
She rarely complained and refused to be defined by her disability. If anything, it made her more determined to succeed.
That side of her character was matched in equal part by her lovely nature. A quietly spoken homebody, she was thoughtful, kind and intuitive — we were so close that she always knew if I was down in the dumps.
Her elder sister, Hannah, and older brother, Aidan, adored her.
with her long, dark hair styled in a bun and her petite features, her colleagues at the café where she worked while doing business studies at a local college nicknamed her ‘Auds’ after Audrey Hepburn.
on the night she died, Caitlin was wearing her hair down, and before she went out I remember fastening three buttons on her blouse — something she still couldn’t do for herself because of her condition.
I am so grateful now that I got to touch her one last time.
Caitlin was buried just over two weeks after she died, on a day she had planned to attend a festival with her friends.
She was carried into the church as John legend’s All of Me played — something she had once confided she wanted to be her wedding song.
like so many other things, that day will never come.
This tragedy has left our family heartbroken, and we will never get over the horrific way in which Caitlin was taken from us.
At the same time I am so grateful to have been able to share the 18 years we were given with our beautiful girl and her sunny smile.
Caitlin HuDDleston, born november 23, 1998, died July 14, 2017, aged 18.