We still chat to my dad. I’ll have his cardboard cutout at my wedding Les Dawson’s family on keeping memory alive
SUNDAY MIRROR
home video, some of it for the first time. One shows Les welcoming Tracy and newborn Charlotte home on their return from hospital.
Charlotte says: “I am so lucky to have this footage. It is heartbreaking. But my mum has always kept my dad alive for me.”
And watching video of her parents’ 1989 wedding – again for the first time – had a profound effect on Charlotte and restored her faith in romance. She went on: “I was an emotional wreck wat c h i n g the wedding. It is amazing, it proves how in love they were, the way they look at each other.”
Charlotte, who appeared on dating show Ex On The Beach, is the first to admit that the path of true love hasn’t always run smoothly for her.
She had a seven-year relationship that didn’t work out.
Now she is loved-up with Swinton Lions rugby league star Matthew Sarsfield, 25, and hopes he is The One.
She adds: “We have been together three months and he is gorgeous. Dad would love him. I think about not having Dad there to walk me down the aisle when I get married. We will have to have his cardboard cut-out at the altar!”
More heartbreaking for Tracy and Charlotte was watching footage of Les’s funeral. Baby Charlotte is sat on her aunt’s knee in the funeral car, banging on the window and shouting “Da Da”.
Tracy – who has two children from a previous relationship and 10 grandchildren – has never remarried and is now single.
She is convinced Les and Charlotte would have got on like a house on fire.
Tracy says: “He liked to party and she loves to party. She reminds me so much of Les – she even likes the same food, the mini pork pies he used to hide in his car!”
Les Dawson Forever airs on December 21 and 22 at 9pm on ITV3.