Grieving parents say ‘don’t wrap children in cotton wool’
THE family of a 14-year-old girl killed in the Manchester bombing has urged other parents not to “wrap children in cotton wool”.
The parents of Nell Jones, whose friend Freya Lewis has been treated in hospital for serious injuries, said yesterday that their daughter had been “singing in the car” all the way to the concert.
Her family is one of the last of those to lose someone in the attack to pay public tribute to their loved one.
Nell, from Goostrey in Cheshire, was the subject of a missing persons campaign on Facebook before being named as one of the 22 victims of the bombing on Wednesday.
“Our Nell was just lovely,” said the statement, released via Greater Manchester Police.
“She was top class, she was clever and she was fun. She would have a go at anything and just loved life.
“She had her dad and her brothers wrapped around her little finger. She loved shopping and she loved to spend money.”
The family also described her as a “great friend and listener” and talked of how she was trying to get tickets for pop singer Harry Styles for a friend, despite being a huge Ed Sheeran fan. “We can’t wrap our children in cotton wool,” they added. “She was so excited to go to her first pop concert. She was singing in the car, all the way there.
“We have had a phenomenal response from everyone, Nell’s school, the police and the local community have been incredible. The response has really restored our faith in humanity.
“Even though she has been taken from us we’ve had 14 lovely years with her and that makes us so happy. They were the best years. We were so lucky to have her.
“Our hearts have been shattered. We loved Nell so very much, she was our world.”
The parents of 18-year-old Georgina Callander from Chorley, Lancs, who was the first victim to be named, also broke their silence by criticising the Government in a television interview and in a statement.
“I wish I could say that Georgina is one of the last to die in this way but unless our government opens its eyes we know we are only another in a long line of parents on a list that continues to grow,” said the statement, which also said the health and social care student recently passed her driving test and had been accepted into Edge Hill University.
“Her life was taken away after 18 short years by evil, evil men prepared to ruin lives and destroy families, for what?”
Separately, in a story that typifies the united response to last Monday’s bombing, one mother of three children has suggested she is willing to adopt the daughter of a victim.
Caroline Davies was waiting with Wendy Fawell for their children at the Ariana Grande concert when the nail bomb killed Mrs Fawell and left her badly injured.
Ms Davies, 39, told the Sunday People that Mrs Fawell’s 15-year-old daughter Charlotte “can live here if she wants to”.
Charlotte said: “Caroline has already been like a second mum to me so I know she will look after me.”
Theresa May told the Sunday Express that her visit last week to Manchester Children’s Hospital had been “harrowing”, and described one of the young bed-ridden girls she met as “incredibly brave”.