Mother of fatal crash victim tells of grief
A GRIEVING mother has spoken of the devastation of losing a daughter who was, “her workmate, her pal, everything rolled into one”.
Gemma McMonagle, 24, died when the car she was travelling in plunged into a canal in Lambhill, Glasgow, two months ago.
Her mother Lynn, said her daughter had helped hold the family together after her husband Gary’s death four years ago at the age of 42, caring for her younger brothers, Paul, 13, and Gary, 19.
Lynn, 47, who lives in Maryhill, said: “It was just a normal Saturday night out.
“She was going out with her friend Stephanie. They were here till about 9.30pm, then they went up to Stephanie’s. I was in bed. I’ve slept on the couch since my husband died but I just decided to go upstairs that night. Two police officers came. I said to them, ‘you have made a mistake. It can’t be Gemma’. But unfortunately it was.
“The only way they could identify her was by her wee tattoos on her wrist.
“I saw her for five minutes on the Saturday. She was going to work and she was just waiting for a taxi.
“She said, ‘That’s my taxi mum, see you later’. That was the last I saw her.”
Gemma’s friend Kieron Lundy, 21, a father-of-one, also died when the car he was driving careered off Balmore Road in Lambhill and plunged into the Forth and Clyde Canal on Sunday, May 15. Two passengers in the back seat of the car were injured, 25-year-olds Stephanie Adens and Stephen Carroll.