MUM’S SHRINE TO TRAGIC TEEN NYAH
THE mother of a schoolgirl who was found dead at home has left her daughter’s room untouched as a shrine to her.
Nyah James, a pupil at Bishop Gore School in Swansea, was found at her home in the Blaenymaes area when her mother tried to wake her up for school six weeks ago.
Her mum Dominique Williams has alleged her teenage daughter was being relentlessly bullied on Snapchat and Facebook in the weeks before her death.
Nyah’s bedroom remains untouched apart from her bedding, which was removed by police following the 14-year-old’s death on February 6. The last photo taken of Nyah now “lights up her bedroom” after her mum had it printed on a giant flag and draped it across her wardrobe doors. Cuddly toys litter the room along with the teenager’s beloved makeup, trinket boxes , candles, and cherished DVD collection.
Dominique, 43, has kept her daughter’s belongings just as she liked them and turned her room into a shrine to help her and her daughter’s friends grieve.
She has revealed she copes with her grief by sitting in Nyah’s room alone in the dark with cherished memories of her beloved daughter all around her.
Dominique – whose wife Suzanne helped bring up Nyah along with her dad David – said: “We’ll keep it like it like that for ever.
“Her TV is still there, the PS4 she got for Christmas, the DVD player, her make-up.
“We’ve put a picture of her in front of the TV so it’s almost like a shrine. People who were close to her and loved her can go in and remember her.
“It’s a place that her best friends can go and grieve for her.
“I smell the perfumes that she wore as it’s almost like smelling her.
“I also smell her clothes – it’s like I have a piece of her with me.”
It was Nyah’s life-long dream to visit New York City and this is clear when you look around her bedroom with wallpaper depicting the hustle and bustle of a downtown New York street adorning her wall.
After her death Dominique continued to grow her late daughter’s collection by buying a lamp shade printed with the New York skyline which now sits on top of her bedside table.
Mourners at Nyah’s funeral only weeks ago were urged to follow the “example” set by her kindness and compassion for others.
A horse-drawn hearse carried her to a packed Swansea Crematorium.
Of her ambition to visit New York, the vicar on the day said: “She had a dream to travel to New York one day and her bedroom was decked out in New York colours; in some way she is there today, you may find.”
Dominique said: “Her ashes are vinyl wrapped with New York images – exactly the same as her coffin – so one day we can take her ashes to the Big Apple. It’s something she would have wanted.”
The heartbroken mother also bought a star ornament in memory of her “star Nyah” for the room “dedicated to her”, adding: “She had a star named after her in the star directory so she really is a star.”
Dominique has vowed never to move from the house where Nyah died, adding: “She lived here and died here – it wouldn’t feel right to move now. It gives us comfort to be surrounded by all of Nyah’s stuff and favourite things.”
A bench in memory of Nyah will be unveiled in Swansea later this month.