Friends and supporters getting me through dark days, says mum

JACKIE Taylor says she has only got through the “worst nine months” of her life with the support of her loving family, close friends and strangers who have sent her messages of support.

Jackie’s daughter Sophie was killed in a crash after a car chase by jealous love rival Melissa Pesticcio, 24, in one car and her exboyfriend Michael Wheeler, 23, in another. She died after Wheeler had rammed her car, causing her to crash into a building. The pair were jailed on Friday.

Sophie’s friends have also been a solace during her darkest days.

Sophie loved princesses and Disney, and her best friends gave Jackie a beautiful fairy wings picture with words that best summed up their friend.

They also named a star after her, and went to the trial to show their support for the family.

“We have had so many lovely messages of support,” said Jackie. “Even from one of the nurses who helped look after Sophie that night. That meant so much.”

The message read: “Dear Jackie... I hope you don’t mind me getting in touch with you, but I have been thinking about doing it for months. I was one of the nurses who looked after Sophie on that tragic night.

“Every day I think about your family. You must have been so proud of her. Nothing has affected me as much as the events of that night. I will never forget the beautiful shades in Sophie’s hair or her Disney tattoos. I just wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you and your lovely family.”

Other anonymous messages have praised Jackie, who insisted on reading a family statement outside Cardiff Crown Court for her daughter, for being “an incredibly brave woman”.

Jackie says her daughter “has been snatched from her arms”.

Surrounded by pictures of all her children, Jackie remembers her “beautiful baby”, who was special from day one.

Sophie was the first baby to be born in Cardiff on New Year’s Day, 1994, and appeared in the South Wales Echo with her proud parents.

“She always felt special and she was such a lovely girl. Her and Kate were born a year apart, so they were basically brought up as twins, and were always really close,” said Jackie.

“She was also close to Ollie and Harry, they were like a gang of four. She liked to be the centre of attention and she was always extremely generous with money. To her, money just wasn’t an issue. She wasn’t extravagant, but she loved her home and she loved her family.”

Jackie’s nightmare began with a knock on the door of her Llandaff home in the early hours of August 22 last year.

Initially, the mum of four was angry because she thought Sophie had forgotten her keys. However, when she looked out of the window she could see someone in a flat cap.

“I went to bed that night about 10pm. She wasn’t home but that was normal,” says Jackie.

“Around about 12.30pm or 12.45pm there was a knock on the door. I instantly thought ‘She has forgotten her flaming key. I am not going to answer the door to her now. She can sit outside in her car.’ I was furious because she had woken me up.

“But I looked outside and saw this white, flat cap. I thought it was a marine at first because I was half asleep. I came downstairs and the traffic police officer said, ‘Are you Jackie Taylor? Sophie Taylor’s mum?’ I said yes and he said Sophie had been involved in a car accident and he needed me to come with him immediately.”

She was home alone, as the boys were staying with their dad. The officer blue-lighted Jackie to the hospital on her own. “I arrived and went straight in, and I just thought she was so cold and started shouting at the staff to get her some blankets to get her warm. They did it, but I think they did it for me at the time. There wasn’t a hope for her, really,” says Jackie.

“By this time I needed someone to talk to.

“I phoned my daughter Kate. In all of this I had forgotten to phone her. I told her something had happened to her sister and she was in a bad way.

“Kate came and they took me into the room and they told us that the neurologist wasn’t even going to come to look at her. They said he had looked at the scans. She had had a severe blow to the side of the head.

“The next conversation they had with us, they asked if we wanted to donate.”

After leaving the hospital, Jackie found it difficult to go back home.

“I couldn’t even come into the house,” she said, breaking down. “The thought of walking into our home with all her things was too much. I remember thinking ‘Wonder if she will be home tonight?’ I just had to imagine her still here, I just needed to have her for a few more moments.”

Now Jackie wants to remember her beautiful daughter and is gaining strength from the support of family, friends and total strangers.

She admits: “I wouldn’t be here today without my close friends and the messages of support. They are getting me through.”

Friends and family have been so supportive they have set up a GoFundMe page (see story, left) to help Sophie’s family pay for a fitting headstone.

Nearly £1,000 has been raised so far and the page is full of kind messages like “In memory of a beautiful girl” and “In memory of a beautiful princess who was taken too soon from her beautiful family”.