Manchester victim, 15, lived for music
Olivia Campbell’s best friend got birthday concert tickets and asked her to join him.
MANCHESTER, England — Olivia Campbell’s family asked police not to knock on their door with bad news after the Manchester bomb attack. If the news about the missing 15-yearold wasn’t good, they wanted to be told in a phone call.
Charlotte Campbell, 36, had spent Tuesday making so many desperate TV and newspaper appeals that her daughter’s face came to symbolize the missing.
The dreaded call came overnight. A police liaison officer rang Olivia’s stepfather, Paul Hodgson.
“I went and told Charlotte,” said Hodgson, 47. “Charlotte just broke down. She was calling me a liar and lashing out, but I just had to hold her tight.”
Police explained they had to wait until the arena was made safe before medics could get inside and retrieve 13 bodies — that of the attacker and a dozen of his victims.
Charlotte immediately took to Facebook and wrote: “RIP my darling precious gorgeous girl Olivia Campbell taken far far too soon go sing with the angels and keep smiling.”
She added: “Mummy loves you so much.”
A friend watching the couple’s home in Bury, Greater Manchester, said Wednesday of the couple, “They have gone to register the death.” He added, with a shrug, “She has so much to do.”
Charlotte had earlier revealed her sense of loss in a TV interview. “I’m heartbroken,” she said. “I just want her to walk back through that front door and start giving me mither [annoying me] again and talking about boys and whatnot.”
Olivia, who attended Tottington High School, where flowers on Wednesday covered the front lawn, twice competed on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.” She lived for music and singing, her family said. Her favorite song, John Legend’s “All Of Me,” will be played at her funeral, the family said.
Fellow student Benjamin Metcalfe, 12, stood at the school gates Wednesday, looking at the flowers for “Oli.”
He said: “She helped me with my singing. Everyone loved her. You should see the video of her on YouTube. Everybody is watching it.”
Olivia attended the Ariana Grande concert Monday night with her best friend, Adam Lawler, also 15, who was seriously injured in the attack and may lose an eye.
Adam’s parents bought him the tickets for his birthday; he took Oli because he knew how much she loved music, and the pair spoke of nothing else in the preceding weeks, her mother said in television interviews.
The last Charlotte Campbell heard from her daughter was a text message at 8.30 p.m., telling her how good opening act BIA was and that she was waiting for Grande to take the stage.
In the aftermath of the explosion, her family searched hotels, pubs and cafes to find the teen; they visited the hospitals around Greater Manchester where injured victims had been taken.
News of Olivia’s death was broken to her classmates and their parents in a post from head teacher Brian Duffy, who wrote: “It is with great sadness that we inform our school and wider community that one of our children, Olivia CampbellHardy, was a victim of the Manchester atrocity.
“As a school community we are absolutely devastated and heartbroken at the news that Olivia has passed away. Our prayers and deepest sympathies go to her family and friends.”
On Wednesday night, a second vigil following the one in Manchester city center was held in Bury for Olivia and another local victim, 26-year-old John Atkinson.
Mayor Dorothy Gunther was there, telling people it was “not right” two young people should have been taken so cruelly, so young.
As she spoke, an empty book of condolences fluttered on a nearby table, waiting to be filled.
“This is such a hard time for us, but I had to come,” said a tearful Campbell, addressing the crowd at the vigil. “Something told me I had to come. I can see Olivia’s face there. Please, don’t let this happen to anybody else.”
Kelly is a special correspondent.