MUM, IF I DON’T MAKE IT HOME, I LOVE YOU
Mother’s fears when daughter texted her from Manchester bombing scene
‘Mum, there’s been a shooting, if I don’t make it home I love you’.
This was the chilling text that Adrienne Lester (nee Cullen) received from her 16-year-old daughter Saskia at 10.37 p.m. on Monday night, minutes after a bomb exploded at an Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester Arena.
Adrienne, the daughter of Kathleen and the late Jimmy Cullen, is originally from South Green in Arklow but has been living in Mossley just outside Manchester for the past 15 years.
On Monday at around 3 p.m. her youngest daughter Saskia, who is a massive Ariana Grande fan, received a call from her friend saying that she had a spare ticket for the concert if she wanted it. A delighted Saskia snapped it up little realising the horror that was to unfold.
‘Saskia is just totally traumatised’, said Adrienne. ‘We all are really. She didn’t sleep at all on Monday night after it happened. She was just leaving the concert when she heard an almighty bang and she thought there had been a shooting. At 10.37 p.m. she sent me a text which read: ‘Mum, there’s been a shooting, if I don’t make it home I love you.’
‘I was on the verge of collapse after reading it and then three minutes later she rang me to say there were dead bodies everywhere she looked. There was one person lying in a pool of blood with her eyes open and her friend was shouting at her to get up and move.
‘She saw a small child with a hole in the side of his cheek in his father’s arms and his father was just screaming hysterically. Everyone was running around in a panic.
‘Saskia lost the girl she was with at one stage and had to go back for her. Saskia was on the phone to her sister Yasmine (19) who kept telling them to just get out of the arena. Nobody knew what was going on.
‘At first they thought the noise had come from the speakers, then they thought there had been a shooting. The security staff directed them out of the building and the police just told them to run for their lives.’
Sasika and her friend managed to flee the area without in- jury and went to the Deansgate area where they were collected. ‘I left work to be with her. To say she was and still is traumatised is just the understatement of the century. It’s one thing watching these atrocities on the television but it’s another to see them happen before your eyes.
‘She (Saskia) didn’t know if she was going to make it out alive. She’s currently in the middle of her GCSE’s but the school rang to say they would postpone them. She couldn’t possibly sit exams at the moment, the state she’s in. I’ve been advised to get her counselling for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
‘She’s an absolute mess at the moment. She can’t get her head around it.
‘When she got home after the concert she was talking about what happened non stop saying how she could have died. Everywhere she looked there was blood and dead bodies. When she got outside there were people just holding their arms or legs and gushing blood. People were doing everything they could to stop the bleeding.
‘But she has plenty of support and we’re a strong family so we will help her through this.’
Adrienne said that Manchester is reeling from the bombing.
‘It’s a scene of pure devastation over here at the moment. There are children who can’t find their parents, parents who can’t find children, an eightyear-old child is among the dead, there’s children in the Etihad Stadium who haven’t been collected yet. It’s chaos.’
Adrienne said that the guy who is alleged to have set off the bomb is among the dead while police have also arrested a 23-year-old man.
‘They are not sure if he was working on his own or he was part of a terrorist cell. Yesterday (Tuesday) the Arndale Shopping Centre was evacuated because of reports of a suspicious package in the food court. Several businesses are closed. Nobody knows if we will be hit again.
‘On social media the Islamic State (IS) are supposedly threatening to hit Disneyland in Paris and other places. Yasmine and I have tickets to go see Robbie Williams in two weeks time but we won’t be going. For one thing, Saskia is petrified that she would be on her own if something happened to us.’
Adrienne said she has been inundated with texts from friends and family with offers of help and messages of support.
‘On Monday night my sister was texting me to make sure we were ok. She was too upset to even talk on the phone because she is very fond of the girls, naturally. My sister-in-law in Waterford was in contact too to make sure we were all OK because they saw it on the news.’
Adrienne said that the community of Manchester has really rallied around to help those affected by the bombing.
‘The mood here at the moment is very, very sad. There’s a sense of absolute shock and horror. The Manchester people are very friendly. They are very like the Irish and they have a big community spirit. People have come out en masse to support each other. There’s taxi drivers offering free trips to people as far away as Scotland, hotels offering rooms and beds, people donating phones, food and all sorts.
‘The emergency services are out on their own as well. They have been fantastic. People have been just brilliant and the sense of community spirit is amazing despite the fact that people are scared.
‘Manchester is very sad at the moment and people feel that nowhere is safe.’