I lost my mum at 15. It’s hard but it gets easier – I promise
William’s words of comfort for bereaved boy, 11
ONE is nearly 40 and destined to be king. The other a football-mad 11-yearold schoolboy.
But in a poignant scene, the Duke of Cambridge and Deacon Glover were united by a shared experience when they met this week: The tragic deaths of their beloved mothers at an early age.
William was 15 when Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a Paris car crash aged 36 in 1997. Deacon’s mother Grace Taylor died age 28 just over a year ago after battling drug and mental health problems.
During a visit to a centre helping vulnerable people, William, 39, chatted to Deacon and told him: ‘I lost my mum when I was 15 . ... it’s difficult – but it gets easier, I promise you.’ He put a hand on Deacon’s shoulder to comfort him.
William and the Duchess of Cambridge spent around 15 minutes with the schoolboy and his great-grandmother, Carole Ellis, on Thursday during a visit to Church on the Street in Burnley, a centre that helps people struggling with poverty, homelessness, addiction or other problems.
Deacon, from Burnley, has previously posted poignant tributes to his mother on social media.
‘Not a day goes by where I don’t miss you – you’re always in my heart,’ he wrote in one, and ‘I miss you so much’ in another.
She died in January last year. After her death, Miss Ellis said Miss Taylor was ‘vivacious, caring and very loving’. She also condemned drugs as ‘evil’. During their meeting Deacon, a Burnley fan, and William, an Aston Villa supporter, also found common ground when the conversation turned to football. But the youngster, who was wearing a Burnley shirt, seemed unimpressed at first. ‘He thought it was a footballer coming here so he was gutted when he found out it was William and Kate,’ one volunteer at the centre said.
But he became chattier as William asked him about Burnley’s prospects and pointed out that his father, the Prince of Wales, was a Burnley supporter.
He told Deacon he hoped his own children would follow him in supporting Aston Villa. ‘I need to spread the love a bit,’ he said.