‘SOME DAYS I THINK SHE’S COMING HOME’
Mum on her anguish after daughter’s fatal crash – and how she’s trying to raise awareness so other families don’t suffer:
KELLY Kennedy had finished work in the Swansea Valley and began her drive towards Clydach at 10pm on July 4, 2016.
But she never arrived home.
Her Ford Ka was the first car in a line of traffic heading from the direction of Pontardawe at the time.
Travelling in the opposite direction were Cory Kedward, in his Vauxhall Astra SRI, and Liam Price in his Honda Civic Sport.
They were racing each other.
At speeds touching 90mph the pair – both 21 at the time – were driving “side-by-side” along the road, Kedward in the nearside lane, Price in offside lane.
Neither slowed down nor showed any sign of wanting to “give in” to the other.
It was Price who ploughed headlong into Miss Kennedy’s car causing a huge impact. She was killed instantly. Sat at home waiting for her daughter was mum Tracy Kennedy.
And as time passed she began to become more and more concerned. It wasn’t like her daughter to be this late.
“She was due home from work at 10.20pm, and she had not come home, and Kelly was never late, she was always in by twenty past,” Tracy Kennedy says, sat on the sofa at the family home in Clydach, surrounded by pictures of her beloved daughter.
“I waited until about 10.30pm and I told my husband she hadn’t come home.”
Dad Paul tried to reassure his wife, telling her Kelly had probably popped to the shops.
“Get to bed,” he said. “She won’t be long.”
It was the moment that she tried to get to sleep that Tracy had a haunting premonition.
“As I got into bed and closed my eyes, I saw this crash in front of me and I just jumped out of bed and me and my son went to look for her.”
They travelled the route Kelly would take but found the road closed. So they tried an alternative route, but again they found the route was blocked off and police officers were present.
“I explained to them my daughter is due home.
“He basically said to come back to the house and they would get somebody to come down and speak to us.
“I knew there had been an accident, but I never thought for a minute Kelly was dead.”
A policeman eventually arrived at the house.
“It felt like forever before he came.
“He told us that Kelly had been killed outright, and that they had arrested two boys at the scene.
“Everything after that was a blur.”
She added: “We had to go down and identify Kelly.
“No parent should have to go through what we went through that night. It was horrendous.
“The devastation, for a few days after that I don’t remember much.”
“To go through the trial was horrendous, it was the worst thing any parent should have to go through,” Mrs Kennedy said.
“Thank God the jury found him (Kedward) guilty and both are now serving time in prison.
“Not long enough as far as we’re concerned. It’s a joke really. They have destroyed our family and torn us apart and yet they are allowed to come out after three-and-a-half years and carry on with their lives and do whatever they want to do.
“Kelly didn’t have that choice, she was snatched away from us.
“We’re never going to see her get married, have children, achieve her dreams.
“She wanted to go travelling and become a social worker and they have just taken everything away from us.
A car is a very powerful machine and I hope I can get through to them that it’s not big and it’s not clever to race, because it destroys lives like it has destroyed ours. - Tracy Kennedy
“It’s just left us in bits basically.”
The family home, where Kelly lived with her mum Tracy, dad Paul and brother Adrian, is filled with tributes to her.
But Christmas is especially painful.
“This is the third Christmas for us without her. It’s just horrible for us. The first year after she went we couldn’t even put the decorations up, I couldn’t even think about it, it was horrendous, it’s the pain,” she said.
“It’s not the same, it’s really painful. Christmas Day was all full of fun and full of laughter.
“Last year I decided to get Kelly’s tree, hanging on it are baubles with her face. There are angel wings and it’s all dedicated to her.
“That’s what gave me the strength to put the decorations up last year. You feel guilty, you don’t want to celebrate without her.
“I know she is up there saying ‘come on now,’ she loved Christmas, but it’s horrible, it’s flat.”
The mum added: “Some days I still think she’s coming home, you just put blinkers on, and then it knocks you again. It’s hard to put into words.
“You never think anything like this would happen to you and your family but it does, and it happens a lot.
“I lost my mother this year as well, it’s really hard. I’ve got to try and think what she’d want us to do and I know she’d want us to celebrate it.
“It gives me comfort knowing that they are together up there.”
After the devastating loss of her daughter, who had just booked a dream round-the-world trip with friends – including a spell working as volunteer in an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, Miss Kennedy turned to Cruse Bereavement Care to help her through.
The charity offers support, advice and information to children, young people and adults when someone dies and work to enhance society’s care of bereaved people.
The invaluable support she has received spurred Mrs Kennedy on to raise money in aid of the cause, and so far she has raised £10,000. through charity events.
She said: “Kelly died in July, and the first birthday I had without her on August 31 was terrible.
“I just said every birthday I have I want to do something for her.
“I decided to start doing some walks. The first one I did with my sisters, Angela, Tina and Donna and my sister’s future daughter-in-law, Sam.
“I think I raised more than £4,000 last year.
“Cruse are such a fantastic organisation and they don’t get funded and have helped me through the worst time of my life and become friends as well as well as counsellor.
“They’ve brought me through a lot and I want to help them do the fantastic work they do with families. Last year’s money paid for a number of families to go to a retreat in Gower free of charge.
“It’s nice I can give something to families who are suffering.
“It makes me feel as if she hasn’t died in vain and it’s keeping her memory alive and giving me something to focus on. I will be keeping Kelly’s memory going until my last breath. I need to and I want to do it.”
She also hopes to prevent other similar tragedies. “I would like to start going round the schools and talking to youngsters before they start learning to drive, or even if they are learning to drive to just tell them the dangers of racing and driving recklessly,” she said.
“They think they are invincible behind the wheel and they’re not.
“A car is a very powerful machine and I hope I can get through to them that it’s not big and it’s not clever to race, because it destroys lives like it has destroyed ours.
“I don’t want any other family to go through what we are going through because this is going to haunt us for the rest of our lives.”