The sirens were for my Richard

It was October 19th, 1998 my partner Richard was leaving for work. A typical Monday lay ahead. The sun was just waking at the time he was leaving. He kissed me and said goodbye. I heard him ride off on his motorbike at about 5.30am. He had bought it the August prior. At about 5.45am I was awoken by the sounds of piercing sirens and thought to myself that they were close. I didnt really think anything of them at the time.

At about 6.00am the phone rang and it was Richard's work phoning me to see if he had left or was he sick. I told them he had left about 30 minutes ago. As it was only about a 10min ride I thought it was unusual that he wasn't there. I asked them to go and see if his bike was in the car park and to phone me back if it wasn't. About 5 minutes later they phoned me back to say that he definitely wasn't at work. I told them I would go and see if he had broken down somewhere. As I put my 3 year old daughter in the car my thoughts suddenly turned to the sirens. As I turned from my street onto the main road I could see that there had been an accident. Emergency  services were everywhere.

It was at this time that I realised my world was about to change forever. Driving to the scene I could see there was a body with a sheet over it. There was also a bike embedded into a parked semi-trailer. I pulled the car up and got out.  I yelled at them to do something. That was my partner laying there. I realised there was nothing that could be done. Ambulance officers escorted my daughter and I to a nearby house so I could phone my mum. As the day wore on I was told that a car had hit the same truck at about 5am that morning. The driver of the car had survived. It was said that the sun had blocked his vision and that he thought the truck was actually moving not parked. He died at the scene moments after he fell to the road.

Looking back on the past 10 years I have achieved so much because at the time of the accident, besides my 3 year old daughter, I was also 21 weeks pregnant with our second daughter. She was born in the March of 99. Although our lives go on it still hurts deeply. My two beautiful daughers will never get to share their lives with their wonderful father.

A shocking scene right on our street

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