A Scots woman whose husband died in a tragic work related incident has hailed a child bereavement charity for getting her through the toughest time of her life.
Mum-of-three Deborah Mathers never imagined husband Mark wouldn't come home when she waved him off to work on September 18, 2018.
Garage door fitter Mark, 33, was working at Specialist Cars Volkswagen in Aberdeen when he was seriously injured and sadly died.
His family, from Pitcaple, Aberdeenshire, are still waiting to hear the findings of a Fatal Accident Inquiry into his death.
Heartbroken Deborah, now 38, worried about how her children Aaron, 19, Connor, nine, and Blair, six, would cope with the tragic loss at such a young age.
She told the Record: "Mark was very cheeky, very funny and very bubbly. He was an amazing dad and an amazing husband.
"He was brilliant and we miss him massively.
"Three and a half years on and although we are in a better place I don't know that anything has changed that much.
"You've got Christmas and the kids are sad because they miss their dad. It is the same with birthdays.
"It has got slightly easier each year and the children have adapted their own ways to cope.
"As a parent all you want is for your child to be okay and when they're not that maternal instinct kicks in.
"It took quite a while for me to grieve as I was focused on making sure the kids were okay."
As the distraut family struggled to cope with the heartbreaking loss Connor's school suggested making a referral to Archie’s Child Bereavement Service.
Within two days volunteer Anne was in contact with the family and acted as a "lifeline" for Deborah as she helped explain Mark's death to the children.
As well as home visits, the charity offered activities for the kids and even trained Blair's nursery staff who were struggling to answer his questions.
Deborah has now trained to be a volunteer so she can provide vital support to families in similar situations.
She said: "I didn't know what to say to my kids. I'd never been in that situation before - we'd never had anyone close to us die, not even a pet.
"For Blair, it didn't really register for him as he was only three. It's only in the last year or so he has started to question things.
"Connor is autistic so for him everything is black and white so we tried to keep him in his routine as much as possible and my oldest boy, Mark's stepson, he was only 15 so like every teenager he just sort of shut down.
"When the charity came in it was much easier to start a conversation about it. I honestly can't thank them enough for everything they have done. They were a lifeline."
Since the start of the pandemic Archie’s Child Bereavement Service has seen a 150 per cent increase in requests for help as a team of 48 volunteer responders work to help families across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, and Moray.
Malcom Stewart, Service Coordinator said: “We are still dealing with the effects the pandemic has left and have found that a lot of children struggled with not being given the opportunity to properly say goodbye.
"People have died in hospital, and children aren’t being able to get in and visit.
“The number limits on funerals, where only adult family members of the deceased could go and children couldn’t attend and the fact there were no wakes to relieve the pressure of the funeral where people could share the good memories of those that died is really hard to come to any kind of closure.
"The word closure is not the right word to use, because a funeral is never closure, but it’s part of the process, and that’s been taken away from these young people."
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