Family remembers, a year on
Jan 21 2008 by Paul Loraine, The Journal
THE mother of Private Michael Tench, a North-East soldier killed in Iraq, yesterday relived the moment she was told about her son’s death.
Janice Murray said she was shaking at 12.20pm yesterday, the exact time on Sunday, January 21, last year, that she received a knock on the door to inform her of Michael’s fate.
Pte Tench, who was just 18, was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra.
Since that day, Mrs Murray, 45, has not been able to face staying in the house at 12.20pm on a Sunday, fearful of anyone approaching her door.
But yesterday, with her close family around her, she remained inside for the first time following a short service held by her son’s grave. Speaking from her home in Carley Hill, Sunderland, last night Mrs Murray said: “Every Sunday for the whole of last year I would start scurrying about.
“I couldn’t have stayed inside – I was so scared there would be another knock on the door.
“But I did for the first time today although I was shaking and it was so hard.
“It brings it back. I went back to having this battle in my head which I do every single Sunday but it was time I faced my demons.”
Mrs Murray, who lives with her husband Derek and grandchildren Ellie, two, and Michael, eight months, revealed that coping without her son is not becoming any easier.
She said: “It gets harder all the time.
“I just have to find a way of having a normal life again but I never will.
“It has changed me forever and I have lived a year full of January 21sts. It really is hard to explain.” The family were hit by a another tragedy in December when Mrs Murray’s sister, 43-year-old Christine Lafferty, collapsed and died.
And on the eve of the first anniversary of her son’s death, Mrs Murray revealed that the year seemed to have passed in an instant.
“I have been dealing with it the best I can but standing in the cemetery again today, laying flowers, I just felt I shouldn’t be here.
“I didn’t like how final it all seemed. He is gone but he will never be forgotten.
“But then, he died thinking he was making the world a better place and today we have been remembering him and his lovely nature.”
