Boys Found Their Mum Dead.. So We Took Them To Live With Us

How DIY SOS helped grandparents give lads space to live and grieve

- Rhian Lubin

After fostering 103 children, Lynn and Steve Smedley were looking forward to their retirement in a beautiful seaside village in Cornwall when their world was ripped apart by the death of their daughter.

Carrie died suddenly in her sleep, and was found by her three young sons.

Care worker Lynn, 56, was at work when Steve broke the horrific news to her that day in April, 2017. She says: “I went straight to Carrie’s. I got the boys and brought them home.”

But home was a tiny, two-bedroom bungalow in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, where the boys – Ruben, now 17, Jaden, 11, and Uche, 10 – had to squeeze into a single room with a triple bunk bed. With too little space, they all struggled to deal with their grief.