How Can She Be Gone?

Full of life, Vicky Whyte’s daughter was a force of nature – until a shocking illness struck her down...

- Elaine Mclaren & Louise Baty

As I sorted through a pile of well-worn school jumpers, a figure appeared at my shoulder. I knew who it was without turning around. ‘Hello, Leah,’ I smiled. ‘Have you written your list?’

It was August 2012 and I was taking my children shopping for new school uniforms – one of our favourite family traditions. As she did every year, Leah, then 14, had compiled a shopping list, noting every item we needed for herself, her younger brother Simon, 13, and sister Miriam, nine – right down to the exact number of pairs of socks. In previous years, before she had finished school, her older sister Rachel, 18, had also been on the list. Leah had always been organised. She’d follow me around, saying, ‘Mummy, have you done this?’ I’d tell people, ‘When Leah goes away, the house falls apart!’

Bright future

But more than anything, she loved making people smile. Ever since she had leared to write as a little girl, she would leave notes around the house, with messages such as, ‘Mummy, I love you xxx.’ she had lots of friends and a lovely boyfriend, nic, and enjoyed family get-togethers and picnics. But she was happiest at our home near Limavady, northern Ireland, with me, her dad Horace, 55, and her brother and sisters, baking her speciality, Fifteens – a traybake made with chocolate chips, biscuits and marshmallows. And she loved children – her ambition was to become a youth counsellor one day.