8:00am Sunday 22nd November 2009
By David Mills
THE mum of a 21-year-old killed in a car crash says she is “dreading” the first Christmas without her son.
Louie Blackwood died instantly when the car he was driving hit a wall in Billericay, Essex.
His mother Sharon Stannard has covered the walls of her home with framed photos of the former Hextable School pupil.
The 48-year-old plans to decorate her family’s Christmas tree with pictures of him.
She said: “I’m absolutely dreading Christmas. I can remember him last year watching me put up the Christmas tree. This year the tree is going to be dedicated to him. The tree is going to be Louie with a star at the top.”
Recalling the crash in May, Miss Stannard said: “All I know is he crashed into a wall. I don’t want to know anything else.
“The less I know the less I can worry about it.
“I just know it was instant and he didn’t suffer.
“In the circumstances that’s the best result I can have.”
Millwall fan Louie had tickets to see his team play Scunthorpe in a play-off final at Wembley the day he died.
He had left his home in New Road, Dartford, at about 10pm the previous night and never returned.
Miss Stannard said: “I heard the doorbell ring. I thought Louie had forgotten his keys. He rang a second time and I thought ‘hang on Louie, I’m coming’.
“As I went to the door I thought it was him, but it was the police.
“I just couldn’t believe it.”
Louie died days before his 22nd birthday, which was commemorated with a balloon launch attended by around 100 people.
Immediately after his death, a tribute group was set up on social networking website Facebook, which has almost 1,000 members as well as more than 100 photos and videos of him.
Miss Stannard, a sales assistant, says she has not yet been able to read the hundreds of tribute messages posted on the site but plans to look at the page on Christmas Day.
She said: “His friends and family have been absolutely amazing.
“Louie was not a sad person, he was a lovely, giggly joker of a person.
“He had hundreds of friends all over the place.
“His funeral was something else, the amount of people there.
“I didn’t want them in black. I wanted them in bright colours because that’s what Louie loved. It was not right to be sad, I celebrated his life.”
She said: “I just remember the fun he had and the funny stories his friends tell of him.
“They always knew if Louie was going out with them they would have a good time.
“He’s sorely missed.”
She added: “What keeps me going is how he loved me. He said to his friends, ‘My mum’s my best friend’.
“He was just realising he had to be responsible, he was getting his head together that he had to get a proper job. He loved music, he would have loved to work with music.
“He was my son and full of fun, very loving and caring.”
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