‘Time doesn’t heal’: But 10 years on, the parents of Holly Wells are ready to …
July 24, 2012 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
By
Daily Mail Reporter
18:20 EST, 22 July 2012
|
05:56 EST, 23 July 2012
The parents of murdered Soham schoolgirl Holly Wells will mark the tenth anniversary of their daughter’s death by returning to the family home where they raised her.
Kevin and Nicola Wells have suffered unimaginable grief over the past decade, as they struggled to cope with the loss of 10-year-old Holly and battled to keep their marriage intact and the family business from going bust.
As the anniversary approaches next month, Mr Wells insists ‘time doesn’t heal’ the pain of losing his daughter but he reveals the couple have vowed to ‘make it out the other side’ – starting by returning to the
cottage where Holly and her brother Oliver, 16 grew up.
Ten years on: Nicole, Oliver and Kevin Wells reflect on the 10th anniversary of Holly’s murder
The Wells family, pictured tending to Holly’s grave, insist it’s time to ‘make it out the other side’.
Happy family: Kevin, Nicola, Holly and Oliver in a treasured snapshot from the Wells family album
The couple
abandoned the house in 2006 when the memories it brought them became too painful
But they never sold it, choosing instead to rent it out, always believing one day they’d find the strength to return.
Speaking in an ITV documentary to mark the 10th anniversary of the girls’ deaths, Kevin Wells, 48, explains how the murder of his daughter and her friend Jessica
Chapman by school caretaker Ian Huntley took his family to breaking
point and nearly destroyed his marriage to wife Nicola, 45.
He revealed the couple, who had
been together for 20 years when Holly was murdered, struggled to
support each other as they ‘processed their grief at different speeds’.
But, he said, ‘slowly but surely’ they came back together as a couple.
Punishment: Kevin says he and Nicola have learned to stop blaming themselves for Holly’s death
Kevin said: ‘I accept there was nothing more or different as a parent that I could have done to change the outcome.’
Suffering: Holly’s brother Oliver, centre, also had his childhood ‘stolen’ by murderer Ian Huntley
‘They say 95 per cent of the parents
of murdered children split up…we were determined to be among the 5 per
cent who survive,’ he said.
The Wells reveal their grief hasn’t diminished in the past decade, but they have learned to live with their loss
Mr Wells said that while his grief at
losing his daughter 10 years ago has not diminished, he has learned to
live with what happened.
But
he has revealed that he made a decision not to let the tragedy destroy
his family’s future as he stood by the shallow grave where his
daughter’s body was discarded two weeks after her murder in 2002.
He said: ‘Time doesn’t heal, someone got that wrong.
‘It anaesthetises. Grief does not diminish, but you can manage the intensity and learn to live with it.
‘Murder has the capacity to destroy
more lives than the one taken. I recognised that from the start, so I
tried to take control, to make plans and to exert positive thought.
‘I clung to my family, my community,
my work, sometimes to God and sometimes to a late-night tumbler of
whisky. I chose to believe in the future, a future that I could craft
from the life we once had. Really, all I wanted was for us to be the
ones who’d make it out the other side.’
They also struggled financially as Mr
Wells sold his window-cleaning business to focus on the trial, forcing
the couple to remortgage their house and even rely on a £6,000 charity
hand-out to pay bills.
Fight: Kevin was determined his marriage to Nicola would survive the trauma of Holly’s murder
‘Our star’: Holly wells at a party, aged 7. She and her best friend Jessica Chapman were murdered by Ian Huntley in the summer of 2002
Staying strong: Nicola Wells with her ‘fantastic daughter’ Holly
Guilty: Convicted killer Ian Huntley, left, and his then girlfriend Maxine Carr, right, who now has a secret identity
But it was when he re-started his
business in 2005, later joined by his 16-year-old son Oliver, that the
family began to get back on track.
He said: ‘Getting back to work was
not just about money in the bank, it was also about what it represented -
an everyday life, a familiar pattern, some kind of control.’
On holiday: A six-year-old Holly in Gran Canaria
As part of their recovery, the family also considered adopting or fostering another child, but eventually decided it would be too hard, although they look forward to becoming grandparents.
They are now planning to move back into the house in Soham, Cambridgeshire, and despite struggling for years with feelings of parental guilt, the couple have at last made peace with themselves.
‘The failure is that of police intelligence and of society for permitting Huntley the freedom to prey on children,” Mr Wells said.
‘Today I accept there was nothing more or different as a parent that I could have done to change the outcome.’
Approaching the 10th anniversary, Mr Wells revealed the family cannot help but ponder the years missed.
‘We think about the things she’ll never know, sitting her driving test, attending her school prom, her 21st birthday, it’s a lifetime of loss. One of Holly’s closest friends is already a mother which gives us pause for thought,’ he said.
For Mrs Wells it is the ‘busyness’ of her daughter she most misses.
‘The music and dancing and drawing, the reading, the homework, the friends, the Brownies, the Majorettes. I used to grind my teeth at the hours I spent driving her to activities. Now I long to be able to do it.’
The past ten years has been especially tough on Oliver, who was just six when he sister was killed.
Mrs Wells said: ‘Despite us trying to be positive and resourceful, Oliver was extremely withdrawn in the years that followed Holly’s murder. Huntley took his childhood and his innocence too. All he knew was that his sister had gone and his parents couldn’t necessarily keep him safe.
Holly as a toddler with her brother Oliver. The pair were inseparable when they were growing up
Best of friends: Holly with brother Oliver in December 2000. Kevin said they were a fun family
Posing with trophies – and some stuffed animals – Holly is pictured here aged 9
‘We always told our children that if
they were scared or in trouble to run to family, friends, a policeman or
a teacher. Huntley was the school caretaker; he lived with Maxine Carr,
Holly’s classroom teaching assistant, whom she adored.
‘You want to wrap your surviving
child in cotton wool after that, but you can’t, you can’t burden them.
There has to be normality.’
At the close of Huntley’s trial they
took Oliver to New Zealand and tried to ‘unlock’ him, as they put it,
with some high-adrenaline treats. To this end they took him go-karting,
jet boating, quad biking, pony trekking, bodyboarding and did a
bungee-style jump.
Aged 10 and pictured on her last sports day. The little girl would soon be dead at the hands of Ian Huntley
So young and so innocent: Holly aged 18 months, playfully sitting in a cardboard box
Precious memories: Holly, aged five, on her bike at home. Her parents described her as their ‘star’
What succeeded was something far more mundane. At the age of 16 Oliver went to work in Kevin’s contract cleaning business and for two years father and son ‘went up ladders and chit-chatted about life until it felt OK again’.
And they have high hopes Oliver will add to the family before long.
Mrs Wells said: ‘Oliver has recently moved in with his girlfriend, so we hope we may be young grandparents soon enough.’
Soham:
A Parents’ Tale will be screened on ITV1 on Friday, August 3 at 9pm.
Goodbye, Dearest Holly – Ten Years On by Kevin Wells will be published
as an ebook available only from Amazon on August 3.
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What a lovely family. I’m so sorry for your loss but your strength is truly inspirational. I hope that the future brings you happiness and you will make absolutely wonderful grandparents one day xx
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She looked like an angel before she reached the heavens. So so sad, and yet humbling to see the family living life as best they can, and all together too.
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It doesnt get easier in time, you just learn how to cope. God bless the family xxxx
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Heartbreaking. Unimaginable.
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Sorry, Holly not Hollie X
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I remember we this so clearly, scared me rigid to think he had been living underneath everyone’s noses. Can’t believe it’s been 10 years. I really feel for both Hollie Jessica’s families. The Wells family seem to be handling it with real dignity..Hollie would be proud X
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Thank god they had their son to live for – what would be the point of their lives otherwise…? I would not think I deserved happiness for myself if my child got murdered – it just would not feel right – thank god they had another child as a reason to live.
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I was an 18 year old, on holiday with friends in Cornwall, when I nipped to buy a newspaper and saw the faces of those two angels displayed on the front cover with the headline, ‘Missing.’ From that day to this, I have felt nothing but sadness whenever I thought about what those two poor children and their families went through. However, upon reading this beautifully written article, I can’t help but raise a small smile. What this family have come through is incredible and they have done it with so much courage and dignity too. They have cherished the precious memories of their beautiful daughter and sister, and used those feelings to come out of the other side. I am certain that Holly would be so proud of you all for refusing to let evil win and never giving up on the family that loved each of her precious days that she was alive. God bless you all, and God bless your beautiful daughter, Holly. I am certain she’s been with you, every step of the way.
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She was a beautiful little girl. So sad.
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I can still remember where I was when the girls went missing, and when that monster was caught. Such a brave family and a very touching story.
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