The days that followed passed in a haze. They organised a private Zoom funeral with just the family where all of them sat and cried for the whole service. They had sent in Mr Ted to be cremated with her so at least she wasn't alone. It seemed the right thing to do. None of them really connected with what was happening as they were all still in shock.
The post-mortem reported that she had Covid and on her death certificate the cause of death was Corona Virus. Darren had gotten really angry when he had heard and lost the plot shouting in the kitchen.
'She fucking killed herself how can they say it was Corona,' but he had upset Jan with his outburst and had stopped when Jan became hysterical.
It suited Jan and The rest of the family to blame Corona. Jan had taken to sleeping in Emma's room and carried the pink fleece blanket with her if she came downstairs.
Darren and Victoria were trying their best to look after her. She was not in a good way so they were trying to make sure she ate and drank and they took it in turns to sit with her.
So many cards , messages and flowers arrived and Jan perked up every time another card came and she put them all in the living room like a shrine to her little girl. When she needed reassurance that her daughters life mattered she would sit on the floor and read the messages from Emma's friends and relatives.
During the first week after Emma's passing Andy had received a call from a journalist and not being in his right mind had answered all his questions. They never figured out how this lowlife journalist had got Andy's number in the first place. Andy had without thinking about the consequences sent the journalist a picture of Bill and of Emma and even a picture of them both together.
The journalist was skilled in getting information from vulnerable people and persuaded Andy it was a good thing and that the story would highlight the danger of Corona. The story ran the next day 'Family Loses Youngest and Eldest to Corona'.
It was front page news. The picture of Bill & Emma ran with the story. Other journalists quickly identified the family and their phones didn't stop ringing. The story kept circulating and went viral online. Even 'This Morning' on the BBC wanted to do an interview.
The family were not able to deal with this intrusion being so deep grief and in the end all agreed not to answer the phone or do anymore interviews. The whole affair had left them shaken and Andy once again felt he had let them down. The only good thing that came from the article were the messages of support and condolences that arrived and soon the living room was filled with cards and tributes from strangers. Jan didn't know why they helped but they did.
Meanwhile Darren had livestreamed a face reveal on his channel by taking his mask off for the first time.
'No more hiding, no more anonymity, this is me and these are my thoughts.' he proclaimed.
'What happened to freedom of speech?' he asked his viewers.
' You don't have to agree with me but you must agree we cannot loose freedom of speech!' he said.
'My sister killed herself but it was this fake pandemic that really killed her. She gave up on life. Lockdown killed her.' He cried as he spoke of how his beautiful sensitive little sister had been unable to cope and how her death was marked as a Covid statistic and how his Grandad had been playing a computer game and had had a heart attack but was also recorded as a Corona statistic.
'It doesn't add up he repeated over and over. Because of the article that had run in the mainstream media Darren's podcast 'Nothing Adds Up' went viral and overnight he went to over 10,000 subscribers and by the end of the week it was up to 50,000.
Everyday he did a ten to fifteen minute video talking about Emma or statistics and numbers always ending with his line…'nothing adds up'.
He read all the comments and that was what gave him strength and helped him grieve. Amongst the comments he had seen a message from a girl called Sakura the beautiful Japanese girl that had attended Bills funeral. She had seen the newspaper article and had recognised the picture of Bill and realised it was the same family. She had Googled it and in the end with determination she had found Darren's channel and watched the video where he was crying and talking of Emma.
She kept the message brief 'Hi my name is Sakura I'm so sorry for your loss. I was at your Grandads funeral please pm me.'
When Darren saw the message he immediately sent her a pm with a link to his messenger account. From that first message they were in touch daily and he got huge comfort from her kind caring messages.
Victorias pregnancy was now becoming more obvious as she was five months gone and although she was slim her bump was showing. It just wasn't the time for anyone in the family to be able to process this news.
She had stopped calling Matt months ago. If this was the way he was going to behave then she was better off alone. She was scared and worried about the future but she wanted this baby more than anything. Her grief from losing her sister made her want this new life more than ever.
She had found Emma's journal and was slowly reading it. Emma had written some poems and day to day thoughts. It made Victoria so sad too see how far Emma had drifted into darkness. She had given up and felt hopeless. Isolated and unable to tell anyone. Over and over Victoria wished that they had been closer and felt the guilt strongly. She couldn't help but feel that if she had talked to her she could have saved her.
The two sisters did love eachother but as they grew up and especially over the last few years they had drifted apart having with less and less in common. Victoria looked thru old photos and it reminded her of the closeness they had shared as children. Now Emma would never have a chance to be an Aunt to her unborn baby or for them to do things as sisters again.
Victoria felt robbed and it changed her. She realised how short life was and how important it was to make time for the people you love. To prioritise them no matter what because when they are gone you never have that chance again.
Maggie and Andy seemed to survive on auto pilot. It would take months for the reality to hit them. They both now watched all the programs on Corona one day blaming the government for not dealing with it the next blaming China. They went back to strict lock down routines spraying all the delivery's and washing their hands constantly. They lived in fear. It had killed Bill and now Emma. They cried daily never ending tears. Maggie did her best to console her son putting all her efforts into this.
One night Maggie had a dream or a vision she recounted to Andy where she had seen Bill at the end of a tunnel smiling at her and then Emma had come into the dream and Bill had opened his arms and Emma had run towards him then they had disappeared. It had woken her up and she felt like she had had a visitation. She told Andy the next day and he had just said sadly I hope so Mam I hope so, I hope they are together.
Believing they were both together helped them immensely and they added a photo of Emma to the mantelpiece next to Bill. Maggie had carefully glued the Super Gran mug back together and this sat next to Emma's photo.
They spent hours looking thru photos and all the messages of condolences. Jan would take a photo of them as they arrived and send it on to them. They had long phone calls with all the family and it brought them all close together. They ended each phone call with 'I love you' which they had never done before. It suddenly became important for all of them to voice it daily.
When Emma's ashes arrived in Hayes it was a harrowing day. Somehow nothing prepared them. The doorbell rang and Darren had answered. A man from the crematorium dressed in black wearing a black mask handed Darren the box.
Walking with the ashes of his sister into the living room had to be one of the worst moments of his life. That day was dark one for all the family. Jan put the urn containing the ashes on the mantelpiece in the room that had become a shrine and lit tea candles around it. It was the day they finally put her to rest .
It was harrowing and harsh and they all had to accept she was gone. They would have a memorial service for her later but for now they were all relieved that this could be so private. Lockdown had suited them as far as Emma's death was concerned.
The next months passed as they all came to grips with their grief and the news that came next helped them all heal a little.