A British mom has called for schools to make extra checks on pupils who don’t show up — after her daughters were found lying in bed with their dead dad.
Helen Daykin’s girls were left with the body of their father for almost an entire day after their school only tried his number when one of the children didn’t arrive.
Her husband, Chris, died unexpectedly just over a year ago, and his daughters were discovered cuddling him in bed. He looked after the kids, Pearl and Iris, while Helen often traveled for work.
On the morning after he died, his 4- and 2-year-old girls tried to wake him, and even put indigestion pills in his mouth in an effort to rouse him.
Pearl, the older child, had just started school a few weeks earlier. Her school called Chris but didn’t call Helen.
When Helen called her husband that morning, she assumed he was busy, and it was not until that evening she was told he had died as she traveled home.
Helen told the BBC: “There’s no reason why this couldn’t happen again. How the children didn’t hurt themselves I’ve no idea.
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“They spent the whole day upstairs, they didn’t come down at all. They were hungry. They played with all my shoes and makeup, but they didn’t venture further in the house.
“Pearl can tell me every single detail and relives it often. I can’t leave the room without her shouting for me or wanting to be with me.”
Helen now wants schools to call second and third numbers if children don’t arrive in the morning.
Her mother had driven over to the family house in Halifax — a town in West Yorkshire, about 30 miles northeast of Manchester and 200 miles north of London — but couldn’t open the door and noticed the windows were dark and milk had been left out.
Police broke down the door and found the heartbreaking scene in an upstairs bedroom.
Helen wrote on Facebook: “Please go and ask your child’s school what their policy is on First Day Calling. If you don’t get a satisfactory answer, keep pushing them until you do.
“If they can’t answer it means they don’t know. That’s not acceptable, push for a better response.”
The Good Grief Trust supports her campaign and is working to prevent this situation from happening again.
New York Post
