A SON has paid tribute to his mother whose demise marks the fourth tragic death in a case which has never been far from the headlines.
Rory Bhandari, 48, is coming to terms with the death of his mother Theresa in a head-on collision near her Garden City home which is being investigated by police.
Mrs Bhandari, 76, died from her injuries at the Countess of Chester Hospital last Thursday after being involved in a car crash on the Welsh Road near the “blue bridge” just two minutes’ from her Foxes Lane home on Friday, July 25.
A woman in her 30s was also taken to the Countess with serious injuries but has since believed to have been discharged.
In 2002 Mrs Bhandari lost her husband of 47 years, Amrit, known as “Andy”, after he was mugged by Sarah Campbell from Hampton, near Malpas, and Kim Woolley, from Liverpool, outside the Chester Odeon in Northgate Street.
Campbell and Woolley were convicted of manslaughter but Campbell died of a drugs overdose shortly after arriving at Styal Women’s Prison.
Her mother Pauline began a campaign to improve conditions for female prisoners but in May she died in a suspected suicide.
Rory Bhandari, who has an eight-year-old son Finn, said: “Different people will project their own connections on to these events.”
He wants to thank a passer-by who held his mother’s hand before she was released from her vehicle and is thankful he himself was able to speak to his mum in hospital before she passed away.
Mr Bhandari, who lives in Loughborough, said: “She had an amazing life behind her and in a sense, not to belittle my dad in any way, he was one facet of her life. He had a big life of his own and a fairly interesting family in India.
“She always missed my father but she was able to get on with her life and carried on travelling. When me and my partner and son were going to visit we had to book weeks in advance because she was always on trips.”
He said his mother had been the head of the Irish side of the family and the last of her generation. He described her as “tough yet compassionate” and someone who “loved life”.
Mr Bhandari said in 1955 the idea of an Irish girl, a Roman Catholic, marrying an Indian man, from an Hindu background, was highly unusual.
Despite what had happened to her husband, she had remained “level-headed”.
Mrs Bhandari also leaves a daughter Nina, 45, from Upton, Chester, who has children Sophie, 15, and Daniel, seven.
There will be an inquest into Mrs Bhandari’s death and the funeral cannot be arranged until her body has been released by the coroner.
