Imagine been forced to chose which of your two children lived, and which died. That’s the decision that Rachel Edwards had to make the day her car hit a pothole and plummeted into a dyke. Rachel had been driving 16-year-old Jack, and two-year-old Isabella when the accident took place.
As water rushed into the vehicle, Mrs Edwards, who was six months pregnant at the time, managed to squeeze from the wreckage and swim to the surface.
She took a breath and swam back down to the wreckage to save her two children. However when she got there, she managed to free Isabella, but realised that Jack was stuck behind the closed door.
Unable to let go of Isabella, Mrs Edwards swam and took her daughter to safety.
But Jack was trapped behind a closed door, and tragically drowned before Mrs Edwards was able to get back down.
On Tuesday, Mrs Edwards, 39, confessed to the Daily Mail that she is tormented by the fact she could not save her son after the accident near Boston, Lincolnshire, on August 19.
“Since then I have spent every waking moment thinking about how I could have saved both my children,” she explained. “I pulled Isabella out and I knew she was still alive. I tried to go back for Jack but I knew if I let go of Isabella I wouldn’t be able to get her back. I was just screaming and screaming.”
Mrs Edwards added that her last memory of her son was of him putting his arm out to protect her as the car began to sink. When the tragedy happened Mrs Edwards and her children were on their way to a holiday in Mablethorpe, to stay with family.
When she tried to go back for her son, she was held back by paramedics who had then arrived at the scene. They pulled him out from the Citroen Xsara, he was then taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Mrs Edwards is haunted by the images of Jack strapped in the front seat of the car. She told him to close his window, so that he didn’t distract Isabella sleeping. However she discovered later that if his window had been open he may have found it easier to escape.
Isabella suffered minor injuries and is now back home.
Jacks two friends, Tom and Dave, were also in the car at the time. However they managed to free themselves from the wreckage and ran to a nearby house to phone for help.
Mrs Edwards is now preparing for the birth of her third child, a baby boy who is due just days after Jack’s birthday.
Jacks funeral took place in Dunmow last Friday, and over three-hundred people attended.
His Father, Carl Brennan, who is now separated from Mrs Edwards, told the Daily mail: “It is a hard thing to put into words how I feel. You don’t think you will ever have to bury your child.”
When talking about the funeral Mrs Edwards said: “The nicest thing about the funeral was that people were lining down the streets to pay their respects. I was surprised at how many people turned up. I didn’t realise he had touched so many people. Jack would have loved the funeral we gave him. I can imagine he was looking down and thinking, what a spectacle this is”.
