WHEN the musical, Buddy, tours to the Liverpool Empire next week, it will be a public tribute to the rock ’n’ roll legend.

But for his widow, commemorating Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holly is a nightly ritual on top of her annual marking of the anniversary of his death.

“I pray for Buddy, like I do every night,” says Maria Elena.

“I light a candle, I buy flowers, and stay home. If I’m travelling or doing promotion, I just remember him as he was when I met him.”

The couple had been married less than six months when the small plane carrying Buddy, 17-year-old Ritchie Valens, JP “the Big Bopper” Richardson and pilot Roger Peterson, plummeted from the night sky into a frozen Iowa cornfield in June, 1958. Though the 50 years that have passed have dulled some of the pain, the impact of the accident still remains with Maria Elena.

“When Buddy died, it was so sudden,” she reflects. “Those kinds of deaths are very, very difficult to deal with because you don’t have the chance to say goodbye.”

She does find comfort in the fact that his songs continue to be shared in the musical Buddy.

“That’s what keeps me going,” she says.

BUDDY opens at the Liverpool Empire tonight.