Rhys's parents: The son we've lost

Aug 30 2007

In an emotional interview with reporter Ben Rossington, the parents of Rhys Jones reveal what they have been through over the past week since his death

THE rolled-up socks kicked out of reach by the football-mad schoolboy still lie on top of the wardrobe.

The giant cuddly gorilla he refused to give away still sits guard on his bed.

More than 20 footballs lie in the back garden where the 11-year-old Everton fan played with his mates.

Today Rhys Jones’s parents opened their hearts to remember their “little guy”.

After Rhys was gunned down last Wednesday night the Joneses, “just a normal family from Croxteth Park”, were thrust into the media spotlight.

Today in a heart-rending interview they reminisced about their lost son.

Father Stephen, 44, said: “We sit there quietly and look around his bedroom. It has not sunk in yet that he is not coming back.

“I go and sit in Rhys’s room and on his bed. I go and draw the curtains and put the light on every night. I’m still doing it because it is really hard to stop.

“All his school stuff for next year is in his room. He was going to Fazakerley high school where I went when it was Sherwood Lane.

“He was a bit apprehensive at first but he found out two of his mates were going and he was really looking forward to it.

“He has a big cuddly toy on his bed that we’ve been trying to get rid of for ages because he’s going to big school now and he’s too big for a cuddly gorilla.

“But he wouldn’t let it go. He’d had it that long he wouldn’t let us throw it out and that’s still sat on his bed.

“We found that he had started to scratch his name into the wall above his bed too. He’d not written his whole name though. Maybe he started and thought better of it.

“We wondered why we would get odd socks from Rhys in the wash all the time and now we’ve found out.

“I was in his room and on top of the wardrobe are loads of rolled up balls of socks. He would take his socks off when he got home from school, roll them into a ball and play football in his room.

“When he kicked them against the wall, they’d end up on top of his wardrobe and he was too small to reach up and get them down.

“But he was never too small for us. He thought he was small but he was just average to us.

“He would always be with a ball at his feet, ever since he could walk. Like all lads his age, he wanted to be a footballer or a policeman.

“He would have all his mates, and all the kids in the street, in our back garden for a kick-around.

“Any grass would last about two minutes with Rhys. It got so bad, with the boots on it all the time, that we put Astroturf down in the back.

“And he would always be losing balls. Over the fence they went. But rather than wait for them to be thrown back he would just run out and buy another.

“There must be 20 footballs in our back garden now.”

Mother Melanie, 41, said: “He was always off for a game of football with his mates. You couldn’t get him to sit down for his tea because someone was always at the door for him.

“He was such a fussy eater. Owen [Rhys’s brother] is a tall lad who can eat like a horse, but Rhys was very different.

“He was always the last to finish his tea. If you got him sat for two minutes he would eat some and then pile the rest up in a corner of his plate so it looked like he had eaten more than he had.

“He never wanted to eat, it got in the way of playing football.

“Always on a Saturday, when Stephen and I had been paid, we’d get a takeaway and this Saturday we got another.

“When something like this happens, you forget to eat, you don’t want to eat but our families are watching us on a 24-hour shift so we got the normal pizzas and garlic bread.

“But garlic bread comes cut up into four pieces and there’s now only three of us. No-one would touch that last piece. No-one would eat Rhys’ piece of garlic bread.”

Flowers are still being placed outside the Fir Tree pub while the family home has been inundated with letters, cards and messages of support.

Rhys’s parents told how the postman now arrived every day laden down with cards, too many for the letterbox so he has to ring the bell.

Some letters have nothing more than a stamp and Rhys Jones written on the front, and some have travelled thousands of miles to reach the family’s Crompton Drive semi-detached.

Mr Jones said: “Every morning we take an hour out for ourselves and go through every piece of mail that has arrived that day.

“We split it into three piles and take one each and then swop them so everyone reads every piece.”

Mrs Jones said: “I will answer every card, letter or message that has a return address on it. I don’t care how long it takes.

“We are just a normal family from Croxteth Park and these people who last week had no idea who we were have taken the time out to write and offer their support.

“The support has been fantastic, it really has. To get so many messages has given us such a strength.

“And we never knew we had so many friends here for us. It has been amazing. We have had to go out and buy more mugs because we haven’t got enough to offer everyone who comes round a cup of tea.

“I’m waiting for the kettle to blow up. It’s been on that much. But the support is keeping us going.

“We know there are massive hurdles, emotionally, to overcome. If one of us is down, the others will try to pick them up. We need to keep strong for ourselves, for Owen and for Rhys.

“Sometimes it just doesn’t seem real. When we went to Alder Hey to see Rhys’s body on Thursday, someone from the hospital had gone and brought an Everton duvet and pillow for him. He looked like he’s just tucked up in his bed at home.

“At Alder Hey, seeing him lying there, that was the reality but as soon as we came home it is like ‘Did that really just happen? Have we really just been to see our son?’”

Mr Jones said: “It is not about coping day to day. It is about dealing with it hour to hour. We do have such tremendous support from everyone in the family, friends, work and complete strangers. The adrenaline and shock have cocooned us to a certain extent.

“From the initial day of having to go and see Rhys’s body to filling in forms for the police and then being on the pitch at Everton and then Anfield it has all rushed by. We will be strong for each other.”

Mrs Jones added: “We have met so many amazing people and had such support from complete strangers but we would give anything for it not to have been in this situation.

“We just wish we were back at last Tuesday before any of this ever happened.”

Dad's poem to Rhys > > >