Manchester Arena bombing inquiry: Mother tells how she held daughter killed in blast at Ariana Grande concert
‘I wish it would have been me, not her,’ Lesley Callander tells public inquiry
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
A mother of one of the Manchester Arena bombing victims has described how she held her daughter after the attack.
Lesley Callander told the public inquiry into the terrorist attack that she found 18-year-old Georgina being carried out of the foyer on a makeshift stretcher.
“I must be living in a nightmare, I thought, as I looked down at Georgina clutched in my arms — wondering why?” she said on Wednesday.
“Her bloodshot eyes were wide open and I was staring in a trance at her beautiful, pure, soft white skin.
"As I watched a tear rolling down her face on to my arm, it was a look I felt that she was telling me, 'I'm so sorry, mummy, I guess I'm not going to get through this. I'm not going to make it. I am so sorry.' Then I realised she was dead.”
Ms Callander spoke in a video tribute on the third day of commemorative hearings for the 22 victims killed in the bombing on 22 May 2017.
Manchester Arena bombing: Victims’ families tell inquiry their lives have been ‘torn apart’ by attack
Manchester Arena bombing inquiry: MI5 did not reopen investigation into Salman Abedi despite his visits to terrorist prisoner
Manchester Arena bombing: GMP was not aware of Ariana Grande concert despite terror drill at venue months earlier, inquiry hears- ‘Missed opportunities’ to spot Manchester Arena bomber as CCTV shows him before attack
Manchester Arena inquiry opens to examine if bombing at Ariana Grande concert could have been prevented
“I wish it would have been me, not her,” the mother said. “But she was murdered by a brainwashed Isis fanatic. For me, it's a daily, living nightmare."
Ms Callander said she never imagined she would have to describe the ”senseless, pointless murder of my beautiful, innocent daughter Georgina“, and that her family was “broken”.
Georgina, who had been accepted on to a course at Edge Hill University to study paediatrics, was an Ariana Grande “superfan” and had gone to the concert with a friend.
She died after Salman Abedi detonated a homemade bomb packed with shrapnel in the arena’s foyer as thousands of people flooded out of the venue.
Ms Callander is one of several parents who were present when their children were killed or injured, as many had accompanied teenagers to the concert or were waiting to pick them up.
On Monday, the mother of 14-year-old Sorrell Leczkowski told how her daughter died in her arms after she and her mother were injured in the blast.
Samantha Leczkowski said: “My life is over. As well as seeing me and my mum blown up, I have to deal with seeing Sorrell blown up and die in my arms.”
Megan Hurley, 15, was found by her father alongside her injured brother.
Her parents said she had been “living her life to the fullest” and that her death had left an “enormous and irreparable void in our lives”.
Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from the island of Barra in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, was described as a “very special girl” during the public inquiry.
Relatives of university student Courtney Boyle, 19, said she had been “loving life” before being killed while collecting her younger sister from the concert.
The youngest victim was eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, and 10 of the victims were under 20 years old.
On Wednesday, the inquiry heard tributes from the orphaned daughters of Polish couple Angelika and Marcin Klis.
They were waiting to pick up Aleksandra, then aged 20, and Patrycja, then 14, in the foyer of the arena.
The couple lived in York but were both born in the Polish town of Slowno and moved to the UK in the 2000s.
They had married in Poland in 1996 and divorced 10 years later. They only remained apart for a short time and though they did not remarry, were very much still in love, the hearing was told.
A photo of the smiling couple had been taken on the evening of the bombing near Manchester Arena, as they waited to collect their daughters from the concert.
"We think of our parents all the time; they are never out of our thoughts," their children said in a statement to the inquiry.
"Losing our mum and dad and the pain and loss we feel is so hard to explain.”
Tributes have also been paid to Martyn Hett, 29, John Atkinson, 28, Kelly Brewster, 32 and Lisa Lees, 43, who died alongside her friend Alison Howe, 45, as they waited to collect their daughters.
The commemorative hearings will conclude next week.
The public inquiry, chaired by Sir John Saunders, will continue into next spring to examine the background to the attack and the response of the emergency services.
Additional reporting by PA
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.