A grieving son says he’s ‘living in a different world’ since his mum's sudden death, which has left him homeless with a huge bill for her funeral.
Conrad Wilcox feels he now needs to ‘step up’ after his 62-year-old mum Shirley died on December 3 from a ruptured aneurysm.
Shirley was at her home in Burslem, Staffordshire with her only son Conrad when she started having back pains.
Conrad told Stoke-on-Trent Live : “We knew she had the aneurysm since last year. She always seemed fine in herself.
“It was a Friday night, she had ordered herself a takeaway. After she had eaten the takeaway, she said she had back pains. It just felt normal, it didn’t feel like anything would happen and she was OK through the day.
“I had an assignment due in at uni. It was due that night, so I was in my bedroom. I heard my mum shouting, I thought she was shouting at the dog, she went to lie down in bed. I got her some paracetamol and a drink to take them with.
“I went back to my uni work and I just thought, what the signs of a ruptured aneurysm, I looked online and it came up with her symptoms. I asked her if this is what she’s feeling and as I asked her she fainted in the bathroom.”
The paramedics arrived quickly and took Shirley to hospital, but she died in the early hours of the next day.
Conrad now faces the stress of having to find a new home as Shirley was a council tenant.
But he says needing somewhere not too far from his workplace at the Port Vale Foundation, accepts dogs, and is in his budget, has left his options very narrow.
He said: “The ones who do accept pets, I’m up against people who have rented for years and have better history for renting. It’s really difficult at the moment.
“It’s like I'm living in a different world. There’s things cropping up that I never thought of, all the things my mum dealt with.
"I’ve had council tax bills, gas and electric bills in my name, even just putting the bins out. It’s a big step up, I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. It’s only been two weeks.”
Another thing he’s tackling alone is organising a funeral for his mum.
Conrad said: “The minimum cost is just under £3,000. Then you have to pay for a coffin, any flowers and cremation, a cremation just below £900.
"It’s all adding up, the cost of the service, whichever church you go to, the order of services, the hearse. If you want to follow behind the hearse as a family, that's an extra £250.”
Conrad’s cousin Larissa Wilcox set up a GoFundMe page to help him tackle the huge finances he is faced with.
Conrad said: “I’m more than grateful for what everyone has donated, it’s so hard to put into words the support I've had.
"I’ve had loads of people asking to go to theirs for Christmas, it just means a lot.
"I know that my mum would be really happy that everyone's looking out for me and that I’ll be able to give her a good send off.”
