A grieving mother has told how she sang happy birthday at her 3-year-old son’s graveyard weeks after he was accidentally killed by his father.
Ianto Jenkins was playing with his sister and cousin at their family farm when he was run over by his father’s pick-up truck.
His heartbroken mother, 27-year-old Chloe Picton, said she collapsed when former partner Gutu Sior Jenkins, 31, called her about the tragedy.
“He said: ‘It’s Ianto, Chloe, he’s been killed.’ I just fell to the floor,” Chloe told Wales Online.
The mother rushed to the farm but officials kept her away.
“‘I want to be with my son,’ I told them. ‘He’s on his own.’ But they only let me see him in the hospital when he was in a better environment,” she said.
Ianto was pronounced dead at the scene and Chloe only saw her son after he was rushed to hospital.
“Seeing him lying there, dead, was heartbreaking. Seeing your child so cold and lifeless is hard. I started tucking him in because I was concerned he was cold,” Chloe said.
Chloe said her son would’ve turned four on September 18.
She and her two daughters, Seren, 6, and Daisy Mae, 19 months, celebrated the occasion by sharing cake and singing Happy Birthday at Ianto’s graveside.
Farmers also carried out a tractor run for the tractor-lover Ianto.
“They went past his grave and tooted their horns. He loved farming and he was going to follow his dad’s footsteps. The pain I’m going through is just unbearable,” Chloe said.
“It will never go away. I close my eyes and all I see is Ianto. I see him everywhere, always smiling. I’d asked my friends: ‘Why can’t I just have one more chance to see him and hug him?’.
“That night I dreamt that I was with him and he wanted a cuddle with me – it was like my one last chance to have my wish. But then Seren woke me up and that chance just faded away.”
“He will always be in our hearts forever. We mention him every day because he’s part of the family,” she continued.
“I will always be a mother of three. They will know who their brother was – he was a beautiful character.”
After Ianto’s tragic death, Guto’s mother Meinir said: “No one is to blame. Ianto was playing in his new bike in the back yard and my son just didn’t know he was there.
“He didn’t see him. He heard the sound of his pick-up hitting something and when he stopped and got out to look, Ianto was lying on the ground motionless.
“It is just heartbreaking. Poor Guto, I don’t know how he’s going to live with this. He is completely devastated.”
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