Express & Star

Crash victim Rebecca McManus' poignant poetry shared by heartbroken mother

"Number nine bus home and I'm smiling. Sixteen, an optimist, an idealist, full of what might be a hint of love."

Published

The poignant words of promising poet Rebecca McManus, written before she was tragically killed waiting for a bus.

In the wrong place at the wrong time, the 21-year-old from Oldbury was weeks away from graduating from university when a reckless driver racing at 100mph lost control and careered into the bus stop where she was stood with her best friend.

All her potential and a future she had mapped out in front of her was wiped out in an instant.

A lover of poetry, Rebecca would regularly scribble down what she was feeling.

While her future may have disappeared that day, her parents were adamant work she had done should be shared with the world and decided to publish her poems.

Her work, which has been turned into a 180-page book, offers just a glimpse of the potential that budding writer Rebecca possessed.

Not only does it show her gift for writing, but her poems, many about teenage experiences such as finding love and going out with friends, only demonstrate that such a young life was lost.

Heartbroken mother Cathy McManus said the printing of the poems will at least allow her voice to be heard.

"As soon as she died I decided I wanted to publish her poems. It was something of hers to share forever and allows her voice to carry on being heard," she said.

Cathy, aged 50, admitted the process also gave her something to focus on while coming to terms with the devastating loss of her daughter.

Rebecca died after being hit by a Mitsubishi Evolution as she waited for a bus beside Hagley Road West, Bearwood, in May 2014.

Her friend Harriet Barnsley suffered life-changing injuries in the incident which was the result of two men racing high-performance cars.

Sukvinder Mannan, from Halesowen, who was driving the Mitsubishi at 101mph in a 40mph zone, was jailed for eight years.

Cathy was unaware of many of the poems Rebecca had written and on discovering her work embarked on the journey to have them published.

The former Stourbridge student studied English literature and creative writing at the University of East Anglia.

She had been published in several magazines and had attracted the attention of experts, becoming a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2010.

Cathy said: "I was surprised at how many she had written, there is a quite a lot."

While seeing her daughter's poems published has filled her with pride, Cathy admits it also reinforces the anger and hurt she feels about her being snatched away.

She said: "I'm just putting one foot in front of the other, just surviving one day after the other. My world has been destroyed."

The book, called A Book of Fragments and Dreams, a title chosen by Rebecca, features 159 poems and has been published by Unthank Publications.

Proceeds will be donated to charity. It is available for £9.99 and can be ordered from most bookshops as well as online from Amazon, The Wordery and Book Depository.

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