Rebecca was 13 years old, with all her life in front of her, when she was tragically killed by a speeding drink and drugged up driver at a pedestrian crossing. Every year since then, on the anniversary of her death, her mum has placed flowers on the railings at the spot where she died.
I used to see the flowers appear towards the end of January each year on my way to and from work, and it got me thinking about the person that put them there. However difficult my life seemed to be, my troubles were nothing next to theirs. I tried to put my feelings into words and wrote the song, Flowers on the Railings...
I wanted to share what I'd written with the person who leaves the flowers, so I recorded the song and made a video and put it up on YouTube.
The following January, when I knew the fresh flowers were due to appear, I printed off a laminated a copy of the words and tied them to the railings. What happened next was amazing...
A few days later, I was drinking my early morning coffee and catching up on Facebook, when I saw a message from a friend telling me to check out the "Sheffield Online" community group - where a photo of my laminated lyrics was going viral, along with a quest to find out who had written them. I'd not signed the lyrics - maybe due to some misplaced sense of modesty. But if I was trying to remain anonymous, that backfired in pretty spectacular fashion!
It didn't take long for folks to find the link to my YouTube video and put 2 and 2 together. And then my phone went crazy...
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