HUSBAND OF OMAGH BOMB VICTIM RE-MARRIES
Husband of Omagh bomb victim re-marries
Bereaved man finds new happiness
By Deborah McAleese
A MAN left devastated after his wife was murdered in the Omagh bomb was getting married again today.
Kevin Skelton (50), whose wife Mena died in the 1998 Real IRA atrocity, will wed the Romanian mother of a child they had tried to adopt.
Mr Skelton and his new wife, Maria Nedelcu, were expected to exchange vows during a small ceremony at a Registry office in the Co Tyrone town surrounded by a small circle of close family and friends.
The couple met when Mr Skelton travelled to Eastern Europe to carry out his wife's wish to help a Romanian family.
He had gone to an orphanage where Ms Nedelcu's middle daughter Andrea was staying.
The former lorry driver and his late wife had been charmed by the nine-year-old when she came to stay at their home in Drumquin, Co Tyrone, on a two-week relief holiday in 1997.
Neither were aware that her mother was still alive and they had discussed the possibility of adopting the child before the bomb attack.
But when he arrived at the orphanage after his wife's death he discovered Ms Nedeicu waiting for him, alarmed that he had come to take her child away.
She had put her children into temporary care because she could not afford to look after them.
After a series of trips to Romania, the couple fell in love and the father of four proposed.
Although Mr Skelton has found happiness again, he admitted that he struggled with feelings of guilt over falling in love.
He recently said: "I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself and one of my daughters said if mummy could come back for five minutes the first thing she would do would be to hit me a kick up the backside.
"She wasn't a person who would want me sitting about moping."
Mr Skelton said that finding love again has rescued him from a depression that had engulfed him since the tragedy.
"I have someone with me, someone who cares for me. If I want to go out I have someone by my side and my life has changed completely," he said.
Bereaved man finds new happiness
By Deborah McAleese
A MAN left devastated after his wife was murdered in the Omagh bomb was getting married again today.
Kevin Skelton (50), whose wife Mena died in the 1998 Real IRA atrocity, will wed the Romanian mother of a child they had tried to adopt.
Mr Skelton and his new wife, Maria Nedelcu, were expected to exchange vows during a small ceremony at a Registry office in the Co Tyrone town surrounded by a small circle of close family and friends.
The couple met when Mr Skelton travelled to Eastern Europe to carry out his wife's wish to help a Romanian family.
He had gone to an orphanage where Ms Nedelcu's middle daughter Andrea was staying.
The former lorry driver and his late wife had been charmed by the nine-year-old when she came to stay at their home in Drumquin, Co Tyrone, on a two-week relief holiday in 1997.
Neither were aware that her mother was still alive and they had discussed the possibility of adopting the child before the bomb attack.
But when he arrived at the orphanage after his wife's death he discovered Ms Nedeicu waiting for him, alarmed that he had come to take her child away.
She had put her children into temporary care because she could not afford to look after them.
After a series of trips to Romania, the couple fell in love and the father of four proposed.
Although Mr Skelton has found happiness again, he admitted that he struggled with feelings of guilt over falling in love.
He recently said: "I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself and one of my daughters said if mummy could come back for five minutes the first thing she would do would be to hit me a kick up the backside.
"She wasn't a person who would want me sitting about moping."
Mr Skelton said that finding love again has rescued him from a depression that had engulfed him since the tragedy.
"I have someone with me, someone who cares for me. If I want to go out I have someone by my side and my life has changed completely," he said.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0983
Published Date: 12-Oct-05
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