Joel died in his sleep between the night of Wednesday June 8th and Thursday 9th June. We are still awaiting the inquest but as there was no cause of death found we believe he died of Sudden Adult Death. We, his parents, were on a 10-day, 24 year belated honeymoon in St Lucia at the time of his death.
He was healthy and very happy, especially that day. He had rushed home from work to make sure someone was in to sign for his Glastonbury ticket. The ticket arrived at around 5pm. We only know this as he was chatting on msn to friends saying how ecstatic he was to have them in his hand. His msn named had been changed to `I have my ticket in my hand’. The msn messaging went on until around 7.45pm. The last message to someone was `I am off for a bit…be back later’
Our middle son Josh was visiting his girlfriend in Didcot. Our youngest son Jack went straight from College to work that evening delivering pizzas. Jack got home at 1am-ish and heard Joel’s TV on. This was normal as Joel was a night owl. Jack went to bed and the next morning was woken up by the phone. It was 11am-ish. It was Grandma inviting the lads to a BBQ at her house later that day.
Jack went to Joel’s room to ask if he wanted to go or if he was working late etc. As soon as Jack stepped in the room he knew something was wrong. Joel didn’t look right. His TV and laptop were on and Joel was laying across the bed sideways as usual (he was only 5 foot 5 inches) with his head propped up in a position to watch his TV…but he was very still.
Jack tried to get a reaction from Joel but to no avail. He dialled 999. At 18, he coped with carrying out mouth to mouth on his already dead brother; the ambulance arriving and telling him Joel was dead; the police; ringing the family to tell them…and because the police refused to help him…ringing us in St Lucia and breaking the terrible news to us.
We cremated Joel with his Glastonbury tickets in his hand, a pipe, a hat on his head, his open toed sandals and a bag of sweets. His ashes are on his favourite place, his bed. We miss him so much and will love him for ever.
There is a website in Joel’s memory at http://joel-davies.memory-of.com/about.aspx
