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Duchess tells of heartbreak at honeymoon couple's cards
Sri Carmichael, Royal Reporter10.09.08
The Duchess of York told today of the heartbreaking postcards received by the families of the honeymoon couple killed in Antigua after their deaths.
Sarah Ferguson revealed the story as she arrived to read a tribute to Dr Catherine Mullany and her husband Ben at their memorial service in Cardiff.
She became friends with their parents after a chance meeting on a flight to the Caribbean days after the murders.
The newlyweds, both 31, from near Pontardawe, south Wales, were shot in their beachside villa on 27 July in a suspected botched robbery.
The Duchess said: "How do you get over the fact that postcards arrived at the parents' home saying they were so much in love and so happy - arriving after they had died?"
She told how she introduced herself to the families as they changed planes at JFK airport in New York on their way to Antigua, where the Duchess was taking her daughters Beatrice, 20, and Eugenie, 18.
She suggested to Mr Mullany's parents Ken and Marilyn and Dr Mullany's parents Dai and Rachel Bowen that they set up a memorial charity.
The Duchess is now a patron of the Mullany Fund, which provides financial aid to medical students. She has donated £10,000 to set its work in motion.
A total of 900 mourners attended the service at Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, conducted by Reverend Martyn Perry who married the couple.
Many were moved to tears as Ms Ferguson read Yeats's He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven, which includes the line "Tread softly because you tread upon my dreams". Speaking before she entered the church, the Duchess praised the families' determination to help others, saying: "The families of Ben and Catherine are utterly extraordinary.
"They have been so strong even when they have such a great hole in their hearts. They are so united as a family.
"I think the whole world was taken by the tragedy of Ben and Catherine who were taken away at such a young age.
"It was such an extraordinary story and I was very, very touched as a mother and a parent. I thought that we should be trying to help the parents in every way possible and I said: 'Why don't we start a foundation to help students become doctors and physiotherapists using Ben and Catherine's values.'"
Dr Mullany died instantly from a gunshot wound to the head in the attack during the early hours at the Cocos Hotel and Resort in Antigua.
Her husband, a trainee physiotherapist, died in a Swansea hospital after being flown home in a coma. They were buried in the church where they wed in Cilybebyll. A 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old man have been charged with murder.
