Manchester Arena attack victim's children pay loving tribute to their mother

“There are no words for how we feel - our mum was every part of us. She is our strength, our laughter, our inner warrior, our kindness and our compassion. Forever we will hold on to those traits for it is our mum who instilled them in us.

“If you knew our mum well enough you’d know she didn’t have the greatest luck in the world, and we think back to that night and if only she had one second of luck on her side we wouldn’t be writing this. But then we thought maybe our mum was the only person who was strong enough to have all this bad luck and to keep on going, keep on smiling, to keep on helping other people, going out of her way to make sure everyone around her was smiling.

“Our mum never gave up on smiling and being happy. Our house was full of laughter and love - mum was always going out of her way to make sure us girls were happy, even if she had a bad day she’d still put all her effort in to crack a smile out of us.

“She’d pull the oldest tricks in the book to get us laughing, pretending someone was pulling her from the other side of the door with her own arm and going crossed eyed was her favourite. She was our mum, our best friend, our everything. She taught us everything we know, raised us and she was the light of our life and it’ll never be as bright without her. She will always be with us, the three of us together are our mum and we will do our best in life to make her so proud.

“We don’t know what we would have done without the help and support from all the amazing people we met during this incredibly painful time. Our two Family Liaison Officers Dermot Murray and Mike Brook were our support, our friends and we truly wouldn’t have coped without them. Dermot and Mike made us girls feel safe and we could rely on them whatever the time of day. There will never be enough thanks or appreciation for these incredible guys. Dermot always watched out for us, making sure we stayed together and felt utterly safe. Mike hasn’t stopped trying to make us smile, going out his way to do the little things, buying us cookies and telling us funny stories. We will never forget Dermot or Mike, and we know for certain our mum would have loved them.

“We’d like to thank CitySuites Manchester for putting up with us for two weeks, making us all feel at home, comfortable and making the best brews. The bereavement nurses were incredible with all the families. South Shore Academy, the school our mums worked at, were all incredible and showed so much love for our mum. James Edgar who played beautifully at our mum’s celebration of life. The Barnsley family for opening up their home and family to us, they are an incredible family and we wouldn’t have been able to get through any of this without them, we love them dearly. Robbie Williams for singing at the Manchester One Love concert, he was the main reason for us going, he made the night so much more magical for us. We’ve witnessed some amazing gestures from amazing people, it was so heart-warming to see a community come together during something so sad, but it gave us a tiny bit of light at the end of the tunnel and we just hope that in the future bad things shouldn’t have to happen for people to come together, we should already be together.

“Our mum loved a family day out to Beacon Fell, any excuse to get up there she would use it. So in memory of our incredible mum we did a family walk with our dog and familiar faces on Sunday 2nd July.

“Like our mum used to sing (a lot) 'every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure.’ Our mum is and always will be our treasure.“ From Harriet Taylor, Lily Taylor, Isabelle Taylor and Marley the dog

• Manchester
• manchesterarenaattack