I will miss Kevin to the day I die. I still cry every day

The 49-year-old mother of four says she will miss her first and only love "until the day I die".

Kevin McDaid, who was 49-years-old, died just yards from his Somerset Drive home in Coleraine on May 24 last year after he was attacked by a loyalist mob.

On May 15 the McDaid family held an anniversary Mass for Kevin, as they planned to travel to England to stay with cousins over his anniversary.

Mrs McDaid said: "Every day waking up there is the same feeling. It seems to hit you as soon as you open your eyes. Sometimes you just don't want to get up because you have to go through it all again. What is the point?"

Mrs McDaid, a Protestant, said religion never played a factor in their marriage or indeed in Kevin's life."Kevin was a good family man who lived for his wife and his boys," she said.

"Now I have to go on for the boys, especially the wee boy. We have always been a very close family. Kevin just lived for his boys."

She said that they needed to get away as the anniversary of the death approached.

"Our first anniversary Mass was very hard. I had to get out of the chapel near the end because I just couldn't do it any longer. It was too much."

Mrs McDaid and three of her boys – 23-year-old twins Ryan and Marc and her fostered eight-year-old son Ryan – moved to Portstewart in November. Her eldest son Lee, 25, still lives in Coleraine.

Even though Mrs McDaid lived in Coleraine for most of her life, she said the place is now "full of hatred".

Some years ago when the McDaid family lived in the Heights they left after having their home pipe-bombed.

"We went to England but I just couldn't settle there," said Mrs McDaid. "It wasn't home, so we came back to Somerset Drive.

"But what happened to me one year ago has wrecked my family and destroyed it."

Mrs McDaid added: "I will miss Kevin to the day I die. I still cry every day. It comes over me when I hear a song or someone says something. It has wrecked me."

Mrs McDaid said they needed "space and time" to try to recover from the trauma.

"A year is nothing, and we are going to be without Kevin for the rest of our lives."

Happier times in the McDaid household involved family trips to do grocery shopping, three car loads going on a day trip, holidays in the sun and nights in the pub.

"Kevin was like the daddy of Somerset Drive and was able to turn his hand to anything – painting, decorating, joinery and plastering which was his trade."

The pair met when Mrs McDaid was 15-years-old and Kevin 16-years-old. They married eight years later.

"We were childhood sweethearts who met at the Northern Counties dance in Portrush and I think we went on our first date for a walk along the river."

She added: "He was my best friend."

Story by Gemma Murray.