On the very day Downing Street officials allegedly met up for a boozy garden party, Amy Hessen was given the heartbreaking news her mother had died.
While Number 10 reportedly got together to lift spirits and presumably share jokes over wine and beer, Mrs Hessen was in torment about whether she was even allowed to see her dad who had just lost his beloved wife – let alone hug him.
In the days that followed in May 2020, the 35-year-old and her family followed the rules and endured some of their most difficult days alone without the comfort of friends and loved ones.
And what should have been a big funeral for popular former Aberdeen community nurse Fiona Murphy was attended by less than 10 people.
Revelations Downing Street allegedly held a garden party with drinks, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson may have attended, have devastated the family – with Mrs Hessen saying she now feels she was “robbed” of her final days with her mum.
‘I didn’t know what I was allowed to do’
Mrs Murphy’s family knew her lung cancer was terminal after two and a half years battling the illness.
However, when she died suddenly on May 20, 2020, it still came as a shock to her loved ones and friends.
The 59-year-old, who had also worked at the Scotstown Medical Centre in Bridge of Don, had been shielding at home with husband Jim due to her diagnosis – meaning she had been unable to see the rest of her family face-to-face in the early days of lockdown.
Mrs Hessen has now decided to share her story after being shocked to read reports of Downing Street employees being invited to a party on the same day as she was coming to terms with the death of her mother.
And she says she is now disgusted to learn at the time of second-guessing what rules to follow in her time of grief, the rule-makers were reportedly ignoring them.
She said: “I didn’t see my mum for the last two and a half months of her life, through that time she didn’t see her grandkids and she was deteriorating – I do feel robbed of those last days with her.
“The hardest thing for me, thinking back, is that my mum did die quite suddenly and I didn’t know what I was allowed to do.
“He had just lost his wife and I was thinking ‘Can I go see him?’ I was very anxious about it, I didn’t know what to do, my human instinct was to see him.”
‘It’s not OK to just say ‘It’s Boris Johnson, you know what he’s like’’
Mrs Hessen last saw her mum on Mother’s Day in March 2020 as lockdown restrictions were looming.
At the time, she confesses she was not sure whether it was strictly in accordance with the rules surrounding shielding.
However, the mother-of-three is now “glad” she did, adding: “You could see lockdown was coming. Something told me to see her.”
'The prime minister's going nowhere… the PM retains the confidence of the people of this country'
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Now, after multiple revelations of alleged Downing Street parties and get-togethers, Mrs Hessen believes people who were separated from loved ones who died during lockdown, or those who could not grieve in the way they wanted to following a death, should speak up about the hurt they endured while officials reportedly broke rules.
She said: “It really brought it home to me. Things like this have come up a few times, but because it was the same day as my mum died it really got to me.
“I’ve thought in the past ‘What’s my voice going to do?’ but people have to start speaking up.
“When I’ve spoken to family in the past about it they’ve said things like ‘I should be angrier, but I know what the government is like’ or ‘you know what Boris Johnson is like.’
“That’s not OK. It’s starting to get a bit like ‘look what else he’s done now.’ It’s becoming a bit normal now – and it’s not fair.”
Mr Johnson has declined to comment on the allegations of a Downing Street garden party on May 20, 2020 – only saying the alleged event will be investigated as part of an inquiry.