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Lynda McCance and her daughter Chloe
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Brokenhearted: Lynda McCance
A stolen laptop which contained pictures of a grieving mum's late daughter has been returned after the Sunday World broke the story.
On Sunday we reported how Lynda McCance, broken-hearted mother of Chloe McCance, who recently died of a rare disease, was burgled while she was out of her house.
Days after she buried her only daughter she returned to her Bangor home to find it had been ransacked and a precious laptop containing irreplaceable pictures of little Chloe had been taken.
But after Lynda spoke of her ordeal to this newspaper, the laptop was returned.
Lynda did not go into detail on how the laptop came to be returned to her.
Together with partner Kevin she was struggling to come to terms with Chloe’s passing and trying to contemplate their first Christmas without her in their lives.
A tearful Lynda was still at a loss to understand what has happened to her in the space of a week. From losing her child to having her home invaded, it has left her in despair.
She told us: “I don’t even want Christmas to happen now,” she said, “I can’t even bear to think about it.”
Unable to stop the tears she’s battling grief, anger and complete bewilderment.
Eight-year-old Chloe died last week after spending her entire life battling a terminal condition. Diagnosed with Battens Disease at 18 months she defied the medical profession outliving her five year prognosis.
Battens is an incurable degenerative condition which leaves the sufferer immobile and largely bedridden. All the senses are affected and with it comes blindness and an inability to breathe unaided.
For Lynda, life was caring for her round the clock, while also keeping an eye on three-year-old son Cody.
“We all knew the day was coming when we would lose her,” she said, “but even then it comes as a complete shock, she had a good life and we knew it was only a matter of time , but still…”
She was a pupil at Clifton Special School in Bangor and loved spending time in the hydro pool and sensory room, all part of eight too short years of memories.
“We had only just bought the laptop, we used it store all the pictures of Chloe, the last ones we ever took of her.
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Little Chloe McCance
“I used it to prepare for her funeral service. All the arrangements are on the laptop, what I was going to say at her service. Everything on it is so precious and know it is gone.”
And what makes it worse is that the intruders knew they had broken into the house of a grieving family.
They kicked their way through a forest of sympathy cards to lift the computer. They bundled their way past oxygen tanks and masks as Chloe’s specially adapted bedroom to ransack her possessions.
They took clothes that had been bought as part of Cody’s Christmas presents and in a final insult even lifted a bag of groceries from the kitchen table as they made their escape.
The afternoon attack took place on Friday – as Lynda and Kevin were having memorial tattoos done in honour of their little girl – thieves forced open the back door.
“Even when we came home it was a while before we realised something was wrong. I noticed Chloe’s bedroom door was open. It had been closed as none of us had been in there since the funeral.
“When I went in I knew straight away someone had been there and had gone through her drawers.”
Even now she is not sure if anything has been taken from her daughter’s room, so upset is she at the prospect of going in there.
Little Cody walks into the living room of the family home in the Rathmore area of Bangor. Too young to realise the enormity of what has happened, Lynda is faced with the prospect of trying to make Christmas as special as possible.
With a close and supportive family and a large circle of friends she is not alone.
“Cody doesn’t really understand, which in a way is a big help, he tells us that Chloe’s all better know and that she’s sleeping.”
On Friday he was out for a walk with his granny, pointing to the stars he said “that one’s my big sister.”
The funeral was huge with everyone instructed to wear something pink.
“Everything Chloe had was pink, it was her colour.”
The thieves even took a pink handbag Kevin had bought her.
“That was Chloe’s favourite,” she said pointing to a cuddly toy on the settee, “she had it with her all the time, Kevin got me a bag handbag so I could carry it with me everywhere. But they took that as well.”
Lynda made her appeal through Sunday's paper, saying: "I only want the laptop back, nothing else matters, they can be replaced but what’s on the laptop can’t. Even the laptop’s pink!
“Please, please just bring it back, that’s all I want.”
After the laptop was returned, Lynda said it had "restored our faith in humanity a little bit".
"Someone out there has a conscience," she said.
On Facebook, she posted: "Wanna say a big thank you to everyone who has shared my posts, sent messages, donated money and everything else.
"I now have my laptop back in my possession... thanks so much for all your support."