Paul Keenan
Elber Twomey recounts 2012 tragedy
A woman who lost her family to a suicidal driver has spoken of how she learned to forgive after a priest’s visit to her in hospital.
Elber Twomey was the sole survivor of a 2012 car crash in Torquay in England, in which her husband, Connie, 16-month-old son, Oisin and unborn daughter Elber Marie died. The driver of the other car, Marek Wojciechowski, had deliberately steered his car into the path of the family vehicle as he was pursued by police who had been alerted to his suicidal state.
“It’s your worst nightmare,” Elber said, “everyone gone and you’re left to cope as best you can.”
Asked for her thoughts on the man who had killed her family, Elber related how, when a friend who was a priest visited and spoke of forgiveness, her feelings of anger were slowly changed. “[He] asked me did I pray for Marek and I said ‘jeepers no’,” Elber recalled. “He said he would pray for him every day on my behalf till I’d be able to. And sure enough [later] I was lighting a candle to him. So I have the priest to thank that I ever came to forgive him.”
Elber Twomey is now leading a campaign for gardaí to be fully trained in dealing with suicide risk.
