I'm Too Young To Be A Widow"" Says Wife Of Man Killed By Falling Straw Bale

THE wife of a Barway haulage contractor who was killed by a falling straw bale at the world s largest power plant near Ely has paid tribute to her devoted husband. Yvonne Darnell said her husband Gary, aged 53, died doing the job he loved. He was alway

THE wife of a Barway haulage contractor who was killed by a falling straw bale at the world's largest power plant near Ely has paid tribute to her devoted husband.

Yvonne Darnell said her husband Gary, aged 53, died doing the job he loved.

"He was always a family man - but we had to compete with lorries sometimes," she said.

"That was what he did - he loved driving us round Norfolk where we went for holidays. Other than that, he used to help our neighbour a lot with gardening and DIY things, and he loved Roman history programmes on television - he knew everything about Rome."

Mrs Darnell, 55, said she was still in shock.

"I'm just living in limbo-land, really," she added. "The family were all up at the weekend sorting out some songs for the funeral and singing. Dancing round the room that was the sort of thing we would have done with him here. I suppose one day it will sink in, but it hasn't yet. I'm too young to be a widow, and my grandson said he knows his granddad is gone, but he wants to know how we are going to get him back."

Born at White Lodge Hospital in Newmarket, Mr Darnell grew up in Soham and was well known in the small, close knit community of Barway, where he and Yvonne moved to bring up their three children - 33-year-old Lee, Jamie, 31, and Nikki, 29. He also leaves four grandchildren, - Liam, 11, one-year-old Kyle, Arrabella, four, and 5month-old Charlotte. The 53-year-old was due to go on a family holiday to Cromer just four days after he was killed.

Mr Darnell was a pupil at Soham Village College and left to become an apprentice at Turner's. His career was spent in the haulage industry and at the time of his death, he was working for his cousin at local haulage company Eastern Groundworks, which delivered straw to the EPR (Energy Power Resources) plant at Elean Business Park in Sutton.

His funeral will be held at Bury St Edmunds crematorium at 3pm on Friday, where donations will be taken for Cancer Research UK. His wife said his ashes would be scattered on the Norfolk coast.

The Health and Safety Executive have launched an investigation into Mr Darnell's death at the power plant, which needs 200,000 tons of straw a year - approximately 200,000 bales - to create enough electricity for 50,000 homes.