Mum's heartbreak at losing daughter in crash
When Shona Leigh Caley left her mother's Perth home on Monday morning, Jen Higgins could not have known it would be the last time she would tell her daughter she loved her.
"I got to tell them (and fiance Alex Riley) that I loved them before they left and that's something I'll always be thankful for," she said yesterday.
Ms Caley, 19, and her unborn baby were killed when the Mitsubishi Lancer Mr Riley was driving left the road and hit a tree on Brookton Highway about 20km north of Brookton.
The couple had left Perth about 6am because Mr Riley wanted to return home to Corrigin for a work shift.
"It's my biggest mistake - I probably shouldn't have let them go," Ms Higgins said. "That's my only wish if I could turn back the clock. I wish I hadn't let them go. But Shona's strong-willed. She would have gone anyway.
"Alex was just showing that he was a responsible young adult.
"He's young. He's only an 18-year-old boy, and he was trying his hardest to be a responsible young man for his fiancee and for his little princess."
Only two days before the accident, Ms Caley celebrated that her dream of becoming a mother was going to become a reality with a baby shower surrounded by family and friends.
"She'd lost a baby last year," Ms Higgins said. "She had it for three months and that had devastated her and when she fell pregnant again she was just so happy.
"Even at the young age that she was, when she fell pregnant she was determined to be the best mum she could be to that little child. At the baby shower she was happy, they were both happy - the photos prove that."
Ms Higgins said her daughter was a loving person who always put herself second in order to help others.
"She was a very loving person, non-judgmental and very accepting person," she said. "She tried to help everyone. Her dream was always to become a mum and she had just about fulfilled that dream and she would have made a brilliant little mum."
Ms Higgins said she could not comprehend how Mr Riley must be feeling.
"I feel for him so strongly," she said. "I know what I'm feeling but I can't imagine what he's feeling.
"He was trying his hardest and he loved her with all his heart and he would never intentionally have harmed her.
"It's just a tragic, horrible accident and it can't be changed, unfortunately."
