Dad's tragic death after freak backflip accident
A Perth widow is struggling to make sense of a freak holiday accident that claimed her husband's life.
Chris Leggett died in an Easter holiday tragedy.
The FIFO worker was trying to show a group of children how to do a backflip when he landed awkwardly and broke his neck.
It happened on Good Friday, and on Easter Monday his life support was turned off.
For Chris's wife Rachael, the hardest part has been explaining to their young children that they will never see their father again.
"I think in my heart of hearts I'm still waiting for him to come home," Rachael said.
"People keep saying, 'he's still there with you', but explain that to a three-year-old when he asks when Daddy is coming back from the sky."
At 35, Rachael never expected to be a widow and a single mother.
Her 37-year-old husband broke his neck doing a backflip off a ledge at a Dunsborough park.
Friends say he had not been drinking and had done backflips countless times before.
On this occasion, he landed awkwardly on the grass.
Some even heard his neck break.
"I just looked at him and knew he'd gone," Rachael said.
Rachael's message to parents is to make as many memories as possible for their children.
"We'll never feel better but we'll find a way to live with what's happened and I think we have to for the sake of the kids, to give them as close as possible to the life Chris and I wanted for them," she said.
"He's just left a hole that can't be filled in our lives."
