Motorbike-mad mum gets "perfect" send-off in hearse attached to back of trike
A motorbike-mad mum got the "perfect" send off in a hearse - attached to the back of a TRIKE.Diane Thompson, 59, kept motorbikes all her life, even storing them in her kitchen and her living room over the years.So when the mum-of-two passed away unexpectedly in February this year, her son Laurie, 40, knew he had to give her a final goodbye befitting to her passion.Laurie, from Basildon, Essex, arranged for a special hearse, attached to the back of a motor trike, to carry his mum the six miles from her home to Pitsea Crematorium last Friday (April 16).Laurie also put out an appeal on Facebook ahead of Diane's funeral calling for bikers around Basildon to come and say their last goodbyes to his mum.And he was "overwhelmed" with emotion when a whopping 78 motorbikes turned up as she set off from her home - and followed her hearse in a procession to the crematorium.Laurie said: "It was the perfect send-off for her.
It was brilliant - it was exactly as she would have wanted."I had looked at her browsing history and she had even been searching Google for 'motorcycle funerals' - so I knew I had to do that for her."We couldn't have wished for a better day.
I was blown away by all the support from bikers - it's such a great community."Diane suddenly collapsed and died at home on February 20 this year, not long after beating breast cancer.Her family are still waiting for answers on what caused her death - but Laurie said they suspect it was linked to Diane having the AstraZeneca vaccine a couple of weeks previously.He said: "She had some blood conditions anyway, and it was around the time that the concerns were starting to be raised about blood clots."She had the AstraZeneca vaccine and then a couple of weeks later she just went."But now, Laurie is offering his thanks to the procession of bikers that accompanied his mum to the crematorium.He said: "They just kept coming, a lot of them strangers and people from bike clubs doing it out of respect for her. "It was such an emotional moment which my brother Ricky got to watch on Zoom all the way from Australia, I know if mum was here she would have loved it."I've never experienced anything like it, and I'm so grateful."
A motorbike-mad mum got the "perfect" send off in a hearse - attached to the back of a TRIKE.Diane Thompson, 59, kept motorbikes all her life, even storing them in her kitchen and her living room over the years.So when the mum-of-two passed away unexpectedly in February this year, her son Laurie, 40, knew he had to give her a final goodbye befitting to her passion.Laurie, from Basildon, Essex, arranged for a special hearse, attached to the back of a motor trike, to carry his mum the six miles from her home to Pitsea Crematorium last Friday (April 16).Laurie also put out an appeal on Facebook ahead of Diane's funeral calling for bikers around Basildon to come and say their last goodbyes to his mum.And he was "overwhelmed" with emotion when a whopping 78 motorbikes turned up as she set off from her home - and followed her hearse in a procession to the crematorium.Laurie said: "It was the perfect send-off for her.
It was brilliant - it was exactly as she would have wanted."I had looked at her browsing history and she had even been searching Google for 'motorcycle funerals' - so I knew I had to do that for her."We couldn't have wished for a better day.
I was blown away by all the support from bikers - it's such a great community."Diane suddenly collapsed and died at home on February 20 this year, not long after beating breast cancer.Her family are still waiting for answers on what caused her death - but Laurie said they suspect it was linked to Diane having the AstraZeneca vaccine a couple of weeks previously.He said: "She had some blood conditions anyway, and it was around the time that the concerns were starting to be raised about blood clots."She had the AstraZeneca vaccine and then a couple of weeks later she just went."But now, Laurie is offering his thanks to the procession of bikers that accompanied his mum to the crematorium.He said: "They just kept coming, a lot of them strangers and people from bike clubs doing it out of respect for her.
"It was such an emotional moment which my brother Ricky got to watch on Zoom all the way from Australia, I know if mum was here she would have loved it."I've never experienced anything like it, and I'm so grateful."
