Paul Price and Elaine McIver spent their last evening together excitedly planning for the future.
The couple were looking forward to buying a home together and were busy planning the next stage of their lives together as they enjoyed a meal in a Mexican restaurant in Manchester on May 22, 2017.
Earlier that evening they had dropped off Paul’s 13-year-old daughter Gabrielle and her friend at a gig in the city and they were waiting until they could return to the Manchester Arena to pick them up and take them home to Liverpool.
But at 10.31pm, as the couple waited in the City Room for the thousands of Ariane Grande fans to stream out of the venue, Salman Abedi detonated a nail bomb weighing more than 30kg.
Elaine, a 43-year-old off-duty police officer, was just four metres from the blast and was one of 22 people murdered in the attack. Paul suffered catastrophic injuries and spent a fortnight in an induced coma and a total of nine months in hospital.
Seven years – and countless operations – later, Paul faces further surgery and may still lose a leg because of the injuries he sustained.
‘My injuries were catastrophic and life-changing but they pale into insignificance compared to losing Elaine,’ he says.
‘I want to put it behind me and try to make the best of my life, but it has been hard to get to that mindset. I knew that the sooner I learned to live with my injuries and disabilities, the sooner I’d be able to do that, but I will never accept that she is not here.’
Paul was conscious after the blast, but his memories are fragmented and confused.
‘I was off work that day and I gave Elaine a lift to work. In the evening, I picked her up and we went to pick up my daughter and her friend. It was the first gig they’d been to without parents so we took them into the Arena and we went for a meal.
‘We were in the process of buying our forever home, so that was the main topic of conversation. We were just killing time waiting for the end of the concert. We made our way back to the arena. I’d said I would buy my daughter a t-shirt but the queue at the merchandise stall was huge before the gig so I went to do that and could hear the concert coming to an end and some people were starting to make their way out.
‘Everything after that moment is fragmented and doesn’t make much sense to me. I think it’s a blessing that I have no memory of that night, post-blast.
‘I was conscious and talking to people but I have no memory of it. I’m told there are two possible reasons why I don’t remember things after that: either my mind has blocked things out because they are too traumatic, or my body wasn’t making memories because it was fighting to stay alive.
‘I was taken to a clearing area and transported to Manchester Royal Infirmary but again, I have no memory of that. I arrested as I was going into A&E and was in a medically induced coma for two weeks and spent nearly nine months in hospital. My family were told there was no guarantee that I would survive.
‘I remember waking in Intensive Care and I was on a lot of medication that causes nightmares and hallucinations and having to come to terms with my injuries and with the loss of Elaine.’
And he adds: ‘My son was away at Keele University and I found out later that he was coming back each night to sit with me in hospital. My children had to grow up so quickly. They have been so resilient.
‘My daughter and her friend were still in the Arena when the bomb went off and I have been told – and it still upsets me to think about it – that after the blast there was a lot of confusion and they found themselves in the street outside. They couldn’t get in touch with me and a young couple saw they were upset and tried to get a taxi to take them home but she said “I’m not getting in a taxi, I’m waiting for my dad”. What she went through on that night and in the days after, no child should have to go through.’
Paul has recently moved into a new-build home in the Allerton area of Liverpool and has had the back garden designed with his injuries in mind, to be as accessible and easily-maintained as possible.
‘It’s not a memorial garden, but Elaine loved gardening so I wanted it in part for her memory,’ he says. ‘There are flowers there that she loved and a water feature – and the garden designers put in an Elaine rose as a surprise for me, it’s gorgeous.
‘Prior to what happened, I liked spending time in the garden, mowing the lawn and keeping on top of things but my mobility has reduced, so I can’t just bend down and pick a weed now and that’s frustrating. I can mow the lawn but a lot of the stuff I used to find easy, I can no longer do. I potter round and do what I can, but I have a gardener who comes once a fortnight.’
The garden was designed by Liverpool-based Lucy Frank Design and features a patio, lawn, pagoda and a water feature.
‘It had been a building site and just had some top soil thrown down over the rubble, Paul said. ‘The designers did a lot of groundwork, so for a long time there were diggers and noise but no signs of a garden but as soon as that was done, the water feature and plants started to go in and it started to look like a garden.
‘This is the first summer with no building work going on and now I’m looking forward to spending some time out there. Having a near death experience helps you reconnect with the simple things, like appreciating the birds in the garden. I wanted it to be somewhere that would attract insects, bees and birds so there are lots of colourful plants to attract pollinators.’
