Our boy Oliver.
Olly left the house with a spring in his step, laughter in his heart and a ‘love you’ to mum.
We will remember him this way.
What happened next was the stuff of nightmares, a knock on the door shattered our lives with the force of a baby rhino.
No one should have to receive news like this or deal with a situation as horrific.
But we are blessed, the time we shared with Oliver is our most precious gift.
Olly was our enigma, a square peg in a round hole, a puzzle to be solved, a teenager.
We loved, nurtured, and cherished him. We never gave up.
Olly and I would have snippets of conversation about music, culture, travel, and his future.
With his autism, I was often left wondering if any of it had sunk in. I shouldn’t have worried.
The response from the school, his friends and community has proved he did take it in, but in his own way.
We used to talk about his autistic ‘superpower’ as we called it.
Would he be a techno whiz, a musician, artist, or mathematical prodigy?
Turns out his gift was the power of love.
All of you here are testimony to this, we have all come for Olly.
Oliver touched so many lives without either us or himself knowing it, we now know.
Olly would be embarrassed by all this fuss and question it in his own way.
I always spoke to him about life as a journey, it’s what you do that counts, it is the choices you make that determines your path.
‘If you don’t make mistakes, you are not learning,’ I would tell him.
Olly would always listen to my music even from an early age.
A musical journey is a personal one, but you can share it with who you choose to along the way.
He kept his to himself but let us in every now and then.
Belting out Wonderwall at the top of our voices in the car after he had just ‘introduced’ me to the latest ‘grind’ tune by way of reprieve.
That was his way of sharing moments.
Olly was so full of promise, goals, and ambitions.
We would dream of winning the lottery just so we could spend more time together and help other people improve their lives.
Although this stage of his life was awkward for him, we felt he was finally accepting his autism on the morning of his passing.
We had fought this battle and won, but the war was yet to come.
I remember watching him sleep recently, filling the length of his bed with his frame, floppy hair, and olive skin – beautiful.
I felt so much love for him in that moment it made my heart miss a beat.
A mental picture forever mine.
Olly was overjoyed at the news of a Stephens family pregnancy: ‘I’m not going to be the baby any more!’ he exclaimed.
Olly will always be our baby boy, never becoming a man, never to rear a family, find true love, build a future, to move away from home (which we had forbidden, couldn’t bear the thought of either children moving away) and to travel the world.
Grandchildren we will never meet.
Olly wanted children, lots of them he always said!
A whisper of a promise unfulfilled.
We are at a loss but so thankful for the time we had with him.
We are so grateful to all of his friends that are suppling us with pictures, videos, and music that he liked, more pieces to the Olly puzzle.
Amanda and Emilia have been so incredibly strong, I could not have done this without them.
Our family, neighbours, friends, work, the local community, St Barnabus Church, the street pastors and my rugby and angling communities have all been so supportive and we thank each and every one of you.
The police force and emergency services have been exemplary, so professional, so caring.
We are stronger together.
These people really do care about our welfare and wellbeing, this traumatic time has highlighted this to us, and this message needs to be shared.
I was secretly hoping Oliver would join the police force, but he had other ideas, property development, becoming a millionaire, driving a fast car and owning a cool home.
We would also like to thank anyone who has cared for him over the years. There have been so many.
Please remember Olly as a loving, caring, funny soul who would stick up for the underdog, who would never back down from injustice, prejudice, inequality or cruelty.
We will, God bless you son.
Be a wolf and not a sheep, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, fly so very high.
We love you Olly.