A lorry driver killed in last week’s horrific M5 crash had just moved into a new home with his wife and four children – one of which is blind, it emerged today.
Kye Thomas, 38, set up home with wife of 12 years Becki just one day prior to the crash last Friday night, his distraught widow revealed.
Tragic Becki waved Kye off from the doorstep of the dream home and waited for him to return from a night shift at food distributors Samworth Brothers to enjoy a planned family weekend.
In tribute to Kye she told how he was ”devoted” to their daughters Jordan, 12, (corr) and Trinity-Rose, 16 months as well as sons Kane, 11, and Connor, nine – who is blind.
But Becki, 31, knew something was wrong when the doorbell rang and – thinking Kye had forgotten his keys – got up to see her father Andrew flanked by two policemen.
Becki, of Gunnislake, Cornwall, said: ”Kye was absolutely bouncing as he went off to work.
”We’d moved house the day before and next week Kye was going to set up a Taekwondo club. He was chatting on his phone to Dale just as he was going off. He was so happy.
”I went to bed at about 9pm and the doorbell woke me up early the next day, about the time Kye was due home.
”As I was going to the door I thought he must have forgotten his key.
”Then I saw Dad through the glass with two policemen and I knew something terrible had happened.
”It was Saturday night when it really hit me.
”I went into shock. I think that was when I said ‘goodbye’ to him. It is hard trying to carry on with the kids.”
Becki added that son Kane insisted he went to school on Monday despite his father’s death after 12-year-old Jordan bravely told her he would be man of the house.
She added: ”Kane went to school because he wanted to go ahead and make it easier for when Connor goes back. He said to me, ‘I am the man of the house now. I have to step up’.
”Kye won’t be there to know that Connor is all right through life.”
The couple moved into their new house in St Ann’s Chapel, near Callington, on Thursday – the day before the fatal crash, which killed seven and injured 51.
They planned to spend the weekend settling into their new home as Kye, a third dan in Taekwondo, finalised plans with friend Dale Trevail to set up a martial arts club.
Becki said: ”There were certain things that only Kye did. He took Jordan to Taekwondo, where she got her yellow tag. She looks just like him and has his sensitive nature.
”He was always the one who bathed Trinity-Rose. I haven’t been able to do that yet.”
Becki said she watched the awful events unfold on the news and plans to visit the site to lay a tribute to Kye, who she met aged 17 at a football game.
”I thought, ‘I like that car’ and when he got out I thought, ‘and I like him!’
”I was working for Ginsters at the time and so was my mum, in the laundry. I wrote a note and got her to put it in his overalls saying that he had a secret admirer with football as a clue.
”He checked my handwriting against my application form for Ginsters, realised it was me and asked me out. That was it. We were inseparable.”
Kye served as a lance-corporal with the King’s Royal Hussars, from 1989-94, stationed in Germany.
He was a qualified diver and set up and ran the Sea Hawk scuba school in Patong on the tourist island of Phuket, Thailand, from 1994-95.
He moved back to the UK because he missed home and took a job in the hygiene department at Ginsters in Callington, before training as an HGV driver and working for Samworth Brothers group until 2007.
The dad-of-four was carrying a load for Samworth Brothers, the parent company of pasty makers Ginsters, after being employed through an agency.
Friend Dale Trevail also paid tribute to his ‘best friend’ who he described as ”a brilliant father” and ”one of the good guys”.
