Wedding joy for Omagh bomb widower

A man whose wife was killed in the Omagh bomb atrocity is to marry the Romanian mother of a child they tried to adopt, it emerged today.

Kevin Skelton, 50, will wed Maria Nedelcu at a Register office in the Co Tyrone town next week after a lengthy battle with British Home Office officials.

Ms Nedelcu, 39, has already moved to Northern Ireland with two of her three daughters from her former home in Fagaras, central Romania.

The couple met when Mr Skelton, whose wife Mena, 49, died in the August 1998 Real IRA massacre, travelled to eastern Europe.

He had gone to an orphanage where Ms Nedelcu’s middle daughter, Andrea, was staying.

The former lorry driver and his late wife had been charmed by the nine-year-old when she came to stay at their home in Drumquin, Co Tyrone, on a two-week relief holiday in 1997.

Neither were aware that her mother was still alive and had discussed the possibility of adopting her before the bomb attack, Mr Skelton said.

But when he arrived at the orphanage after his wife’s death, he discovered Ms Nedelcu waiting for him, alarmed that he had come to take her child away.

The factory worker had put her children into temporary care because she could not afford to look after them.

Mr Skelton recalled: “From the day I saw Maria for the first time something happened to me. I felt something for her the minute I saw her. But I didn’t say anything.”

It was only after a series of trips to Romania that Ms Nedelcu finally wrote to him last September revealing her true feelings for him.

“It finished up saying: ‘If I’m wrong, I’m sorry and we’ll always remain friends,’” Mr Skelton recalled.

“I sat and read it about 20 times.”

Since then the father of four has proposed and brought Ms Nedelcu over to Northern Ireland on a six-month visa to acclimatise her to the new lifestyle.

Their marriage plans have been backed by his family and friends, although they have been forced to wade through red tape.

Permission to get married was needed from Home Office authorities because Ms Nedelcu is from a non-EU country.

Aided by SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan, Mr Skelton told how his initial application was rejected.

“But Mark Durkan sent a letter back to the Minister and it turned out he knew nothing about it. Some civil servant had dealt with it,” he added.

“They were embarrassed and I got a letter back from the Home Office saying they would give me a certificate to get married on compassionate grounds.”

Even though the couple are getting married on October 12, they must return to Romania within weeks to seek out another visa securing Ms Nedelcu’s right to live in the North.

As well as that struggle, Mr Skelton also revealed his own fight against the guilt he felt at falling in love.

But he stressed: “I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself, and one of my daughters said if mummy could come back for five minutes the first thing she would do would be to hit me a kick up the backside.

“She wasn’t a person who would want me sitting about moping.”

Mr Skelton says Ms Nedelcu has rescued him from a depression that had engulfed him since the August 1998 Real IRA massacre that claimed 29 lives in total.

He said: “I have someone with me, someone who cares for me. If I want to go out I have someone by my side and my life has changed completely.”

Ms Nedelcu’s daughter Andrea, now 17, is studying beauty therapy at Omagh College, and Ms Nedelcu’s youngest daughter, five-year-old Iulia will attend the local primary school.

Her eldest child, Nicoleta, 19, is to travel over on holiday for the wedding at Omagh District Council register office.

Ms Nedelcu praised her husband-to-be as she confirmed their happiness.

“He’s kind and he shows me a lot of respect that I would not get back home,” she said.

“Kevin told me about his home, but I wasn’t coming for a house, I was coming to be with him.”