‘He’s with his father in heaven’: Heartbroken family pay tribute to ‘adored’ Sheffield dad

Willy Cawley died suddenly last month, aged just 53, and his funeral was held at Shiregreen Cemetery yesterday, with a plane drawing a love heart overhead in his memory.

He was the cousin of Kathleen Collins, who told how he had eight sisters but was the only boy in his family.

“His father Tommy Cawley passed away about 15 years ago and his mother Rosie is left heartbroken for her one and only son who she looked after till the day he died,” she said.

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"His sisters adored him he was a lovely person. Anyone who knew him never had a bad word to say about him. He is back with his father now in heaven.

"His mother was the love of his life. She was his queen.

"He had a beautiful send-off and it was celebrated the way he would have liked it.”

Ms Collins said Willy had grown up in Sheffield and lived in Firth Park, Parson Cross and Manor before moving later in his life to Barnsley, where he was living at the time of his death on March 18. She added that it was not yet known how he had died.

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A moving poem read at his funeral included the words: “You were gone before we knew it, and only God knows why.

"A million times we will miss you, a million times we will cry.

"If love alone could have saved you, you never would have died.”