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“Our lives feel empty”: Calvin and Yvonne Lawson have created a foundation to honour their son’s memory
He hoped to be the next Didier Drogba. Now he’s gone ... it’s more than any parent can bear
David Cohen 20.05.10
A few weeks after 17-year-old Godwin Lawson took up his scholarship place at the Oxford United Football Academy in November, his mother Yvonne called him after work, as she usually did, to see how things were going. "Mum," he whispered, "I can't speak now cos it's dinner time and you know, this is Oxford, not London, mum, and they are posh here and they don't like me using my phone at the table."
"I remember smiling to myself, feeling so proud of what a well-mannered gentleman Godwin was becoming," recalls Yvonne, a primary school teacher in her late thirties. "He was just out of school and taking his first big step towards his dream of becoming a professional footballer and of one day playing for Manchester United."Godwin, Yvonne adds, was relieved to be in the countryside because he said he could "concentrate better" and wanted to escape what he'd described on his Facebook page as the "postcode rivalry nonsense". "He said to me, 'mum, I'm going to make it because I'm fast and strong like Didier Drogba, but if I don't, I want to become a social worker'. And when I laughed and said, but you're six-foot-three, he said, 'it's not how big I am, mum, it's the size of my heart that counts'."
But Yvonne's world and that of her family came crashing down in the early hours of Saturday March 27 when three police officers knocked on the door of their Enfield house at 4.30am. "Godwin's been stabbed," they told Yvonne. "He didn't make it." Calvin Lawson, 40, the father of Godwin and their two other children aged 11 and seven, was still clambering down the stairs when he heard Yvonne scream.
"There are no words," he says, throwing a protective arm around Yvonne as they sit in the living room of their north London home. "No parent wants to go through this. It's too much to bear."
Speaking to the Evening Standard in their first interview ahead of Godwin's funeral tomorrow morning, the devoutly Catholic couple recall their "longest day". They discovered that their son - who came to visit once a fortnight - had died heroically saving the lives of two of his friends, who between them had been stabbed 12 times.
"Godwin had been out that night with two brothers, Daniel and Julian Escobar, who were his childhood friends from when we lived in Stamford Hill, but, still, our first instinct was that the police had made a terrible mistake," says Calvin, a quality controller in the garment industry. "We started calling his mobile phone, frantically willing him to answer, but it just rang out, so I said to the police, take me to him, I have to make sure it is my son!"
He shakes his head. "The moment I identified his body will never leave my mind. His body was under a forensics tent on Amhurst Park Road and when I saw him lying there, I broke down. I wanted to hug him back to life, but forensics said I couldn't touch him. And then - the hardest part - I had to go back to the car and tell Yvonne. That was the worst part, telling Yvonne our son was dead."
Godwin was the fifth teenager to be murdered in London this year, though sadly not the last: six more have been killed in the seven weeks since, bringing the total teenage murder toll to 11.
On the night in question, the three boys had been walking from Stamford Hill train station to the brothers' home at 1.50am when they were attacked by knife-wielding youths who, police said, "were lying in wait" for the brothers. Four days later, police arrested a 19-year-old male in the Finsbury Park area and charged him with murder, as well as the attempted murder of the Escobar brothers.
But it was only weeks later, when Daniel Escobar, 18, emerged from hospital and visited the Lawsons, that they learned of their son's bravery.
"Godwin was walking ahead of us when the attackers went for me and my brother," Daniel told them. "They were stabbing us over and over. Godwin had no weapon, but he ran back to protect us. They stabbed him once in the chest and then ran off. If it wasn't for Godwin, my brother and I would both be dead."
Yvonne has "mixed feelings" about the courage that has deprived her of her "big-hearted" son, but she is not surprised. "That was Godwin," she says. "He put others first." She points to hundreds of condolence letters piled on their dining room table testifying to his "infectious laughter", his "polite manner", "leadership potential" and how he "showed maturity beyond his years". One of his teachers at St Ignatius College in Enfield, where he did his GCSEs, wrote to say that Godwin was "more a friend than a pupil".
"We even got a letter from Sir Alex Ferguson saying how 'deeply saddened' he was," says Calvin. "It made us wonder how he knew and whether, unknown to Godwin, he'd been talent-spotted by a Man United scout. Also, Oxford United played a tribute match to him and there was a march through Hackney that attracted hundreds. It's tragic. He had such potential. Such a total waste of talent."
"Godwin was a character," says Yvonne, "he was popular, bubbly, confident and full of life. He was also incredibly loving. On Valentine's Day he came with a huge bunch of flowers and a red balloon for me and on Facebook he wrote, 'the only woman who's getting flowers from me is my mum'.
"But now," she gestures wanly round the living room festooned with his effects, including a framed shirt signed by team-mates at the Oxford Academy, "the house is so quiet. My phone doesn't stop ringing, but our lives feel empty without him." Recently she had the further trauma of learning that Hackney council had brazenly cleared away her son's street-side memorial, incinerating the football boots she'd intended to put in his coffin. Hackney Council have since written to apologise for their "painful error", but Yvonne is still seething. "Irresponsible youths took away my son's life; for so-called responsible adults to show such appalling lack of respect for my son's memory is disgraceful."
She is trying to be strong ahead of the funeral at St Ignatius Roman Catholic church, at which more than 1,000 people are expected to pay their respects. But she's struggling with sleeplessness, she says, and cries herself to sleep most nights. "I've just felt overwhelmed, drained and dazed."
She has drawn strength, though, from other parents who've found themselves similarly traumatised, especially Barry and Margaret Mizen, whose 16-year-old son Jimmy died after being stabbed in the neck two years ago.
"The Mizens have been amazing," says Yvonne. "They are religious, like us, and their son was completely innocent like ours, and they have inspired me to make something positive out of Godwin's death." So, like the Mizens, who established a foundation, Yvonne is setting up the Godwin Lawson Memorial Fund, which will build on her son's passion to promote postcode mixing through football and will help tackle the violent gang rivalry that killed him.
It turns out that a year before Godwin died, he had been a founder member of a group called HYPE (Haringey Young People Empowered) set up with the help of the police to tackle territorialism and postcode violence.
Janay Cochrane, who runs HYPE, told the Standard: "Last April we had our inaugural tournament and Godwin captained the winning team, which was a combination of kids from different postcodes. He was passionate about football and using it to improve community relations and was responsible for getting a huge number of kids signed up.
"This year, in his honour, we are renaming the event the Godwin Lawson HYPE Unity Cup and it will be held on July 10 and hopefully raise money for his Fund."
The Lawsons also intend to write to David Cameron. "It's unbelievable that since Godwin died, six more families have lost their teenage children," says Calvin.
"Something has to be done. We think tougher sentences are part of the answer. The only way you will deter teenagers from stabbing other teenagers is if they know they risk spending 20 years to life in jail."
Yvonne says she sometimes wonders about the kind of family Godwin's murderer comes from. "What has driven him to do this? Was he loved? Godwin was loved so much, and he loved so much in return. He came from a hardworking home with good values. He was offered everything: a private tutor to get him through GCSEs, support and encouragement to realise his sporting dreams, and we were a close family. But now," she sighs plaintively, "we're left with this."
She points to a trophy on the mantelpiece that Godwin got for scoring the most goals at his school. "It kills me. We had driven him to Oxford with all his luggage and trophies in November. Then last month his luggage was returned. I found myself sitting in his room, wailing, 'Godwin, your luggage is here, you should be here, where are you?'"
To donate to the Godwin Lawson Memorial Fund visit justgiving.com/godwin-lawson-memorial-fund. Or send a cheque to The Capital Community Foundation, writing Godwin Lawson Memorial Fund on the back. Post it to The Capital Community Foundation, 357 Kennington Lane, London, SE11 5QY.
