Devastated relatives of a five-year-old girl who died after falling ill saw lanterns lit in her memory from a plane window as they were flying home.
Isabella Grace Docherty, known to her loved-ones as Bella, suddenly died hours after complaining of feeling sick last month.
Paramedics were called after Bella collapsed at her family home in Newarthill on Tuesday, February 14. They tried to save her but the youngster later died at Wishaw General Hospital.
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Friends and family gathered in Motherwell to pay their respects to little Bella last weekend, releasing 100 paper lanterns into the sky.
Bella's great-aunt and great-uncle, who were flying home from Tenerife, saw the lanterns in the sky as their plane flew over Lanarkshire. Her uncle Kenny had contacted Jet2 to find out what flight path the plane would take, and told the airline of the family's grief.
Bella's mum Pamela Little, from Newarthill, said: "My aunt and uncle were flying home from Tenerife on Saturday. Uncle Kenny spoke with Jet2 the previous day to ask about the flight paths as he knows there are two that can be taken.
"One is north to Belfast then over the Irish Sea into Glasgow, the other is mainland UK where the flight path is across the Motherwell area. They spoke with the pilots on board and explained what was going on.
"When they began to descend, it came over the intercom system on the plane that if they looked out of the window they would see lots of tiny lights through the clouds. He said the plane fell silent when they were told what they were.
"He said it was an extremely emotional moment for them. They both loved Bella deeply. She also loved them so much so I genuinely knew in my heart it would have happened somehow."
Devastated mum-of-three Pamela still has no idea why her "little princess" died after her post-mortem came back inconclusive.
The 38-year-old said: "We still don't know why this happened and it's killing us inside. We are awaiting results of further tests which we really hope will give us much-needed answers as to what happened to our girl."
Bella's parents said there were no major "red flags" before Bella's shock passing. The youngster had been vomiting but wasn't running a temperature and just appeared to have a bug, like some of her friends from nursery.
That night, Bella's dad Brian took her downstairs after she was struggling to sleep in her bed. Pamela continued: "At 4am, she vomited suddenly and collapsed on the floor. Brian screamed at me to come down on me. When I came in he was holding her in his arms.
"I brushed her hair away from her face and my instincts told me she was gone. I just remember seeing her face and realising something bad had happened. Paramedics and doctors did all they could but they couldn't save her."
Pamela added: "She has some issues with her brain, but nothing that we were told to be worried about. Her behaviour had suddenly changed after she had chicken pox last summer, so she had CT scans and an MRI. They said there was an abnormality on her brain stem but it wasn't life-threatening.
"They didn't know exactly what it was and now they may never find out. She was due to go into the hospital last week as an in patient for some testing but unfortunately, suddenly, she's gone."
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