Wife of Hillsborough victim: I made his last meal
The final pen portrait of the day was about 38-year-old Brian Matthews. It was written and read by his wife, Margi.
"He was the great love of my life but, as he took great delight in telling me, I only made it into his top five."
She revealed how a sheepskin coat, Diana Ross, his mum and Liverpool Football Club all had a place in his heart. But she added: “I was happy being at number five. I was happy being Brian’s wife."
The pair first met in November 1971 at the Halfway House pub in Walton. He was 21, she was 19 and Brian was Margi's first boyfriend.
He was working as a quantity surveyor on the construction of the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
"We were very young and after a while we broke up. We were apart for three years, three months and three days before we met again by accident on 21st January 1977. Eight days later, Brian proposed to me and we were married on 3rd September 1977."
By 1980, Brian was working for the National Provincial Building Society.
"We bought the home in Knowsley Village where I still live. Brian has left his mark on this house. To this day, some of his DIY which he fitted still remains in place.
"Brian was really artistic and could turn his hands to many different things. I remember him teaching me to make curtains. He was always insisting on trying to teach me to do things like fix the car or change plugs in the house but most of the time I had no interest in it at all.
"He would ask what I would do if he wasn’t there to do it for me and I would tell him I would just pay a handyman to come in and do it and that’s now what I have to do."
Brian went self-employed six months before he died. His widow said it had been a big gamble but was starting to pay off.
On the morning of 15th April 1989, Margi got up early to go to the bakers shop to buy some fresh bread rolls to make some sandwiches to take with him to Hillsborough. She told the jury how she debated putting KitKats in his lunch box, worried they would melt and ruin his sandwiches."I think back and I wish now I’d have put the KitKats in so he would have enjoyed his last meal."
Following the disaster, Mrs Matthews travelled to Sheffield to look for her husband. "I saw his name on a list. An officer told me that he had bad news to tell me and I thought it was that Brian had been very badly injured.
"In my head I was wondering whether we would have to make adaptations to the house. It did not occur to me that he could have died. I refused to believe it even when I was told.
"I remember lying in bed and praying not to wake up for five years. I was so lonely without Brian. I would not wish the experience of those early years following his death on my worst enemy.
"I took comfort in the thought that God must have had a major project that he needed Brian to take on up there and I know that Brian would have done a fine job of it."