Son's birth tinged with sorrow

Pauline Scotland with her son, Drew. Photo / Supplied

When Pauline Scotland looks at her newborn son, she can't help but see the beloved husband she lost before his birth.

Mrs Scotland was four months' pregnant when her husband, popular Waipu volunteer firefighter Andrew "Scotty" Scotland, 34, died in a hang-glider crash near Queenstown in March.

She was there when her husband plunged 300m to his death with Argentine pilot Gerardo Bean, 27.

Mrs Scotland gave birth to healthy, 6lb 10oz Drew Michael Scotland on August 14 - about 10 days early.

"It was a pretty emotional time. I missed my husband's strength really," she told the Weekend Herald.

Drew, like his older brother Aydan, 3, looks like his father.

"When I look at him, I think about what a great Dad that he missed out on," Mrs Scotland said. "I don't want to put too much pressure on him to be like his father's prodigy, so to speak."

Though Aydan enjoyed having a little brother, it was also a tough time for him. "One minute you have two doting parents, and then you have got one, and then you have only got half a one that you have to share with a baby. So he's struggling a little bit.

"Aydan ... tells me all the time he's going to grow up to be like Dad.

"He says, 'I want to grow up one day and drive Dad's truck' that I've still got, and things like that. Hopefully he remembers."

The birth of Drew was like a double-edged sword. "It brings you the pleasure of a new baby," Mrs Scotland said.

"But the usual things that you cope with, I don't cope that well with. Upset nights and things like that, where before it was just the fact of being a parent."

Mrs Scotland feels fortunate with all the support she has had. "It's not like we have been put aside and forgotten about. There's thousands of people who have offered help. But you have lost your right-hand person. There's nobody there to lean on."

An inquest is still to be held into the deaths of Mr Scotland and Mr Bean, while the Civil Aviation Authority is also investigating.

But Mrs Scotland said: "In the end, to me, what's it going to change?"