KEY POINTS:
Grieving mother Catherine Charlton is holding on hard to the memory of a day full of laughing boys as she prepares to bury her 11-year-old son Simon tomorrow.
The wrestling-mad boy and his 12-year-old friend Harrison Kemp were shut in the boot of Simon's father's car in a laddish trip down the road, when the Ford Mondeo sedan collided with a Subaru station wagon on Richardson St in the Dunedin suburb of St Kilda on Monday night.
The impact tore open the boot, ejecting the boys. Simon was thrown through a wooden fence and died at the scene while Harrison was seriously injured when he landed on the footpath.
He underwent five hours of surgery for leg, face and brain injuries and is recovering in Dunedin Hospital. As her "gentle giant, Mummy's boy" lay in a coffin on his bed, Catherine struggled to share details of their last day together.
"He played cricket in the backyard with his [16-year-old] sister Sarah. He'd been to the movies, visited his nana Theresa and grandfather Bob's for a roast dinner - roast lamb was his favourite. Then he came home with Harrison and they played cricket and wrestled each other.
"They just laughed and laughed and laughed. They had so much fun together that day."
Catherine remembered Simon as a "happy boy 99.9 per cent of the time" who was looking forward to going into Year 8 at Tahuna Intermediate and his 12th birthday on March 26.
Father David Charlton says the drive in the boot was "just one of those things" that came about "in the heat of the moment".
"It was a Monday night, 10.30pm and we probably saw one [other] car on the road ... It happened very quickly."
The Charltons have not visited Harrison in hospital but will do so after the funeral.
"It will be hard," sobbed Catherine. "He doesn't know yet about Simon."
The funeral will be held at St Patrick's Catholic Church in Dunedin at 11am tomorrow.
Dunedin police senior sergeant Bruce Ross said last night that no charges had yet been laid in connection with the incident.
