Kate Garraway has opened up about the emotional first words her husband Derek Draper said after waking from his coma.
Speaking to Lorraine Kelly on the Lorraine show on Tuesday, Kate said a nurse texted her to tell her that Derek had spoken for the first time since waking up.
And those words were to their 11-year-old son, Billy.
“One of the nurses, I was racing back a couple of days ago and one of the nurses texted me to say ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve just heard Derek speak for the first time!’
“And I said ‘Oh my god, what did he say?’ and she said ‘He said: Bill, you smell of Monster Munch.'”
(Image: ITV)
“That’s your wee boy, isn’t it?” Lorraine asked as both women collapsed into giggles. “And did he?”
“It’s not quite the profound thing you hope for, like ‘I’ve seen god’!” Kate laughed. “And the nurse said, ‘by the way, he did smell of Monster Munch!'”
“He’d just had two packets of massive Monster Munch, which as you know are very pungent. And he’d come over and he was hugging him.
“[Derek] seemed to smile as he said it, she said he was laughing, that might be too strong but he seemed to be laughing, and Billy was laughing as well, which is a lovely normal moment,” she added.
(Image: ITV)
“And also, it shows us he can smell!”
An emotional Kate continued: “Every little thing is hopefully trying to put a jigsaw into place, and being hopeful for the future.”
On her 54th birthday on Tuesday, Kate also shared how Derek had responded to her big day.
“Last night he said to me while I was tucking him in and we were doing various medical bits, I said ‘by the way it’s my birthday tomorrow’, and he looked a bit worried,” she explained.
(Image: Daily Star, Daily Mirror, Daily Express)
“I said, ‘oh, look, don’t worry, I won’t expect anything – my birthday present is you being home.’ And I said I’ll pop in early to see you before I go to Lorraine.
“So I came in this morning and said ‘Right, I’m all ready’, and my mum and dad were there, the nurses were there, and I said ‘is there anything you want to say to me?’ and he went ‘Happy Birthday!'”
Lorraine chipped in: “That’s huge. That’s absolutely brilliant.”
“It’s making me feel a bit emotional, actually, but it’s happy tears,” Kate said, and added that she had to hide her face from Lorraine while she recovered her composure.
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“Not to be technical about it, I sound like I’m analysing everything, but obviously that is massive. It’s wonderful that he says Happy Birthday because that’s what I want to hear, but also we’re looking for things he can hold.
“So I’d told him that the night before, I had to prompt him a little bit, but he was just stirring and we were turning him and doing various things this morning. But he held onto the idea of my birthday and managed to connect it back and repeat it out.
“And that’s wonderful.”
Derek was put into an induced coma last year after suffering severe coronavirus symptoms, and only woke up in March 2021.
He’s now been brought home, with Kate documenting his journey so far in an emotional ITV documentary.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
