NEWS

Amy Winehouse's dad still texts star

26th June 2012

Amy Winehouse's father still texts her asking her to come home.

The British jazz singer died after an alcohol binge in July last year. Her father Mitch is still coming to terms with his loss and has moments when he can't accept that she is gone.

"Sometimes I text her telling her to come home. But she's never coming home and I'm going to have to deal with that for the rest of my life," he told British magazine Grazia.

Amy was 27 when she died and had fought a battle with drug addiction which she won, although she couldn't cut out alcohol.

Mitch found it hard when she was taking illicit substances and admits at times he wondered if Amy would die.

"In a way, subconsciously, it's a relief that I don't have to keep checking up on Amy," he admitted. "I'm not going through that pain every night, wondering if she is going to die, what she's doing, or if she is in trouble. There was a time in the midst of her drug addiction when she could have died on several occasions and I was always worried about her."

Amy overdosed on drugs during her life and also suffered from seizures.

In a separate interview with British newspaper The Guardian, Mitch revealed four years before her death Amy almost passed away following a reaction to temazepam, which is used to treat convulsions and anxiety. He happened to check on her five minutes after someone else had been to see her, and found her shaking.

Following Amy's death, Mitch set up a foundation in her honour which he hopes will help young people. He was in America when he heard of his daughter's passing and came up with the idea for the charity on the flight home.

"I thought to myself, I'm actually going insane. I'm actually losing my mind," he told the newspaper of the journey. "I could feel myself slipping away. And then, the minute I stepped off the plane and went to her house and there were hundreds and hundreds of people there, I got a sense of how I could deal with it, how I could overcome this."

Originally there were plans for the foundation's base to be in Amy's home in Camden, London, which is where she died. However, her family have now sold the property where the star's fans set up a shrine for her.

"I can't go in the house," Mitch told Grazia. "I haven't been inside for three months. It's too still. The worst bit was emptying her sweets drawer. She loved boiled sweets and there was still a drawer full of them. I'd forgotten how many she ate. She could have entered the Olympics for sweet eating. It broke my heart. I haven't been able to bring myself to scatter Amy's ashes following her cremation."

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