MANY people will share in Julie Lee's joy at the birth of her son Adam. His father, Rob, was well-known as a talented rugby player and his death in a road accident, aged only 24, shocked York.

At the time Julie and Rob had been married for five months and had just learned they were expecting. It was a time of carefree optimism, cruelly dashed in a second.

Adam's arrival renews a sense of happiness and hope. And although he will never know his father, there are many in York who will be able to tell him what a fine man he was.

Updated: 10:08 Tuesday, February 24, 2004