Tribute paid to ‘loveable rogue’ after car crash

Ricky Goodall (24), of Barker Avenue, was a passenger in a BMW that collided with a Ford Ranger and a motorcycle on the evening of Friday 20th December on Debdale Lane.

His mum Michelle Goodall said that the news of her son’s death was the ‘worst day of her life’.

She even drove near to the scene of the accident on the night while picking her husband Lee up from a night out in Mansfield - without knowing that Ricky had died.

“I actually passed Debdale Lane and saw it was blocked off,” she said.

“I knew there had been an accident but just didn’t realise my son had been involved in it.

“You think it’s something that never happens to you - it always happens to other people - but that was the worst day of my life.”

Michelle said that though Ricky has had his problems, he had a heart of gold and ‘would do anything for anybody’.

“He was a cheeky, loveable rogue,” she said.

As well as devastated parents Lee (44) and Michelle (48), Ricky leaves behind an older brother Daniel (30), who is in the army, and a younger sister Samantha (21).

He also had a girlfriend Chantelle, and they had recently announced that she is expecting his child.

“He loved kids, absolutely loved kids,” said Michelle.

“To be honest I think it would have been the making of him, being a dad, but that’s something we will never know now.”

Ricky had started to think about settling down and had expressed a desire to get a job as a landscape gardener.

He was a popular lad and more than 130 people have joined a Facebook group titled ‘R.I.P. Ricky Goodall’ to share their memories of him.

Said Michelle: “I have taken comfort in what people have written.

“It means a lot that so many people - more than I thought he even knew - thought so much of him, and that he was loved by other people.”

Ricky used to phone or text his mum every day just to let her know that he was ok.

“The only thing he would put in the text was ‘love you’ and that’s it,” said Michelle.

He had been staying with a friend on the Ladybrook estate in Mansfield at the time of his death.

“I spoke to him on the Tuesday about him coming home for Christmas dinner,” she said.

“I never spoke to him again after that.”

“My son Daniel was in Afghanistan for seven months - that was bad enough. But he came back ok and then this happens here,” she added.

Ricky’s funeral is on Friday (10th January) at 3.30pm at Mansfield Crematorium.

People are asked to go in jogging bottoms and a hooded top - the things Ricky always used to wear.

No flowers are requested but donations can be made towards a memorial for him.