A MOTHER and daughter were laid to rest in the same coffin yesterday almost three weeks after they were killed in a horrific Valleys road accident.

Around 500 people attended the funerals of Stephanie Curtis, 35, and her six-year-old daughter Ffion Elizabeth Merrifield, from Nantyglo, at St Mary the Virgin Church in Brynmawr yesterday afternoon.

Ms Curtis and her daughter died after their blue Peugeot was in collision with a silver Mercedes on the A465 between Brynmawr and Gilwern on April 28.

Coed-y-Garn Primary School pupil Ffion was pronounced dead on arrival at Nevill Hall Hospital, while her mother – who worked at Abergavenny’s Nevill Hall Hospital – died of her injuries late the same evening at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales. The two women in the Mercedes sustained minor injuries.

Hundreds of mourners attended the 45 minute funeral service, with many arriving more than an hour and a half before it began at 1pm.

Hymns All Things Bright and Beautiful and Jesus wants us for a sunbeam were sung, and mother and daughter were later buried together in a white coffin at Brynmawr Cemetery.

Floral arrangements in the hearse and on the coffin included flowers in the shape of a doll, butterfly and a cat’s face.

Ffion was described as a child who loved animals in a statement released shortly after the accident by devastated family members, including Ms Curtis’ partner and Ffion’s father Darren, and Ms Curtis’ parents Josie and Jeff.

The family said the six-yearold was adventurous, energetic, outgoing and bubbly, while Ms Curtis was a “much loved, hard-working mother”

who was devoted to her children.

The family said: “They leave a devoted partner and father and also a loving daughter and sister.

“They will leave a big whole not just in the family but in the local community.”