FATAL FUNGI
Killer mushroom chef’s ex-husband reveals haunting final text from dying mum in hospital after deadly lunch
THE son of an elderly couple killed after eating suspected poisonous mushrooms has revealed his mother's haunting final message to him.
Simon Patterson choked back tears at his parents' memorial service as he paid tribute to their inspirational lives tragically cut short.
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Don, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, died after eating a beef wellington cooked by Simon's ex-wife Erin Patterson, 49, at her home in Leongatha, Australia on July 29.
They attended the lunch along with Gail's sister Heather, 66, and her husband Ian.
All four fell gravely ill in the days that followed.
Don, Gail, and Heather have since died and Ian is fighting for his life in Melbourne's Austin hospital.
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It is understood he remains in a critical but stable condition while waiting for a liver transplant.
Simon, who was invited to his ex-wife's lunch but pulled out at the last minute, said his mother managed to send one final text to their family WhatsApp group while she lay dying in hospital.
Gail's message read: "Lots of love to you all."
He told the 350 mourners at his parents' memorial service it was "no fluke" those words were his mother's last, .
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Simon said: “The fact they died on consecutive days is fitting in some ways, as it reflects their togetherness as a couple that they always worked so hard to grow.
“They acknowledged life’s transience and death’s reality as something that is not right about the world and very sad but also knew that death is not final.
“They would always wave goodbye when they parted ways. It was partly because one day would be the last wave.”
Described as a "team working at life together", Gail and Don were devoted Christians and "pillars" of their community.
Simon continued: “As Mum and Dad lay in comas in the hospital in their final days and each day … we were unsure if they would recover or not, it was comforting to know that when we said: ‘See you later,’ we knew it was true.
“The only thing we didn’t know was when.
“In the meantime, we’ll miss them.”
Erin, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged by police, did not attend the service.
Toxicology reports have not confirmed that the lunch guests ingested poisonous mushrooms, though police did initially say their symptoms were consistent with those associated with death cap mushrooms.
A friend of the Patterson family claimed Erin was known to pick wild mushrooms from around Victoria's Gippsland region.
Erin said in a statement to cops that the mushrooms she used in the meal were a mixture of button mushrooms purchased from a supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store.
She said: "I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones.
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"I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved."
She claimed she was close with her ex-husband's parents for "a long period of time" and that their relationship continued in "a fairly amicable way" after she and Simon split.
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