Missing oil rig worker's wife sits out birthday service

The wife of missing Well Services Petroleum Company Ltd worker Pete Phillip will have to sit out a special prayer service to be held on a boat at the collapsed rig on January 16 to commemorate his 46th birthday.

Candacy Phillip, who is expected to deliver Phillip's youngest child in less than a month, said she was advised it was too risky for her to be onboard the vessel, given how far along she was in her pregnancy.

Instead, she said she would stay home and celebrate her husband's birthday the way she had spent every day since he went missing on December 22 – lining the walkway to their home with candles and praying for him with their children.

She said their children, aged three, nine, 11 and 13, continuously asked for their father and would sometimes cry. Her youngest girl, she said, was crying for him just moments before Newsday arrived at her home on January 16.

But as time goes on, she said, the children are getting a better picture of what's occurring from their friends at school.

"They keep asking. They saying that they (Well Services Ltd) know where he is ,but friends telling them they can't get him out."

She said they wanted to attend the service but were also advised against it because of their age.

She said instead, her husband's mother, brother and other relatives would be going on the vessel provided by Well Services Ltd.

Candacy said the idea of the service came from the company which she appreciated. She said the company had been checking with the family, even dropping off money weekly to help support the children.

Shortly after 3 am on December 22, Rig 110 partially collapsed, leaving one man injured and Phillip unaccounted for. Search-and-rescue operations immediately began but by December 26, it was transitioned to a search and recovery, presuming Phillip was dead. The company identified a possible location for his body, but on January 9 it paused these operations to undertake additional safety precautions.