Washington, Dec 21 : Singer Amy Winehouse’s father Mitch is still trying to come to terms with her death but says that working with the charity he set up in her memory is helping him with his grief.

The devastated patriarch has thrown himself into work with the Amy Winehouse Foundation - which he had set up in memory of his daughter, who was found dead at her London home in July aged 27 - to help cope him with his grief.

“You have to just roll your sleeves up and get cracking,” Contactmusic quoted him as telling the Daily Mirror newspaper.

“At one children’s hospice I met a lady who’d just lost her five-year-old daughter. She said to me, ‘I’m so sorry about Amy.’ We’ve got to raise money to help people like that.

“I haven’t stopped crying since the news, but we do not give in.

“Nothing will deter us in our mission to help kids in Amy’s name.”

Mitch knows he will find the festive season particularly tough but plans to take the time to toast his daughter’s memory.

“I have great memories of a Christmas tree and the kids opening their presents. A proper magic time.

“This is going to be the first Christmas without Amy so it’s going to be tough.

“We will raise a glass of sherry to her and carry on. We have got plenty of good times to remember, it won’t be easy but we will get through it,” he added. (ANI)