Today marks the two year anniversary of the death of Jill Meagher. This morning, her husband Tom Meagher marked the occasion with a beautiful, heartbreaking tribute to his late wife on social media – remembering in vivid detail the couple’s last moments together.
In lieu of editorialising, we have chosen to re-post Tom’s words in full, unedited.
“Another year without you in the world Jill Meagher. I remember our last moments together two years ago this morning. You emerged from the bathroom beaming with Friday enthusiasm, wearing a towel that was wrapped so tightly around your head that it forced your eyes to slant upwards. Your skin was bright pink from your customary scalding-hot shower, and the edges of the towel left a white imprint on your forehead. When I left the apartment, I don’t remember looking back, all I remember is the sound of your voice singing, and fading slightly with each step I took, until it vanished.
Days like this make it all real; how you loved to irritate and surprise me, how much you loved to dance in your PJ’s spilling red wine all over the floor. I still find your to-do lists in old leather compendiums and exam results, notes, sketches, stories and characters in the pockets of old bags. I read your diary, and laugh at how funny you were, even when writing only to yourself. I still keep your clown make-up and your perfume. The bristles of your hairbrush are still blunted by the sheer volume of dark hair wrapped so tightly around it that they’re impossible to remove. I keep the thousands of photos you kept of the family and friends you loved so much. You were a true original Jilly, a free soul, you were unashamedly you. I love you even more than you loved life. xxx“
On the evening of Friday, September 22nd 2012, Jill Meagher was raped and murdered whilst walking home from a bar in the inner-northern Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. The case shocked and angered the public – tens of thousands turned out in a march down Brunswick’s Sydney Road in a display of community unity for her family, and anger at the continued permeance of violence perpetrated against women within our society.
Jill and Tom had moved to Australia in 2010, with Jill taking up a position at the ABC.
Now, more than ever, we must always remember Jill Meagher, and the symbolism that her untimely and unlawful passing has grown to mean – even in a world where the council she resided in has since failed to put measures in place to help increase the safety of its residents, despite being given the resources to do so.
But on a day, like today, politics should not dominate.
It’s the memory of Jill – captured by Tom’s heartbreaking and beautiful words – that should be the focus. If it is, and if it continues to be, then something good will become of one of our saddest days.
To help contribute to the un-ending campaign of eradicating violence against women from within our society, please consider visiting and contributing to organisations like White Ribbon.
Photo: AFP via Getty Images.
