Gail Merrini
What can I say…. It was with great sadness, that I learnt of the death of a long time friend and confidant… Gail Merrini, from Perth/Australia.
This message appeared on Fb, posted on 20th June 2017, by her family…
It is with broken hearts and extreme sadness that we announce the passing of Gail, devoted mother to Matthew and Sarah and loving wife to Quinto. Sadly, our poor mum lost her battle to cancer after only 10 months since her diagnosis and passed away on Tuesday 13th June 2017, surrounded by close family. We are all just so shocked at how quickly this awful disease took her away from us. She fought as hard as she could, for as long as she was able and never gave up.
We will never forget your loving and selfless nature; you always put everyone else first and made sure we had everything we ever needed growing up.
We have so many wonderful memories with you and will never forget.
We know you are now resting peacefully and that one day, we will all be together again.
To the world you were but one, but to us you were the world.
We would like to thank everyone for all of your kind words and support; it means more to us than you will ever know in this very difficult time in our lives.
Love from Matthew, Sarah and Quinto
Rest In Peace our beautiful angel xxx
I have known Gail, from the days of chatting in the MSN chatrooms of the early 1990’s, when we ‘hit’ it off instantly, and have kept in touch ever since… we have shared our lives with each other, and our ‘kids’ lives as well. I remember, Gail would chat to Catherine (my daughter) for a few minutes each night, as Catherine went to bed… Catherine and Gail, kept in touch on Fb, and Gail would often comment to me about Cath’s aspirations and goals, even before Ann & I had heard of them…lol.
in 2004, myself Ann and Catherine, planned to meet up with Gail, but because of my own family pressures, it was a fleeting meet up by the station, before being collected by my own family… lol. However, when I returned in 2009, at least we got time on our own… and Ann & I met Gail for the afternoon, starting in Forrest Place, before doing a bit of shopping…
Gail and Ann
Gail and Ann
In 2004, I had visited Kailis Pearls in Fremantle, to buy Ann some earings, and a drop pendant, but this time Ann wanted some opal items, so we went shopping for that and Gail guided us to the best jewelers, stocking that, and Ann decided on a dress ring…
When I was over again, in 2014, soon after health issues of my own, I came without Ann… it was Ann’s idea (honest)… So with my cameras in hand, I set out for a chill time… or as chill as I could get, and during my time, I once again met up with Gail… This time it was raining… Gail had planned for us to meet at the Moon Cafe on Williams Street / Northbridge, but after Quinto had dropped her off, we found it to be closed, so we ventured down towards the city, and found a coffee shop on the corner of Williams and Francis Street, with an unusual tower on the corner…
Cafe on the corner of Williams and Francis Street
As it was raining we even managed two cups, and a cake… lol. Gail said she never goes out for coffee, as an experience… and said she would like to make a habit of it… lol. Of course Ann and I venture into the realms of coffee addiction… lol.
After I heard the news, of Gail’s tragic and too early a death, after reading the message from Gail’s family on Fb, and receiving numerous messages of other ‘chatters’ back in the day, to say I was ‘gutted’ would be an understatement. It affected me that much, that the following day, I booked a day off teaching, and Ann & I went down to Liverpool for a tranquil day, sitting in St. John’s gardens at the back of St. George’s Hall.
For some strange reason, my thoughts were driven to a Billy Holiday song, which I played most of that day, thinking about Gail and our most memorable ‘chats’, meets, and the fun we had together, always picking up where we left off, and although I hadn’t heard from Gail for a number of months, that didn’t really bother me, because I thought, I’d just hear that ping of her messaging me at some early hour of a morning when she couldn’t sleep.
Billy Holiday’s song… whenever I hear it now… my thoughts will be with Gail xxx
When I was in Perth last, I mentioned that I had my camera’s with me, and as I am predominately an Infrared and nature photography kind of guy, I managed to compile a short selection of images, from my trip, in the form of a 5 minute video clip, which I know Gail really enjoyed, as she said it relaxed her when she could’t sleep… she commented on the page, and you can find the page and comments by clicking here…. Australia Video. please feel free to leave your own comments below hers….
I know Gail used to listen to the music on the video, with her headphones on… The last time she spoke to me, was to say, that she was looking forward to my next visit, as she wanted to show me a few of the lakes around her home, so that I could take images of the wildlife around her home… Who’ll show me now???
To my dear, dear, long time friend “I’ll be seeing you”…. Goodnight, sleep tight xxx