“Numbers are people”
A reflection inspired by Nicole Van Berkel - a family friend of Hannah McGuire.
I have known for some time now that on average, one woman dies every four days at the hands of another. I don’t have strong numeracy skills but that means 7 this month and thus a humiliating 84 each year.
I’d always been aware of these sums but the three deaths (at the time of typing) this year of Ballarat women in just two swift months, has made me sit down and write something. I know Buninyong well. They bravely put up with me as their parish priest for 6 years. Sebastopol was part of the parish. Clunes was a lovely day trip away. I have been there. I can take you there. They are real places that reminded me of happy times. Now the place names have been slurried by what has happened there. Something has been muddied and taken from me.
But my loss is only a fingernail sliver of what Hannah McGuire, Rebecca Young and Samantha Murphy have lost, to say nothing of the enormous, inescapable chasm of ache that envelops their families and friends.
These numbers are real people, with real lives, hopes, dreams, aspirations and potential. Their lives mattered. They mattered. These women will always matter. They were important and they were loved. They brought to this world things no one else could. The tears and grief of those left behind are authentic and if we were at one of the understandable rallies that was called, their angst would be almost holdable.
In my bewilderment, I am left only with tears and questions.
Why is this scourge still among us? What needs to change and how and when? and…
Gentlemen ….We are better than this… aren’t we?