Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The worst thing is thinking my brother died on his own, with no one to hold his hand & say they loved him
chest with kitchen knives they tied to their wrists with leather straps.
What she does know is that James, as one of the first people to be killed, got “the full force of their adrenaline and aggression”.
At her home in South West London, she clutches her favourite photo of the two siblings, showing Melissa beaming up into her big brother’s grinning face as the pair share a joke.
Mum-of-one Melissa says it encapsulates James – the funny, charming and magnetic man with an irrepressible love of life. He had dedicated two years to his e-learning start-up company Universibly, aimed at helping disadvantaged kids in Eastern Europe receive a decent education.
On the night he was killed, he was celebrating the end of the project and was on the verge of signing a £1.4million contract. Melissa says his wake summed up James’ passion and popularity. The get-together, after his funeral on June 16, was less than a mile from where James was murdered outside The Barrowboy & Banker pub.
She says: “We thought maybe 100 people might turn up, but there were over 500 there. It was completely overwhelming. “People flew in from Canada, Australia, Paris, Cambodia, Ukraine and Brussels just to come to his funeral. We all wore T-shirts with a picture of James dressed up as a washing machine at a festival with the slogan, ‘Play hard, work harder’.
“It was lovely for me and my parents to know that everyone who was there was there just for him.”
But Melissa believes London Bridge has become the “forgotten attack”, between the Manchester bombing and the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
She says: “With Manchester, there was the emotional pull of lots of children. Then suddenly, London Bridge happened. And then Grenfell, and it felt like London Bridge was just brushed under the carpet.”
Melissa, who may meet the other victims’ families, who all live abroad, adds: “We have felt almost isolated as the only British family.”
But when it comes to the murderers she has nothing but contempt.
“I don’t even see his killers as human,” she says. “They were animals. I don’t give them any of my time, or any of my thoughts. What they did to James was not human.”
Melissa had no idea that James was in the Borough Market area that night. It was only when a friend contracted her on the morning after that she realised her brother was missing.
She explains: “His voice was shaking, and he said, ‘I am really sorry, Melissa, we were in the Borough last night and we can’t find James’.”
He had nipped outside to make a phone call and was stabbed in the chest by one of the terrorists. They continued their killing spree before being shot dead by police.
It wasn’t until the Monday afternoon that the family was told that police feared James was dead.
Melissa found explaining to her son Max, seven, about what had happened to his uncle was the hardest thing she has ever had to do.
She says: “We didn’t mention terrorism, but unfortunately children at school talk.” Melissa now keeps mementoes- of her brother, wearing one of his jackets and sleeping with a toy monkey he bought her when Max was born.
The last time she saw him is one of her happiest memories.
“It was my 30th birthday two weeks before he died,” she says. “He kept saying, ‘I want to make it really special for you’.
“He arranged a family meal and he surprised me by bringing one of my really good friends.”
The family are determined James will leave a legacy and have raised nearly £18,000 on Justgiving to keep his business going.
But mum Mila has been struggling to cope with her only son’s death and keeps his ashes at home as she “can’t bear to let go of him yet”.
The family hope to eventually send James’s ashes all over the world.
Melissa adds: “Travelling was something he wanted to do. So we want to send him to places he never got to visit. The pain won’t go, but it’s important we carry on with our lives. That’s what James would have wanted.”
In the meantime, Melissa clings to her memories of her most wonderful big brother.