In a small, square garden behind a terraced house in Liverpool, Michelle Shevlin is showing me the tattoo she got soon after her only daughter died. “It already had the ‘Stephanie’,” she says, pointing to the name etched across her wrist. “Then I got the text of a Mother’s Day card she gave me: ‘A daughter holds your hand for a while, but holds your heart for ever.’”
Her partner, Sharon Taylor, nods. Her forearm also bears a new inscription – “I didn’t give you the gift of life, life gave me the gift of you” – as does the small shed, half bar, half tiki stand, squeezed into the garden behind her. A plaque is screwed to the front: “In loving memory of Stephanie Jade Shevlin, 1993-2016. Forever watching over us. So drink up and dance.”
They remember the Saturday night Stephanie died; it was only hours after they had started building the bar. Michelle had gone to bed early. Just before 1am, she got a phone call from the hospital. They drove there immediately, but she didn’t make it in time to see her daughter alive.
Stephanie died in the early hours of 5 June last year after taking ecstasy on a night out. The 22-year-old had gone to the Box nightclub in Crewe for a rave called Core Blimey with her girlfriend of five years, Ann Roberts, and a small group of friends. Ann speaks quietly as she recounts the events of that night. She says she is unhappy that previous news reports made Stephanie out to be “a druggie”. “We only did a summer rave and a new year’s one,” she says. “That was it. Twice a year.”
The group bought pills from “some lads” they met that night. “We took our first half in the toilet and another one on the dance floor,” Ann says. “We all took the same amount.” At around midnight, Ann says, the group began to notice Stephanie go “a bit funny, falling around everywhere”. That was when an ambulance was called. It is difficult for her to describe the journey to the hospital. “She couldn’t even respond to me,” she says, her voice growing quieter. Stephanie died later that night.
