One year on: We will never forget our beautiful Georgia
"Time is no healer," according to Georgia Williams' parents on the first anniversary of their daughter's death.
Steve and Lynnette Williams were today laying flowers at the house in Avondale Road, Wellington, where their 17-year-old daughter was murdered by Jamie Reynolds.
The couple may also visit the spot where Georgia was found in woodland off the Nant-y-Garth Pass near Wrexham.
And they hope to join with her friends in remembering the fun-loving teenager by lighting lanterns in the park she spent time in growing up.
The Williams say they want to stay in their home town of Wellington to feel close to their daughter.
Mr Williams said: "People have offered us places to go to get away but we want to be at home just to keep that connection with Georgia that we still like to think that we have. We are going to go to the doorstep on Avondale Road and put flowers at the house. Nobody lives there anymore."
Mrs Williams added: "We might go up to Wrexham too to put some flowers where Georgia was found. And we'd like to go to Bowring Park to see her friends, it just all depends how we feel."
Mr Williams said the realisation that a year had passed without Georgia made the nightmare of living without her even more unbearable.
He said: "Basically nothing changes with regards to your life just because the time has gone. In some ways it gets worse because you are in shock initially and you get carried along by a tidal wave where the enormity hasn't hit you properly.
"They say time heals but a year passing hasn't helped at all because it seems to me that we are leaving Georgia further and further behind and the desperate hope is that she stays near."
Mrs Williams said: "People say you have your memories but these memories become tarnished with sorrow now because you know you're not going to have any new ones."
Mr Williams said: "I'm sure everybody in our position, April Jones' mum and dad and Millie Dowler's mum and dad, feel exactly the same that their lives have been changed for the worse forever.
"It's living heartbreak every day. We go to functions and we pull ourselves together for a while and we put on our brave faces and we get distracted for those moments when people out there are helping us out but there should be four of us."
HOW TO GIVE TO THE GEORGIA WILLIAMS APPEAL:
It's easy to give:
By text: Text FERR31 followed by the amount you want to give to 70070 - for example, to give £5, text FERR31£5
By post: Send a cheque payable to The Georgia Williams Trust to Georgia Appeal, Newsdesk, Shropshire Star, Ketley, Telford TF1 5HU
From your bank account: Log on to thegeorgiawilliamstrust.org for details
Mrs Williams said: "I look on Facebook and see all Georgia's friends all excited about finishing college. She would have been leaving and planning to join the RAF and I'm thinking Georgia's missing out on all of that."
Mr Williams said: "She's missing out on all the fun teenage life and growing up brings. And the rest of her life has been taken away.
"It's like a living nightmare."
The pair thanked everyone who had supported the Georgia Williams Trust in its first year, helping to raise £60,000.
Mrs Williams said: "We really appreciate what people in Telford have gone out of their way to do for us and the trust. You can't list them all but they've been fantastic.
"The massive things and the little things make so much of a difference to us."
Reynolds, 23, is serving a whole-life sentence for Georgia's murder.
A poem for Georgia:
One of Georgia's close friends, Liam Ball, has written a poem to mark the first anniversary of her death. Here are some of his words in tribute.
Isn't it funny how time can stand still?
In these souls of ours, is a hole we can't fill.
We're failing to forget as hard as we try.
Isn't it funny how time can fly by?
It's been a year, since that devastating day.
A man so cruel, your trust he betrayed,
All we would give just to have said bye,
Isn't it crazy how time slips right by?
Our days would brighten at the sight of your sunshine smile,
And the way you were proud of your ginger hairstyle,
And personality as bubbly, even though you used dye.
Isn't it strange how time just melts by?
Your sisters and parents so loving, all your friends too,
Fantastic memories, was our gift from you.
You were an exceptional person, from August to July,
Isn't it just so mad, how time soars on by?
You lived life to fullest, that much is true,
Your ferret-like behaviour, Miss Orange-and-Blue.
You'd fill the room with laugher, with humour so wry.
Isn't it amazing how time just drifts by?
A legacy you left, grows stronger as time passes.
So on this day, we'll raise you our glasses.
But every day we'll remember you, until the day that we die.
Isn't it funny how time can fly by?
