‘I forgive you’: Remembering Jillian Pinder, the teacher whose faith endured

“I always think about Miss Pinder. She was so beautiful. She was such a sweet teacher.”

For those who knew Jillian Pinder, 56, they remember her laugh, jokes and kindness. The teacher who poured into her students, the aunt who called for advice, the mother whose children were at the centre of her life.

And, perhaps most strikingly, family remember her faith.

Pinder, a teacher at TG Glover Primary School, died on July 13, weeks after she was attacked and stabbed in the neck on June 4.

Her husband, George Pinder, and another man have since been charged in connection with her death. They face murder and conspiracy charges, with George Pinder also facing a charge of abetment to murder. The allegations are waiting to be proven in court.

But as the legal process begins, Jillian’s family is determined that the woman she was should not disappear behind the case.

Her niece, Janine Capron, remembered a woman whose relationship with her family was filled with laughter.

“Our calls were always some joke or story. She loved to laugh!” Capron wrote.

Jillian was often the first person to send birthday and anniversary messages. She showed up for family milestones and, when difficult conversations were necessary, she remained family.

“She was always the first message for birthdays or anniversaries. She showed up for every family event and milestone,” Capron wrote.

Then came the phone call that changed everything.

Capron recalled rushing to Nassau after learning Jillian had been attacked. When she entered her aunt’s ICU room, she broke down in tears.

But Jillian comforted her. “I am still here,” she told her.

Capron said Jillian recounted what had happened and repeatedly expressed that she simply wanted her life.

“He can have it all, I just want my life,” Capron recalled her saying.

And there was something Jillian reportedly told her attackers. “I forgive you.”

Her niece said those words have stayed with her.

“I haven’t gotten to that place yet,” she wrote.

For a family still struggling to understand the loss, forgiveness is not simple, neither is grief.

Jillian’s family has created the Justice for Jill Facebook page as they seek answers and support for her children.

“As we continue to remember and fight for Jill, we ask that you please keep her beautiful children lifted in prayer,” the family said.

Her niece Anna Capron wrote that the family trusted God even when they could not understand the delays.

“We may not be able to bring her back, but we can make sure she is never forgotten,” she wrote.

That may be the family’s greatest act of remembrance.