Today, Friday, marks the one-year anniversary of the brutal murder of Labour MP Helen ‘Jo’ Cox.
Mrs Cox, who entered Parliament in 2015, was stabbed and shot in her home town of Birstall by local man Thomas Mair, who was later found to have an interest in neo-Nazi groups.
More than 100,000 events are to be held around the country to remember the life of Ms. Cox, who was just 41-years-old when she died, leaving behind a husband and two children.
The Great Get Together, as it has been named, will see a series of picnics, street parties, and concerts run across the weekend.
Kim Leadbeater, Ms. Cox’s sister, said the events had nothing to do with religion or politics.
“Nothing to do with anything other than getting together with people in your communities,” she told the BBC. “People are desperate for it – people want something that is about coming together and being positive.”
“I think the thing, as a family, is every day is difficult”, she added. “So it’s not as if today is actually very different for us in lots of ways.
“But I think what I chose to do is to come into the community and be around the people who loved Jo and who Jo loved and in the place that we were born and brought up.”
Widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, Brendan Cox (L) react as Jo’s sister Kim Leadbeater delivers a statement outside the Old Bailey criminal court in London on November 23, 2016, following the conviction of Jo’s killer Thomas Mair. (NIKLAS HALLE’N/AFP/Getty)
With the event intended to bring people together, Ms. Cox’s widower, Brendan Cox, said there could be “no more fitting tribute” to his wife.
Speaking of his of the grief and morning his family has faced over the past twelve months, he told The Telegraph: “When Jo was killed a year ago it took the heart out of our family.
“The first emotion was shock, both numbing and shattering. That in time gave way to a grief that remains very fresh, very raw and continues to hit us in vicious waves when we least expect it. But our family has not been broken.”