Megan Gale The healing power of family
“I’ve always been taught to stand up for myself by mum.”
You look like a princess!” If there was any doubt which dress Megan Gale would be wearing on the cover of our Christmas issue, it was dispelled the moment her family saw her swathed in dreamy red tulle. “Moana!” squealed two-year-old Rosie in delight, adding to brother River’s high praise. From fiancé Shaun Hampson, there was simply an appreciative whistle. It’s true, the dress is a knockout, but it’s how she carries herself that takes it to fairytale proportions.
It was a decidedly more casual Megan I met the day before at a retro cafe in Daylesford, Victoria. Rocking black jeans and a slogan T-shirt, with her hair scraped back in a ponytail, her look screams off-duty model but her manner is more old friend than seasoned celebrity. “They do a bloody good scone here,” she confides, while masterfully arranging her long limbs into the sagging cushions of a pre-loved couch.
The cafe is attached to a sprawling antique and collectables market, just one spot in this quaint town that has come to be a special place for Megan and her family. For them, holidays are about quality time together and a return to life’s simpler pleasures – like trawling endless aisles of bric-a-brac. It’s ‘inquisitive’ River who embraces the treasure hunt most passionately. With a sudden yearning to play the fiddle, he spent the morning scouring the market in search of one, all the while keeping an eye out for the perfect wand. “He’s a pretty quirky, pretty cool kid,” the proud mumma laughs. “He feels very deeply. He’s very emotional and he speaks his emotions, which I’ve always taught him to do.”
River’s arrival into the world five years ago was a bittersweet time for Megan and Shaun. Their joy at becoming first-time parents was tinged with tragedy. They were grieving the loss of Shaun’s father, Tom, who had succumbed to prostate cancer one month earlier, while Megan’s father,
