Michelle wanted to be a copy typist. She longed to have a boyfriend and fall in love, like her sister.
She loved to sing and would often skip off to her room, close the door and play Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You as she danced barefoot.
"I miss hearing her music coming through the bedroom wall. I miss her singing. I just miss Michelle," Mrs McIlquham said.
Michelle died of meningitis on May 19, 2009, after a middle ear infection spread to her brain.
The 28-year-old's condition was overlooked by medical staff who couldn't see past her mild intellectual disability, a coronial inquest later found.
Michelle was "evidently in real pain", the deputy coroner said. But her treating doctor wrote off her distress, crying and moaning as a "temper tantrum" after she'd suffered a seizure and was transferred by ambulance to Bankstown Hospital's emergency department.
"She had a mind of her own like anyone else," Mrs McIlquham said. "She was intelligent and bright and charming. She could speak for herself, but by the time we saw a doctor she wasn't talking, she was in pain and so tired."