Mom Recounts Judy Malinowski’s Last Words for 2 Daughters Before She Succumbed to Burn Injuries

Judy Malinowski wanted her daughters Kaylyn and Madison to know one thing before she died: that they were both loved.

Malinowski, an Ohio mother of two, spent two years in the hospital after her ex-boyfriend Michael Slager doused her in gasoline and lit her on fire with a lighter outside a suburban gas station in 2015. Her fight to stay alive and testify at his murder trial before succumbing to organ failure two years later is the subject of a harrowing new MTV documentary The Fire That Took Her, streaming on Paramount+.

“She had a lot of foresight, even though she was on a lot of pain medicine, even with me, not just facing Michael,” her mother Bonnie Bowes says in the current issue of PEOPLE. “One of her famous things she said, that I don't know what she meant was, she had told both the girls, matter of fact, I think it's the last thing she said to them, was she said, ‘I love you.’ She said, ‘Remember, you're both the color of my heart.’"

Malinowski showed both her young daughters an example of courage before she died. 

The 2015 attack left Malinowski with 90 percent of her body covered in burns. She endured more than 50 agonizing surgeries to stay alive and needed to be revived seven times. But still, the former homecoming queen who was “friends with everybody” she met fiercely fought to stay alive and see justice handed down to Slager.

Malinowski spent several weeks weaning off pain medications in order to prove to a judge she was sound of mind and record a videotaped testimony to be played at Slager’s trial. In doing so, the mother became one of the first people in U.S. history to testify at her own murder trial. Soon after, Slager was sentenced to life in prison.

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“She showed unbelievable strength,” Bowes told PEOPLE days after her daughter died. “I really don’t know how she did it.”

Her daughters and other family members – including sister Danielle Gorman, brother Patrick Bowes, and her mother Bonnie – carried on the fight, coming together to push for tougher legislation in Ohio for assaults using an accelerant that leave victims seriously disfigured. And on September 7, 2017, Malinowski’s family stood together at the Ohio Statehouse as “Judy’s Law” was officially enacted.

As for how her daughters should be raised, Malinowski left clear directions for her mother: no dances until 11th grade and make sure they don’t spend too much time on their cell phones. And “of course,” Bowes says, her daughter wanted to see her two daughters go to college.

"Mom, you have to teach them to be successful,” Bowes recalls Malinowski telling her. “They have to go to college, they have nothing. They have no inheritance. They don't have parents. I know that your resources are limited. You have to help them understand that they have to get it right the first time.”

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.