Kiwi bushfire victim remembered at service
Kiwi bushfire victim remembered at service
21 March 2009
published by tvnz.co.nz
New Zealand —
Hundreds of people gathered in Victoria Australia on Saturday in memory of the sole New Zealander who died in the black Saturday bushfires.
Whakatane born Tina Wilson and her three children tragically died when fire ripped through their home in Kinglake 60 kilometres from Melbourne.
Tina Wilson loved cars are her local hot rod club went out of their way to give her one last wish.
“The wish for Tina was for her to have 100 hot rods at her funeral and it was only a passing comment that was made but we have been able to achieve that aim,” says Ray McDonald from the Northern Suburbs Street Rod Club.
Wilson and her children Crystal, Nathan and Teagan’s lives were cut short by the fires that flashed through Victoria just weeks ago.
Tina’s parents Jean and John were touched by the support of a huge crowd as they farewelled their daughter and Grandchildren.
While tears flowed this was also a celebration of a life of a much-loved Kiwi.
The service comes ahead of a commission of inquiry into the disaster to ensure black Saturday is never repeated again. But at the service there was no mention of what went wrong or who is to blame.
There was more than a touch of New Zealand in a service for a Kiwi girl who might have left home in the 1980s but never lost touch with her roots.
