Final farewell for mum, children
An Ashburton mum who died with her three children was ‘‘one of a kind’’, her family says.
About 400 people attended the funeral of Cindy George, 31, daughter Pio Raukete, 5, and sons Teuruaa George, 3, and Teiyzshwaun George, on Saturday.
Police believe the family were killed in an accidental gassing from a car left running in a garage attached to the Thomson St house they were looking after.
The service was held at the Sinclair Centre and the four caskets were brought into the service by family, friends and police. George’s cousins Poko Ngaro and Nane Tairea spoke on behalf of the family.
Ngaro said George, one of 14 siblings, moved to Ashburton ‘‘in search of a better life, better living’’, which she found.
The pair said the deaths were a ‘‘huge loss’’.
‘‘For anybody to lose a child, a sister and children. It’s a huge loss, it’s heartbreaking,’’ Tairea said.
George was described as a loving mother – ‘‘one of a kind’’, who put her children’s welfare ahead of her own.
‘‘She dressed them way better
2, than she dressed herself, because her kids were her priority,’’ Tairea said.
The children were ‘‘very energetic’’ and the youngest, Teiyzshwaun, was a ‘‘very cheeky, little rascal’’.
George’s remaining son, Amos, travelled to the funeral from the Cook Islands to farewell his mother, sister and two brothers. He was still coming to terms with the tragedy but ‘‘has a big heart’’.
Ngaro paid tribute to the Ashburton community for making ‘‘this journey easy for us’’.
‘‘The fact that you were able to come together in terms of providing food, mattresses and blankets speaks volumes of your hearts.
‘‘The last nine days have been really hard, it’s come as a shock to us. We probably wouldn’t have been able to get through the last nine days without the support of the community.’’
Mayor Angus McKay told the gathering: ‘‘Cindy and her children did not deserve to leave us so soon. The emotional wounds will take time to heal. I don’t think there’s a person in Ashburton who’s not hurting for them at this time.’’
Ngaro said the ‘‘shocking loss is still sinking in, but has brought the community closer’’.
‘‘It was a pure accident. Mistakes do happen . . . the key is education.’’
Bishop Mora Pongia, of the Ashburton Church of the Latter-day Saints, said George was one of the ‘‘most wonderful, great-hearted woman I have ever met in my life’’.
He said George would always turn up to Sunday mass an hour early.
Her children were the ‘‘most active young children I have ever seen in my life’’.
Church of the Latter-day Saints Christchurch president Adrian Van’t Wout said George was ‘‘bubbly and full of life and her children were exactly the same’’.
‘‘Their eyes were full of life, hope and love.’’
The children’s father, John Raukete, did not speak at the funeral. Sports celebrities Dan and Honor Carter are angry a photo of their two-year-old son was printed in a gossip magazine.
Dan Carter’s manager, Simon Porter, said the pair had laid a complaint with Woman’s Day magazine after a picture in the July 13 edition showed their twoyear-old son on Dan Carter’s shoulders.
The photograph was taken in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, a public place. The couple’s other child, Fox, was not featured in the photos.
Porter said the approach to the magazine was not a threat of legal action but was ‘‘more a ‘can we please just not do it again?’ ’’
The manager said the Carters had chosen to keep their children out of the media, despite many offers.
Woman’s Day editor Sido Kitchin declined to comment.
Psychologist and TV host Nigel Latta weighed in yesterday, posting on Facebook that children ‘‘are not commodities . . . not even the children of public figures’’.
Latta said Woman’s Day had been ‘‘utterly reprehensible’’ in publishing the photo. ‘‘The justification some commentators have used is that, because the Carters were paid by the magazine for their wedding photos, you’ve gotta expect a bit of that. Actually, no you don’t,’’ he wrote.
Latta said he had turned down approaches to have his family featured in the media. ‘‘I signed up for all this, but my kids didn’t. They have their own right to privacy which isn’t surrendered just because I’m on the telly.’’
Latta said the fact the Carters may have sold their images in the past did not condone Woman’s Day’s actions.
In 2003 broadcaster Mike Hosking took New Idea magazine through the courts in a precedentsetting invasion of privacy case to stop publication of a paparazzi photographer’s picture of his former wife Marie with their twins when the girls were 18 months old.
The Hoskings lost the case with the Court of Appeal saying the photos were taken in a public place. But in a split decision they ruled that media organisations could be sued if they breach an average person’s ‘‘reasonable expectation’’ of privacy.