9 deaths 4 years 1 family

Grieving Bideford farmer Dion Kilmister has since 2007 lost his son, parents and grandmother. On Wednesday he bid a final farewell to his wife, Maria.
Dion says a promise he made on her deathbed to keep chasing their shared dream is all that keeps him going today.
"I made a promise to my boy when he died and I made the same promise to my wife while she was dying.
"I promised I'd wake up every morning and get on with it. And that's just what I'm doing.
"You know, it's a case of sink or swim and we've come too far to sink now."
Six years ago Dion and Maria moved with their only son, Jayden, to take up a lease on the Willowbank farm at Bideford, east of Masterton.
Their dream was to one day own their own farm.
They had worked their way up to Willowbank by the sweat of their brows and by "trading up little by little" after first framing the vision years earlier when Dion was fixing fences and shepherding and they were "running a little cattle".
Dion said the couple took up the lease with barely 2500 stock units in hand and at Maria's death were working 7000 head of sheep and 3000 cattle.
The owner of the property, Masterton Mayor Garry Daniell, officiated at the funeral service for Maria as grey skies roiled overhead this week.
Hundreds of neighbours, friends and family had gathered on the front lawn of the Kilmister home to share Dion's grief on Wednesday and to remember Maria, who died on February 4 after a long battle with cancer.
Many of the same people, from Bideford, Ohura, Masterton, had bowed their heads in June 2009 to farewell Jayden, 15, who was killed after being blown from the back of a ute while shifting furniture from a neighbouring property.
An honour guard of Wairarapa College pupils flanked the pallbearers and coffin on Wednesday, as they had for their classmate and bike-mad friend Jayden two years earlier.
Monarch butterflies were released, colouring the clouds for a moment.
Dion said a tragic chain of loss had bound his family since late 2007 with the death of his mother, Kath Kilmister.
He farewelled his son 16 months later and six months after that had lost his father, Jim Kilmister.
The couple had, before the death of Maria, 39, also farewelled Dion's grandmother Kathleen Kilmister, Maria's mother, Dawn Dawson, and four of her aunties and uncles.
Dion said his wife had clung to life with remarkable tenacity and a strength of character that had revealed itself to him as the disease gradually gained the upper hand.
"She had much more strength than I gave her credit for, but I saw it too late," Dion said.
Foremost among her "many reasons to stay alive" had been the Jayden Kilmister Memorial Trail Ride among the hills of Willowbank on January 23 that had attracted 166 riders despite fitful rain.
Maria had determinedly dragged herself to the start line and before falling back, fatigued, to her bed had watched as the riders were launched.
Dion said he has been overwhelmed and uplifted by the unconditional support and outpouring of affection from his neighbours, near and far, for himself and his stepdaughter, Alishia Anderson.
He will stay true to his promise to Maria and Jayden, he says, and will keep chasing the dream he shared with his wife, strengthened by his friends and remaining family and his memories of those who left him to carry on.