In Auckland, Raewyn Crowe said the nurses who had treated little Sativa at Starship Hospital's Ward 27B had blown up balloons and signed messages to the little girl, to let them go in the Domain.
Sativa had cheated death several times before she had a bone marrow transplant in May in the hope it would cure her. It was her last chance at life.
But at the end of August, just days before the second birthday she shared with twin sister Indee, she relapsed. More bone marrow was injected into her body in a desperate bid to push out her cancerous cells, but on September 11 parents Sheree Roose and Tim Eagle were told their daughter was dying.
Friends described yesterday's funeral service as "beautiful and emotional".
Roose and Eagle were commended for their strength and courage. "If they continue life with this passion, they will do really, really well for themselves," Roose's uncle Phillip Melvin said.
Whakatane's Rod Topperwien, whose 3-year-old grandson Chace died of leukaemia in June after a massive online fundraising campaign to put him on a drug trial in London, attended yesterday's funeral.
"Tim, what a tower of strength you were," he wrote afterwards. "Our hearts are certainly with you all. It was a beautiful service. Purple suits Tiva."
- Bay of Plenty Times
