The family of Jackie Allister console each other at her funeral. Photo / Herald on Sunday.
Jackie Allister's daughter is taking comfort from knowing that her mother is keeping a close eye on her three children from heaven.
Allister, 26, and her partner Ivor Christiansen, 36, both died of stab wounds at their home in Pakuranga following a violent argument.
The deaths have been referred to
the coroner, and Allister's family is dumbfounded at her killing.
The dead woman's 14-year-old sister had been babysitting the couple's children, the Herald on Sunday has learned, while they had a night out on December 19. It was she who phoned police after Allister and Christiansen returned home and argued.
On Thursday, at the packed funeral at the International Baptist Church in Howick, she read a eulogy written by Allister's 9-year-old daughter.
"She was my mum and I had fun when she took me swimming and out for the day," the little girl wrote. "Now we know that she is all right. I loved my mum but she is in the stars now with the angels. She is watching us. Up above us now she knows that we are always good for grandma."
Allister's grandfather, John Felton, told mourners that there was "a lot of hurt and anger" in the family about her death.
"I thank the police. You had a nasty job." He also thanked Victim Support.
Felton told the Herald on Sunday that his granddaughter loved her job as a barista at Fisher House in East Tamaki. "She was finding life was beautiful; she was just at that stage. That's the sad part about it."
He said Allister and Christiansen arrived home that night in "very happy" moods, but that changed very quickly.
"Everybody's struggling at the severity of it and the quickness of it," he said.
"We can't find the trigger."
Mourners heard that Allister was a "happy, attentive mum" to her 9-year-old daughter and her sons, aged 7 and 2.
The former Pakuranga College student was known as funny, cheeky and sociable.
"Jackie was always for family," one mourner said.
"Best friend to many, more than a sister and daughter, she was a mate to everyone."
Christiansen's funeral was held in Upper Hutt on Wednesday.
Messages of remembrance posted on the internet spoke of his love of fishing.
