GBE 2 Blog On: Superhero funeral for little boy lost and found drowned near his grandmother's home in NZ...

GBE 2 Blog On:  Superhero funeral for little boy lost, Lucas Ward, found drowned just 400 metres upriver from his grandmother's home in Gisborne, New Zealand.


During the  middle of June last year, 2010, a little blond-haired four year old boy tugged at the heartstrings of a nation. His face will become etched in their collective  memories for an eternity to come.

For the time it took his grandmother to unload her groceries from the boot of her car, little Lucas Ward went missing. When she couldn't locate the boy she contacted his father and mother; Lucas had been staying at his grandmother's home in a Gisborne suburb, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island.

His parents were soon joined by others. His bike was found on a pathway leading to the river at the bottom of his grandmother's garden. A packet of chippies, given to him by his grandmother just minutes before, floated eerily on the water.

Soon family, friends and neighbours were joined by police, firefighters, coastguard personnel, surf lifesavers and other professional searchers. Hundreds of other locals and city residents joined in searching far and wide.

For over a week they searched down the river, and on the river banks, in adjoining streams, at the river mouth in Gisborne Harbour, and on the city's beaches.

His parents and family were becoming distraught at the failure to find him, and a nation prayed for divine assistance it seemed. The little lost boy featured on national  and even international television and radio news for days. His discovery was almost anti-climatic. Police had called off the official search for the boy, but a private search continued as the family refused to give up hope. A lone kayaker decided to go further up the river, and the little boy's body was found just 400 metres near a jetty by his grandmothers home. The little boy lost had now come home.

A family and a nation mourned his loss and the waste of such a young life and the  potential he represented. Farewell little Lucas Ward. An RIP page appeared on Facebook.

The following was included in his last press report

"Four-year-old Lucas Ward will make his final journey dressed as his favourite superhero, Spiderman, and wearing Buzz Lightyear boots.

The preschooler, whose body was found yesterday in the Waimata River after being missing for 10 days, will lie at Tikapa Marae in Ruatoria before a private family burial.

The boy was honoured yesterday as schoolboys gathered on the riverbank to perform a stirring haka.

"It was magnificent," Lucas's great-uncle Brian Hunt said.

"Our family is devastated, absolutely devastated. We are coping together, coming together as a family, and we will go from there."

Plans were under way for a public memorial service but details were yet to be finalised, said Mr Hunt."

Yes, indeed, farewell little superhero!


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