Lange\u2019s younger brother Peter said he was shocked and upset about not being informed, and that the former Labour leader would \u201cprobably be laughing from wherever he\u2019s looking down\u201d about the situation. <\/p>\n
In a statement sent to the Herald, Edith defended the decision to remove her dad\u2019s remains.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Uncle Peter … has misrepresented both of my parents,\u201d Edith said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy poppa would not be laughing, he would be broken-hearted seeing how his family has treated my mum. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is the best thing that ever happened to him. The bravest thing my poppa ever did was tell my mum for the first time how special she was. He lived as long as he did because she loved him. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents deserved to be happy, and they were, even if his family were not. I am proud that my mum took his ashes, she owed no notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Lange’s widow, Margaret Pope, at his public art memorial in \u014ct\u0101huhu. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
Pope said it was what Lange wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always wanted to be scattered at the heads,\u201d Pope told the Herald. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe always talked so much about Hokianga and how much he loved it there. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe place he wanted to be was either in the church yard of the church that he helped rebuild at various times there, or across the heads. So that\u2019s where we put him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lange\u2019s ashes and headstone were removed from the Waikaraka cemetery due to fears of flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never very happy with Waikaraka as the cemetery for David, even though I chose it. Mainly because I thought it was going to get flooded,\u201d Pope said.<\/p>\n
She said his headstone, described by Lange\u2019s younger brother Peter as \u201ca lovely, handsome stone\u201d, was removed by a nearby stonemason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was Jacobsen [Headstones], the stonemasons nearest to the Waikaraka Cemetery. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just asked them to get the permit or whatever from the council and take it away. I don\u2019t know what they will do with it, if there is any value to them or what.\u201d<\/p>\n
The disinterment of Lange\u2019s ashes and the subsequent removal of his headstone came as a shock to Peter, who had only recently visited the cemetery late last year to pay his respects.<\/p>\n
Artist Peter Lange is happy that his ex-Prime Minister brother David’s ashes were scattered on the Hokianga Harbour – as he wanted. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
Peter was pleased to learn where his politician brother now rests, when informed by the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what he wanted, to be honest. It\u2019s just a shame that we didn\u2019t know any of this stuff, but it\u2019s good that that\u2019s happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The accomplished artist said Lange had wanted his ashes to be scattered in the Hokianga since he was a young man studying law at university.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when we were very young \u2026 he said, \u2018I\u2019ve written my will and when I die I want my ashes to be taken up [in] a top-dressing plane and spread over the Hokianga, and if there\u2019s any left, to go up the Whanganui River\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter said he was invited to a memorial service at Moria Marae in Whirinaki more than 10 years ago for Lange\u2019s old friend Bob Wynyard, where there was also a tribute to the late Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
At the service, he was asked why Lange\u2019s ashes weren\u2019t in Hokianga as he wished.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said \u2026 \u2018We\u2019ve got a burial plot all ready for him up in the hill there\u2019,\u201d Peter recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to explain to them that it was out of my hands, it was in the hands of Margaret and his new family. <\/p>\n
\u201cI gave them my speech, and the next guy stood up and said, \u2018well if we can\u2019t have him we\u2019ll have you\u2019,\u201d he added with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Asked about Peter\u2019s initial surprise and disappointment about the shifting of Lange\u2019s remains and grave, Pope said: \u201cIt goes back a long, long way and really it shouldn\u2019t be dredged over in public. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe real reason I don\u2019t want to talk about it is it hurts my daughter Edith enormously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter was now at peace with where his brother now lies.<\/p>\n
\u201cEdith did the right thing by taking the ashes up there. That\u2019s really good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lange\u2019s younger brother Peter said he was shocked and upset about not being informed, and that the former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,36671,95,5272,51,49124,14032,6284,634,32255,71,20589,152210,78,140604,130,32033,111,43,139,69,10715,5196,16121,312,122657,13744,4525,131,5828,3608,6923,33016,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-321428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-always","10":"tag-and","11":"tag-ashes","12":"tag-auckland","13":"tag-cemetery","14":"tag-daughter","15":"tag-david","16":"tag-death","17":"tag-familys","18":"tag-from","19":"tag-harbour","20":"tag-hokianga","21":"tag-in","22":"tag-langes","23":"tag-more","24":"tag-moved","25":"tag-new-zealand","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-newzealand","28":"tag-nz","29":"tag-remains","30":"tag-removed","31":"tag-responds","32":"tag-says","33":"tag-scattered","34":"tag-shock","35":"tag-something","36":"tag-than","37":"tag-wanted","38":"tag-were","39":"tag-what","40":"tag-widow","41":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}