Some brought flowers. Others brought prayers or songs. Many simply stood in silence.<\/p>\n
Judd acknowledged words could feel inadequate at a time of profound loss.<\/p>\n
Drawing on the Bible, he offered two passages: \u201cComfort, comfort my people\u201d and \u201cweep with those who weep\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s what we do today,\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n
Police were called to the railway station at about 6.20pm on September 20 after an incident involving a train. The young person died at the scene.<\/p>\n
Waip\u0101 Mayor Mike Pettit addresses the Te Awamutu community vigil at Anchor Park. Photo \/ Tom Eley<\/p>\n
Senior Sergeant John McCarthy previously said police were supporting the wh\u0101nau and those who immediately tried to help.<\/p>\n
The Serious Crash Unit examined the scene, and police inquiries were continuing.<\/p>\n
Waip\u0101 Mayor Mike Pettit said the tragedy affected Te Awamutu, communities along the railway line, including Hamilton, and about 300 people aboard the train.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effect will be on Te Awamutu, and it will be on people right up and down this train line,\u201d Pettit said.<\/p>\n
He said the vigil could not provide answers or remove the community\u2019s pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we can do is give the opportunity to walk through grief.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pettit paid tribute to police officers and other emergency service personnel who were among those first at the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are times when words feel too small. This is one of those times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA precious life has been lost, and a wh\u0101nau, friends and this community are carrying a sadness that is hard to put into words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pettit said those gathered could stand together around the young person\u2019s wh\u0101nau and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the centre of this tragedy is someone deeply loved, someone whose life will be missed beyond measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe honour that life by holding the wh\u0101nau in our thoughts, by being gentle with one another and by remembering that every life has value.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd observed a minute\u2019s silence before mourners placed flowers at the foot of the lectern. Organisers later carried them to the railway station on the community\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n
As the crowd sang Te Aroha, strong winds carried more cherry blossom petals among the mourners.<\/p>\n
Waip\u0101 District Council strategic M\u0101ori partnerships director Ngira Simmonds said those attending did not need to arrive with the right words.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of us come bringing prayer, some bringing song. Some of us arrive with questions. Some among us this morning have a heavy heart,\u201d Simmonds said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of us arrive simply with silence, but we all bring presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some brought flowers. Others brought prayers or songs. Many simply stood in silence. Judd acknowledged words could feel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38474,34257,89438,13976,6179,4189,27509,78,671,29819,3375,57387,133272,111,43,139,69,4056,302084,46868,6560,55401,530,19875,8690,210,61,1865,11685,4741],"class_list":["post-613416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-awamutu","tag-blossom","tag-brave","tag-cherry","tag-died","tag-driving","tag-gathered","tag-in","tag-incident","tag-involving","tag-killed","tag-mourn","tag-mourners","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-person","tag-petals","tag-railway","tag-rain","tag-remember","tag-residents","tag-swept","tag-te","tag-through","tag-to","tag-today","tag-train","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613416","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=613416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}