I look at her face and think of which books I might loan her. She is too young for Watership Down or The Hobbit, but perhaps some comics would interest her.
Perhaps a stuffed toy or two. Some card games like German Whist, Bloody Mary or Swimming. She might enjoy a movie from Pixar or to run around in a park with friends.
God gives us much with which to be thankful. So long as there is life, there is more that is possible than can be known, and much that will never come to pass. Choosing can be such joy.
All that might have been has been denied. The one who killed her might not have even seen her face.
HUNDREDS of family and friends of Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu have gathered at her Perth school chapel to farewell the eight-year-old murder victim.
ReplyDeleteHer funeral was to begin at 1030 WST (1230 AEST) today at the Mater Christi primary school in the southern suburb of Yangebup.
She would be buried in Fremantle Cemetery at noon (WST).
Her school is closed today to allow its students to pay their respects to the friend whose body was found by her 14-year-old brother on the floor of a shopping centre toilet last Monday.
But schoolchildren from numerous schools have arrived and the car parks are full, with officials having to direct traffic to park on the school oval.
Some children will be releasing helium-filled balloons as a mark of respect for their classmate.
A liturgical movement from the school's Indonesian study class will also be performed by some of Sofia's friends.
"The beautiful little rainbow dance, it is called. She loved it so much," a spokesman for the school community said.
Since Sofia's death, the Mater Christi primary school has been inundated with hundreds of emails and letters of support from around the country.
A small school in Beaconsfield, Tasmania - recently the site of the fatal mine collapse - also had passed on messages of support to the school attended by Sofia's brother, the Carey Baptist College.
The many messages had given the dead girl's parents and her three siblings comfort, the spokesman said.
Sofia's death has shocked the Perth community, with hundreds turning out on Friday to pay their respects by laying flowers near the scene of her murder at the Livingston Marketplace shopping centre in Canningvale, south east of Perth.
Close to 600 Carey Baptist students went to the shopping centre on Friday to leave flowers for Sofia, year 12 and nine students each laying a single flower at the shopping centre entrance.
A 21-year-old Perth man has been charged over Sofia's death.
Dante Wyndham Arthurs, of Canningvale, has been charged with wilful murder and sexual penetration of a child.
He made a brief appearance in the WA Supreme Court on Thursday via video link from a Perth psychiatric hospital.
Sydney Conservative: Family devastated at 'senseless' death By Jim Kelly and wires
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