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Goodbye Reeva - you'll never be forgotten

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This excerpt from Behind the Door: The Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp Story has been published with permission from Pan Macmillan South Africa and is available from all leading stores (Currently R172 at Kalahari.com).

The black Mercedes-Benz hearse pulled up outside the white, weather-beaten chapel at the Victoria Park Crematorium in Port Elizabeth.

Personnel from Doves Funeral Services took their positions on either side of the coffin holding Reeva Steenkamp’s body and carried it through to a side entrance.

It was draped in a cloth and an arrangement of white flowers was perched on top. Slight cloud gathered overhead as the so-called friendly city’s ubiquitous wind whistled through the trees.

By request from family members, journalists retreated beyond a boundary wall, a distance from the tranquil setting of the memorial service. They watched as mourning friends, relatives and the occasional celebrity walked the path to the chapel. Reeva’s parents were embraced as they moved slowly into the building.

Not far behind them was Gina Myers, her sister and parents, Reeva’s ‘adopted’ Johannesburg family.

Most notable amongst the celebrities was rugby player Francois Hougaard, in a dark suit and with sunglasses shielding his eyes. Hougaard’s appearance caused a stir amongst media curious about weekend reports around the potential text message that might have ignited a row between Oscar and Reeva.

Radio DJ Thato Sikwane, popularly known as DJ Fresh on 5FM, was amongst the mourners. The ANC Women’s League was also present, and Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor and Women’s League provincial secretary Nancy Sihlwayi came out to support the victim’s family.

‘The city is in grief, a little angel is no more,’ she told reporters before controversially remarking that Oscar should not receive bail and that he ‘must die in jail’.

Following the event, Reeva’s uncle, Mike, and her half-brother, Adam, addressed reporters, saying that her death had left a void in the family.

Her uncle struggled under the weight of the moment, breaking down in tears as he spoke about how his niece would be missed at family gatherings.

‘Like the pastor said, we will keep Reeva in our hearts forever,’ he said. He confirmed that Reeva’s ashes would be scattered by her family at a private ceremony in the future.

Several months later, the Steenkamps gathered at a Port Elizabeth beach to carry out that final task.

The moment was captured for posterity by a camera crew filming a documentary for the UK’s Channel 5, entitled Why Did Oscar Pistorius Kill Our Daughter?

A clergyman, his cream cassock flapping in incessant gusts of Port Elizabeth wind, led the family and gathered friends in a brief ceremony.

Reeva’s mother June, her face drawn, clutched a bouquet of long-stemmed red, white and dusty pink roses, which were subsequently placed on an artists’ easel below a black-and-white portfolio portrait of her dead daughter before being cast into the crashing waves.

Reeva’s father, the burly, bearded Barry, struggled to maintain his composure as he leaned on his son Adam, who had flown in from the UK to attend the ceremony.

Reeva’s half-sister Simone Cowburn had also made the trip. Around a dozen people were gathered on the beach, including Reeva’s ex-boyfriend Warren Lahoud, her cousin Kim Martin and her uncle Mike.

The family had chosen to scatter her ashes in the Indian Ocean because they had done the same with her grandfather when he had died.

According to her mother, Reeva also loved to swim, loved the beach and loved being with dolphins, as had been so visibly illustrated by footage of her from the Tropika reality show. June was sure that this would be an appropriate resting place for her daughter.

Adam, his pants rolled up to his knees, took several steps into the foaming waves, clutching a plain pine wooden box in one hand and supporting his father with the other.

Barry hadn’t bothered with pulling up his jeans, choosing instead to allow them to soak up the salt water. Together they reached into the pine box, drawing out fists full of ash and scattering Reeva’s remains into the wind and the ocean.

The pastor, holding his shoes in his hands, watched from the beach as each family member and friend took a moment to remember Reeva, savouring the salt of the sea and their tears.

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