A son lost, but many gained

An outpouring of love and grief for a South Korean teenager continued yesterday in Whangarei.
Eighteen-year-old student SangJe Lee died on Monday, hours after being run over in a hit-and-run incident at Okara shopping centre.
His heartbroken father SeungJe Lee told those who went to farewell SangJe at a funeral service in Pompallier Catholic College's hall that although he had lost his only child, he had also gained many sons and daughters.
Mr Lee and his wife Sunga Baek arrived in Whangarei from Korea on Tuesday. They had been deeply touched by the love and support they received, and the deep friendships SangJe had enjoyed, Mr Lee said.

They would always have warm feelings for the city their son loved and where he had lived for four years, Mr Lee said.
Mr Lee's Korean was translated by family friend - and the dead boy's host father - Byung Kuoog Kim of Whangarei. An emotional Mr Kim also spoke of how happy SangJe had been in Whangarei.
He asked friends at the service to remember SangJe, to think of him as they lived their lives: "To keep him alive in your hearts".
Several of SangJe's friends also spoke, among them the school's head boy Joshua Hodgson. They told of a good, loyal friend; a quiet, outwardly shy boy, who loved skateboarding, sports and music, was lots of fun, always ready to listen, to laugh, to share good times and bad.
Principal Madeleine Armstrong said SangJe had won hearts with his willingness to take part in the school's social, sporting and academic activities, even acting in a school production. "They were all threads he used to weave himself into our lives," Ms Armstrong said.
SangJe had had an ability to dissolve geographic, social and cultural boundaries and as such was a new-age pioneer, she said. He taught his fellow school students an understanding of other countries and people.
Yesterday, in the hall packed with Korean family and friends, school mates and their parents, staff and members of the local international community, his farewell included three of his favourite rock songs. As tears flowed freely, during one song - Wonderwall by Oasis - students in the audience spontaneously started singing too.
Then as school mates carried the casket from the hall, followed by SangJe's grieving parents and other family members, a Maori woman's voice rang out in karanga.
SangJe's parents will take his ashes home to Korea, where there will be another funeral service.
Meanwhile, police are still appealing for information about a dark Nissan Skyline car believed to have been involved in SangJe's death.
Detective Shane Pilmer said he expected interviewing of witnesses to have been completed yesterday before the task of checking service station security camera footage began. Footage from about 10 service stations from around the town would be analysed.
"It's a laborious task but a car needs petrol. It must've gone to one around town."