A primary schoolboy who was one of six children who died in the Tasmania jumping castle tragedy will be laid to rest.
Family and friends of Jye Sheehan will say their final goodbyes to the 12-year-old at his funeral service in Devonport on Friday morning.
The service will be held a week after Jye and five other children died when a gust of wind tossed a jumping castle into the air during end-of-year school celebrations.
His schoolmate Zane Mellor, 12, was also formally farewelled by loved ones at his own funeral at Mersey Gardens Chapel on Thursday.
He was remembered as kind and loving and a passionate gamer with a love of dinosaurs.
‘My baby, where do I start,’ his heartbroken mother Georgie Gardam said.
‘I was so young when I had you, only 15, and now I know why. You grew up with me, you held my hand.. you were my man of the house always, my protector, my strength, my gamer.
‘I spoilt you rotten – Hawaiian pizza, McDonalds… some of your favourites. Everyone told me to get you off that PlayStation but I let you play until your heart was content and your eyes got sleepy.’
PlayStation equipment and sunflowers adorned the top of the casket, while a poster of his favourite game – Red Dead Redemption II – was draped over the side.
A heartbreaking slideshow of photos collected throughout Zane’s 12 years of life was played during the service, accompanied by Cold Play song ‘O’.
The pictures showed the young boy fishing, gaming, riding on quad bikes with his family, and hugging his younger siblings and relatives.
Zane’s teacher remembered the Year 6 pupil as ‘usually a quiet student who loved to draw’ and whose favourite parts of the day were ‘recess and lunch’.
As the ceremony came to an end, family carried Zane’s coffin out of the chapel and placed it into the back of a white hearse.
Mourners watched on as the 12-year-old was driven away to his final resting place.
Ms Gardam was comforted outside by loved ones who wrapped their arms around the grieving mother as she prepared to say her final goodbye to her son.
Hours before the memorial, Ms Gardam penned a gut-wrenching post on social media describing how she was struggling to find strength to be able to get through today.
‘Today will be one of the hardest days of my life,’ she wrote.
‘What do I weigh up… the day I lost you or the day I put you to rest. I’m not sure.
‘Mummy loves you Zane , I know you are with me already, I don’t know where I have pulled this strength from but I say it must be from you.’
Zane and his peers Addison Stewart, 11, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, 12, Peter Dodt, 12, and Chace Harrison, 11, were celebrating their last day of primary school when their lives were tragically cut short.
Two children who are in hospital after being badly injured are no longer in intensive care and have improved from a critical condition to stable.
Police and WorkSafe Tasmania continue to investigate the circumstances around the accident and will provide reports to the coroner.
Roughly 40 children were taking part in celebrations when the jumping castle was lifted about 10 metres in the air.
Tasmania’s education department has banned jumping castles and inflatable equipment from being used at schools.
