Family, friends and schoolmates were all in attendance, mostly wearing yellow, Luke’s favourite colour, and the colour of his coffin, which was decorated with bright flowers, his picture and a stuffed SpongeBob SquarePants toy.
A poem by Luke, printed in the funeral programme, detailed why he loved the colour: “In the natural world yellow is the colour of sunflowers and daffodils, egg yolks and lemons, canaries, bees and bananas,” it read.”In our contemporary human-made world yellow is the colour of SpongeBob, the Tour de France winner’s jersey, happy faces, post-it notes and signs that alert us to dangers or caution. It’s the colour of happiness and optimism, of enlightenment and creativity, sunshine and spring.”
The 11-year-old was attacked and killed by his father, Greg Anderson, in front of his mum and horrified parents and friends following cricket practice at Tyabb last week.
Police shot his father after failing to subdue him and he later died in hospital.
Following the murder, Luke’s mother, Rosie Batty, spoke of her devastation and said that Luke begged for a few more minutes with his father who he didn’t often see just before he was killed.
She explained: “What triggered this was a case of his dad having mental health issues…No one loved Luke more than his father. No one loved Luke more than me – we both loved him.”
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