‘There is only one thing missing: Reeva’

A mourner leaves the memorial service at the Victoria Park Cemetery in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday (February 19 2012), holding the funeral programme. Picture: Rogan Ward/Reuters

Michael Steenkamp broke down and cried as he addressed the media during the memorial service of his niece, Reeva, at the Victoria Park Crematorium in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, today.

Steenkamp said they had been planning a family gathering where they would come together as a family but now one of their own was gone.

“Today everyone is here as a family, and there is only one thing missing: Reeva. This is so painful,” he said as he broke down and cried during a press conference after the memorial service.

He thanked the public and media for their compassion.

“So many hearts were touched by Reeva’s passing away,” he said.

Read: Actress Phuti Khomo’s letter to Reeva. 

Celebrities and fellow models, who had come to pay their last respects to Reeva – allegedly murdered by her famous boyfriend and athlete, Oscar “The Blade Runner” Pistorius, in his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day – refused to comment.

Reeva’s brother, Adam, who did the eulogy during the memorial service said: “I won’t say very much. There is space missing inside all the people that she knew. It can’t be filled again. We are going to keep all the positive things we remember and knew about my sister. We will miss her.”

Adam described the mood of the memorial service as very tense.

“Everyone is sad and understandably so,” Adam said.

He said at a certain point they were, however, smiling as they remembered Reeva, a law graduate and model.

“We only have good memories of her, I think that is all we were thinking at that stage,” Adam said.

Reeva was cremated after the service.

Flowers, which included fresh white and red roses, could be seen at the entrance of the crematorium.

Among the flowers a card with the words: “The Steenkamp family” could be seen.

Mourners, mostly wearing black, included family, politicians, friends and colleagues of Reeva.