Yesterday those words were spoken by a young man who knows all too well what that means. HRH Prince William of Wales said those words yesterday at the New Zealand National Memorial for the victims of the Christchurch Earthquake.
We won't know the final death toll for this disaster for quite some time but the final toll is likely to be around 180 or just slightly higher.
Now compared to Haiti (over 200,000) and Japan (in excess of 15,000) that is a very insignificant number if thats all you go by when rating disasters. But for a small city of 376,000 that is a significant number. Almost everyone knows someone who was injured, or killed or still missing. The human, emotional toll is very very high,
So yesterday was an opportunity for people to start to grieve. A friend of mine who was almost killed that awful day, says its too soon for her. She couldn't even watch the service on tv. I totally understand that. She saw some horrific sights that day, which she is not ready to talk about.
But for the people that were there, family members of the lost, injured and other people affected by the quake it was a good opportunity to start to heal.
What follows is a collection of videos commerating the event. For me it was extremely painful to watch. Christchurch is a city I love very much. I spent a lot of time there growing up. I love the people and the place and to see them hurting, buldings that i have seen all my life fall down and lives lost is devasting.
Thank you for reading. And yes it hurts when we lose those that we love but it is the price we pay for loving. Prince William said it beautifully.
A final note: Please donate to a charity of your choice to help out the devastated country and people of Japan.
Thank you.