Lena's Focus Story

Lena’s Focus Story:

Thousands of people came to attend the funeral of Sir Edmund Hillary in New Zealand on Tuesday. Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb the world’s highest peek, Mt. Everest. Saffron-robed Buddhist monks, Nepali Sherpas and grey-bearded mountaineers were mixed in with Hillary’s family at the funeral. "His loss to us is bigger and heavier than Mount Everest," Ang Rita Sherpa told the service in a small church in Auckland. "He is our true guardian and our second father, but he has left us behind today." Hillary’s coffin was filled with a cream-colored Nepali prayer scarves, Hillary’s climbing axe, a carved walking stick, and draped with the New Zealand flag. The Prime Minister Helen Clark said, "We mourn as a nation because we know we're saying goodbye to a friend,"