A bright yellow casket sat at the front of the chapel, with rubber ducks, a favourite of Megan’s, scattered throughout the room.
The chapel was flooded with a sea of colour following Megan’s request for people to dress “brightly and cheerfully” at what she wanted to be a “FUN”eral.
The ceremony was opened by Megan’s father, famous blind organist Richard Hore.
Sniffles could be heard throughout the crowd as he played At last I see the Light.
The end of the song was met with a round of applause, two brown teal ducks had gathered outside the window beside Mr Hore as he played, moving almost in tune with the music.
Chaplain Hilary Barlow opened the speeches.
She fought back tears as she spoke of Megan, someone she “knew well.”
“There is no-one in my life who has been like Meg.
“To bask in her love is really amazing,” she said.
She then welcomed Megan’s mother Marilyn to the floor.
“She threw me tissues because she knew I would need them, she talked about quality over quantity of life,” she said.
She talked about her daughter’s passions in life before saying farewell.
“She wanted to be remembered as a fun-loving, book-loving, Disney-loving person wholoved her friends more than life itself.”
“Meg, a day is not going to go by without me thinking about you, you were a huge part of our lives and now you are finally free.”
Mrs Hore’s eulogy was followed by her husband’s.
“Even a blind man would tell you there is a big crowd here today,” he said.
He shared some of his happiest memories of his daughter.
“My happiest memories of leisure with Meg were spent on the trampoline, arm in arm and more often than not, I would get double bounced.”
Mr Hore spoke of the wisdom beyond her years his daughter showed in her final weeks.
“I was about to leave her room before she touched my soul with a pearl of wisdom, she said: ‘Dad every breath you take is a good breath’ isn’t that beautiful?”
He then paid tribute to his “darling Meg.”
“My princess, I will miss your physical presence more than words can say, but I know that you will be here in essence. My rock-solid conviction is that you are in a place where mercy raids, where there is no pain, no anxiety, no fear of earthquakes.”
Megan’s sister Amy then made her eulogy via video because she “would not get to the end of the eulogy without crying.”
“As Meg would tell you, I’m not the prettiest crier, I go all red and there is a bit of snot,” she said.
In the pre-recorded video that was projected across the front of the chapel, Amy spoke of the top four lessons her sister taught her.
The first lesson was kindness.
“Meg taught me how to be kind and how to love, Meg was kind to everyone she met.”
The second was loyalty.
“Meg was a Hufflepuff through and through and loyalty was part of her brand as much as love was.”
The third was courage.
“Her courage was endless, yes she struggled often, whether it was a teacher who did not believe in dyslexia or a kid giving her a hard time because of her medical history or her medical history itself, but Meg would walk with a smile on her face.”
The final lesson was loving yourself.
“I felt like I was a burden to my family because my cancer was hard and that got in the way of loving myself. But Meg changed that once she found out how I felt about myself, she made a point of telling me how much she loved me.”
Megan’s cousin Mike Martin concluded the eulogies.
He summed up his cousin with a quote from one of her favourite Disney movies, Moulan.
“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.
“That is our Meg, rare and beautiful,” he said.
The Christchurch Youth Choir then sung as a collection of photos of Megan flashed across the screen.
Her casket was then carried out of the chapel and into a hearse waiting outside.
School friends of Megan described the service as “beautiful” and “fitting.”
“She was beautiful and the service was beautiful so the service was very fitting,” said Sam Wiffen.
“She was really caring, she was probably the sweetest person ever,” said Anna Wong.
Kelley Phillips described her as “full of life” and “bubbly.”
“She would always give me a reason to smile,” said Sarah Bealing.
Holly White said she was the most inspiring person she had met.
