A private celebration of the lives of three Perth children and their grandfather killed in the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 tragedy will be held on Sunday.
Mo Maslin, 12, his 10-year-old sister Evie, eight-year-old brother Otis and grandfather Nick Norris were among up to 39 Australian citizens and residents killed when their plane was downed over eastern Ukraine on July 17.
On Wednesday, Scotch College confirmed the school would host a memorial service on Sunday for the children’s parents Marite (Rin) Norris and Anthony Maslin, family, friends and the school community to pay tribute to the lost family.
It is understood close family friends will speak during the service, in memory of the three children. College chaplain Chas Lewis will also address the congregation.
Last Wednesday, Ms Norris and Mr Maslin released a statement saying they now lived “a hell beyond hell” with pain “intense and relentless”.
In a heart-rending statement directed at soldiers in the Ukraine, politicians, the media, and friends and family, Ms Norris and Mr Maslin said: “Our babies are not here with us – we need to live with this act of horror, every day and every moment for the rest of our lives”.
“No one deserves what we are going through. Not even the people who shot our whole family out of the sky.”
“No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for our children, for Mo, for Evie, for Otis.”
“No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for Grandad Nick.”
“No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for each other.”
Scotch College headmaster Alec O’Connell said the school had taught four generations of the family and there would be future discussion about a lasting tribute to the lost family.
“We will have a discussion in ensuing months about how we maintain a legacy that is appropriate so that these lives were not in vain – so we can try and make sense of what is an action that you can never really make sense of,” Dr O’Connell said.
Ms Norris and Mr Maslin asked the media for privacy in the wake of the tragedy, saying “pain is not a story”.
