‘Sweet boy’ Pasawm Lyhym farewelled in moving funeral service

Loved ones have remembered stabbing victim Pasawm Lyhym as a “gentle” and “beautiful boy” as the 16-year-old was laid to rest on Saturday.

An emotional funeral service was hosted for Pasawm Lyhym in Melton on Saturday.

Schoolboy Pasawm Lyhym last week became the latest victim of Melbourne’s youth crime scourge when he was fatally stabbed at a bus stop in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

On Saturday his friends and family remembered him as a fun-loving, “beautiful boy” whose prowess in the ring saw him dominate every round of martial arts he ever fought.

Nine days after the 16-year-old was fatally stabbed near the bus interchange at Sunshine train station, Melton’s Gardenia Funeral Home overflowed with weeping loved ones paying their respects to their little brother, son and friend.

Pasawm was just six years old when his family fled Myanmar in search of a better life, arriving in Melbourne in 2006.

But that better life was cut short for Pasawm on Thursday last week.

Relatives who had last week gathered at Pasawm’s crime scene in the dark - behind police lights - blanketed in the blue and red flashing lights of police patrol cars, sat alongside one another, the anguish over Pasawm’s needless killing clear on their faces.

The sound of Pasawm’s relatives crying inside the funeral home spilt outside onto Reserve Rd, echoing through a speaker that relayed the sounds from inside the church to mourners who quickly filled the additional seating provided outside.

16-year-old Pasawm Lyhym was laid to rest on Saturday after he was stabbed to death near Sunshine train station earlier this month.

They kissed his forehead as he lay inside his white coffin adorned with large bouquets of white flowers, weeping as his coffin, flanked by pallbearers that included members of the church, was ushered into the hearse.

Dozens of Pasawm’s Staughton College school friends sat shoulder-to-shoulder outside the home, while more stood with their arms linked, tears rolling down their cheeks as they prepared to bury their slain classmate.

Dozens of other relatives and members of the Chin community flew to Melbourne from Tasmania, Brisbane and Perth to farewell Pasawm.

A public funeral service was hosted in Melton for 16-year-old Pasawm Lyhym.

The crowd spills outside at Pasawm Lyhym’s funeral.

They sat in the front rows of extra seating that could not accommodate all the mourners who stood outside the home, casting their eyes towards the ground as Reverend Arohn Kuung from the Chin Baptist Church Pasawm told mourners Pasawm did not deserve such a violent death.

Pasawm’s former martial arts sensei, Kelvin, offered a brief reprieve from relatives’ muffled sobs and sullen expressions when he fondly recalled the teen’s happy and cheeky demeanour.

“You would have (one student) on one end, this strong tough warrior, and you’d have Pasawm on the other end, daydreaming, looking up at the ceiling just being himself,” he said.

“He was always wearing a smile. That’s the one thing our Dojo is always going to remember about Pasawm, his big smile.

“But then he’d rock up at a tournament, walk into the ring, and just become this unbelievable warrior.”

But Kelvin’s voice began to tremble as he spoke of his former student’s unmatched skill in the ring that he balanced with his gentle nature and love for making others laugh.

“He would muck around and have fun. You’d see him get down on his knees and spar little kids. The little kids were always laughing, he’d fall onto the ground, making out like he was beating them up,” Kelvin said.

“He is a credit to his parents, to his brothers and sisters.

“He was a really good boy. He was the most gentle, sweet boy that I’ve ever known.

“We’ve lost a beautiful boy.”

With the two police cars that circled the funeral home throughout the service serving as a reminder of the brewing tensions between students at rival schools that resulted in Pasawm’s death, Pastor Kuung called on the teen’s friends to let Pasawm’s needless death be the last.

“May I encourage and invite all the young people to make our country, our suburbs, our towns, everywhere we live and public places, a safe place, a peaceful place,” he said.

“You are the future of the country. You are the leaders of tomorrow.

“We do not deserve to die in this way.”