An Auckland family's creative headstone for their 15-year-old daughter who died has gained worldwide attention.
Her family said Theresa Matautia, who died in August 2018, was always on her phone so they made her headstone in the Manukau Memorial Gardens the shape of an iPhone.
"The reason behind it was that my sister was just on her phone all the time… Pretty much glued to that thing," Theresa's brother Geoff said in a TikTok video.
Geoff said his sister would document everything on her phone and posts videos of her life known as 'vlogs' to her Instagram.
The phone has her birthdate on it and a group chat with her two parents and four siblings where beautiful heartfelt messages are written.
"Thinking of you today sweetheart, just like I do every day. I miss and love you," the message from her dad says.
"The memory of your little hand holding mine brings a warm glow to my heart. I miss you my beautiful daughter," the mum's message says.
The video on TikTok currently has over 23 million views, with thousands of comments.
"One of the most unique ones I've seen," one person wrote.
"Please update the iPhone regularly, she deserves the new ones!" Another user said.
"The uniqueness of it and the idea of placing those 'texts' inside are beautiful. Sounds like she would love it," a third wrote.
Geoff posted another video explaining the headstone is how his family deals with grief.
"For everyone having a cry in the comments, just have a laugh. We give you permission to laugh at this video," he said in the video. "Not everyone copes with loss the same, so our family we just do it in a different way."
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