KEY POINTS:
Reef Coombes, the little girl who survived a collision with a freight train that left her orphaned, has had her Christmas wish granted.
Her aunt and uncle are planning to adopt her.
"A month after the accident she asked if she could call me Mummy," her aunt Kim Smith told the Herald.
"John is Daddy. And then she has Mummy Rene and Daddy Brent."
Brent, 39, and Rene, 35, were killed at a railway crossing at the Manawatu town of Ohingaiti in July.
The inquest into their death was held last week with Palmerston North coroner Timothy Scott saying he considered neither Mr Coombes, who was driving the family's car, nor the train driver Paul Johanson was to blame.
Reef, 6, moved from Wellington to Auckland after the accident to live with her father's sister Mrs Smith, her husband, John, and their two children, Kiann, 5, and Callan, 8.
Mrs Smith, an events co-ordinator, was named as Reef's legal guardian in her brother's will but said she would be looking into the legalities of adopting her.
"She knows Mummy and Daddy are dead. We just have to carry on, that's the main thing and keep the memory going. We talk about what she used to do and what she was like as a baby.
"You'd think that it'd be hard for her to get used to living with us being an only child before that, but she's doing really well."
Reef even refers to Kiann and Callan as her little sister and big brother.
Mrs Smith took Reef to a counsellor after the accident to see if she had suffered any emotional trauma but was told that the little girl was doing fine.
"She said she didn't want to make a problem when there wasn't one. Kids just want to be kids. Every time she's in the paper or strangers come up to her and ask how she's doing, she doesn't know how to deal with it."
The family have started a tradition where they light two candles in memory of Brent and Rene on milestones such as birthdays and Christmas.
"It's to show they're still with us and she knows where she came from," Mrs Smith said.
They plan on spending Christmas at home but over the new year will go camping up north.
"Reef's just being a little kid, thinking about presents and Santa," Mrs Smith said.
"We've been given a list. She wants a doll, a cat, a dog, a dress - amongst other things. We're getting there. She's taking more steps forward rather than back."
The family recently moved to a bigger house in Albany where Reef now has her own room where she has put up photos of her parents.
She attends Forrest Hill School with her cousins and enjoys reading and plays for the girls' touch rugby team.
She turned 6 last month and celebrated at Chipmunks with new friends she had made from school.
Mrs Smith is still coping with the death of her brother and is yet to go through a garage full of Brent and Rene's belongings.
"I will when I have the strength to do that. Some days are easier than others."
