The BBC presenter, Jill Dando, "a loving daughter, delightful sister, adoring fiancee, a loyal thoughtful colleague", was remembered by family, friends and 100 mourners yesterday at a funeral service at Clarence Park Baptist Church in her hometown of Weston-super-Mare.
Conducting the service, the Rev Marc Owen, a close family friend, told mourners that nearly four weeks after she was murdered on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, west London, thousands of people were still asking the question "Why did Jill have to die?"
That unanswered question reverberated through the service as Mr Owen told mourners the circumstances and situations confronting the people of God were at times "arduous, painful and even tragic".
Her family and the public would remember her as "a beautiful, young, energetic and talented woman, loved and appreciated by her family, her fiance, her friends and colleagues and by a viewing public who took her into their homes and into their hearts".
Standing near Ms Dando's coffin, which was covered with floral tributes from friends and family, Mr Collins delivered the eulogy and spoke of her remarkable humour, sympathy and understanding, but then the "loving, beautiful light" was extinguished.
Referring to her imminent marriage this year to her fiance, Dr Alan Farthing, who sat with Ms Dando's father, Jack, and her brother, Nigel, in the church, he said her death remained a mystery: "Life was about to enter an exciting, fulfilling new stage. Until that fateful moment on Monday, April 26th.
"Jill the beautiful girl next door, known to every family in the country, was shot dead. And everyone is asking `Why?' On the one hand the answer to that question lies in the hands of the police. But whatever solution they find, the larger question remains . . . When Jill was shot, a lively, loving beautiful light was extinguished, and darkness came to us all."
One of the most poignant moments came when Ms Dando's fiance told the congregation she was "good enough" to have left a list of all her friends in her Filofax. Sadly, he said, "it was a list of those people she wanted to come to the wedding".
Among the mourners at the funeral were Ms Dando's co-presenter on Crimewatch UK, Mr Nick Ross, her close friend, Sir Cliff Richard, and former BBC colleagues, Anna Ford, Jennie Bond, Martyn Lewis, Eamonn Holmes and sports presenter Bob Wilson. Prince Edward's fiancee, Sophie Rhys-Jones, also attended.
Representatives of the Metropolitan Police conducting the investigation into her murder were also present.
As a mark of the high regard in which Ms Dando was held in her home town hundreds of local people gathered in nearby Ellenborough Park where the service was relayed on loudspeakers. And many local shops closed their doors at 3 p.m. when the service began as a mark of respect.
The funeral cortege left the church after the hour-long service and travelled a three-mile route, lined by mourners, to Ebdon Road Cemetery where Ms Dando was buried close to her mother, Jean, who died in 1986.