Aisling Symes' mother has revealed her final words to her daughter at Friday's funeral were "I'll see you soon" - in heaven.
Angela Symes was among the pallbearers as hundreds of mourners gathered at Ranui Baptist Church to farewell the toddler.
"I had to, I just had to," she said yesterday. "I wanted to hold her one last time."
Angela, her husband Alan and eldest daughter Caitlin remained shellshocked by grief.
In the lounge of their West Auckland home, where flowers flanked the photo of Aisling and cuddly Pooh that had rested on her coffin, they talked of how they would remember their little girl lost.
"She teased me right from the moment she woke up to the moment she slept," said Angela.
"I'd be changing her nappy before we went to the supermarket and she'd be like 'hee hee hee', undoing her nappy, which I'd just done up, just to have me go 'arghhhh'."
Alan said he found mornings and evenings the hardest.
"Especially when we get up. We are so used to having our two girls running around, especially Aisling. She was my alarm clock, she would always come and wake me up."
Five-year-old sister Caitlin said she missed "lots of things" about her sister. "I miss her smiles - she used to smile a lot - and all the hugs."
The search for Aisling, whose body was found on Monday in a stormwater drain metres from where she disappeared, touched millions of people around the world.
There has been criticism of Waitakere City Council for failing to respond swiftly to complaints the drain's manhole cover was unsecured.
But Angela and Alan, supported yesterday by Alan's sister Aithne Potts, said they did not blame the organisation.
"It's a difficult one because we realise ... people had made complaints in the past and it needed to be resolved," said Alan. "But I think [Waitakere Mayor] Bob Harvey is really feeling the pain. I mean clearly he is feeling awful about it but at the end of the day it is hard to say who is particularly responsible.
"It's like when there is a road accident and someone dies so they do something with that road. Now they are aware of that drainpipe, you would hope they do something about that so nothing like this happens again."
The family reiterated their thanks to everyone who had sent messages of support, including the parents of Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who disappeared two years ago.
Aithne also revealed they had been contacted by the grandfather of Amber-Lee Cruickshank and mother of Kirsa Jensen, two of only nine Kiwi kids to disappear without trace in the last 60 years.
She dismissed criticism the McCanns had been "patronising" by contacting them.
"Any suggestion that they contacted us for any other motive other than to be supportive is utter rubbish. They are parents who I would just hate to think two years on to still be wondering and our hearts go out to them."
Alan said he felt a "horrible emptiness" for the families of other children who had disappeared.
His wife said the discovery of Aisling - Irish for dream or vision - had brought closure, but also unimaginable pain.
"I know Aisling is in the arms of the Lord and I know that it's the happiest, best place for her but my arms feel incredibly empty without her. There is a big part of me that has been ripped out."
Angela said Aisling's service was "uplifting, beautiful" and "a great memorial".
She said inquiry chief Gary Davey had been "brilliant" and thought he was shocked when she hugged him at the funeral.
"The police went over and beyond the call of duty. They were all touched, they were all in tears.
"They wanted as much as we did to find that somebody had taken her home for some bizarre reason and that she was going to come back to us."
Despite the agonising wait, the family never lost hope.
"You just got so mentally exhausted you couldn't think," said Angela. "My greatest fear was that someone was hurting her somehow, but thankfully that didn't happen."
They are likely to have a debrief with the police next week. Meanwhile they are taking things "hour by hour, day by day".
"Tomorrow is too much to sort out at the moment," said Angela. "We can't make plans at the moment and it seems kind of wrong to make plans."
They thanked everyone who attended a memorial balloon release near their home, and offered "heartfelt" thanks to "the whole of New Zealand".
The family received so many flowers they had to send some to the police station, some to a resthome and some to Swanson cemetery, where three family church members are buried.
"Nothing can ever take away the grief or the processes Alan and Angela have to work through," said Aithne.
"Knowing that so many people are shedding tears for her and feeling that pain as well doesn't lighten the load, but we feel the grief is a shared thing and we are not alone with it."
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