When Kerryn McCann returned from the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the Coledale Fire Brigade escorted her home along Lawrence Hargrave Dr for the celebration parade.
Yesterday, brigade members were there to escort her again, but this time their faces were solemn rather than smiling.
A dozen firefighters from Coledale, Scarborough and Wollongong formed a guard of honour around McCann's coffin and escorted the hearse away from her funeral at the Church of Christ in Figtree.
"Everybody is a little bit down," Captain Noel Dawson said.
"(McCann's husband) Greg has been a member of our fire brigade for about eight years, so she has always been part of the fire brigade too."
The firefighters were among more than 1000 mourners from all parts of the community, including Federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis, Member for Cunningham Sharon Bird and Member for the Illawarra David Campbell.
Mr McCann and the couple's three children, Benton, 11, Josie, 5, and Cooper, 1, were also comforted by sportspeople, schoolchildren, media personalities, family, friends and more than a dozen Olympians, including Raelene Boyle and Robert de Castella.
Holding a pair of McCann's favourite running shoes, her coach Chris Wardlaw said he had never seen so many Olympians - apart from at the Games - in one place.
"She is just so loved by her peers and it is an irony that Kerryn has brought us all together," Wardlaw said.
"There are about 20 Olympians here and we wouldn't have seen a lot of us together like this for a long time.
"It is a terribly sad way to bring us all together but in a way it is a bit of a celebration of her life."
Canberra-based world champion marathon runner de Castella said he had only met McCann briefly but she left an impression.
"She was the sort of person that you don't really have to know that well to know her," de Castella said.
"Like all Australians, that last lap at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne just showed the life and spirit that she had and her determination and strength of character and the victory lap shows her love of family.
"This (funeral) is a great indication of the strength of the community feeling here and how they have supported her and Greg and their family.
"It is a sad occasion but also very wonderful."
Fellow Olympic marathon runner Steve Moneghetti, who had known McCann since she was a young woman, said her life was inspiring.
"I don't want to come out with cliches but it is not how long you live but the memories and the efforts that you leave behind," Moneghetti said.
"It made me in retrospect think about how she never swore, she never complained about anybody, never asked for anything - she was amazing."
Former ironman Darren Mercer travelled from Maroochydore for the funeral of his lifelong friend.
"It was a fantastic service and she was exactly what they said - an ordinary person, terrific," Mercer said.
After the funeral Benton was surrounded by his classmates from St Michael's Catholic Primary School in Thirroul. "We are just here to comfort him and to just let him know that we are all here for him," said Mimi Libro, 11.
"There was one time when (McCann) did a talk in front of the whole school and she brought in her medals and the Olympic torch and her costumes and we were really proud of her.
"She was a really good inspiration, a brilliant runner and more importantly a great mum."
Email a friend