The funeral of singer and TV star Cilla Black has taken place in Liverpool as family, fans and stars from across the showbiz world gathered to say a final goodbye.
Cliff Richard paid his own musical tribute, performing 'Faithful One' at the start of the service to celebrate her life and mourn the passing of one of Britain's most enduring and best loved entertainers.
He said Ms Black "had the determination and she had the gift to do what she set out to do" and he could not remember her without funny things happening.
He added:"My memories of Cilla are going to be very very happy ones. I have a faith and therefore I do not think anything happens by accident.
"There has to be something else. I know that all of our souls will be united together. Cilla, this is just a hiccup in our relationship and we will see you again and I am looking forward to that time. "
The star returned to Liverpool - where she first found fame - for the last time and thousands of fans lined the two-mile route to the church to pay their respects as her cortege passed.
Her funeral took place at St Mary's Church in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton, the same church where she received a wedding blessing on marrying her much-loved late husband and manager Bobby Willis in 1969.
Her son Ben said she was "always young at heart" and added: "I think this was one of the reasons why so many people loved her dearly."
He continued that his father "really was her world" and that she was "forced to grow up for the first time" when he died.
There was laughter as he added that she "only really grew up a little".
He told the congregation that he took solace that his mother was "in one of her most favourite places in the world" when she died.
"She was doing one of the things she loved most - sunbathing and listening to music which was, after all, her first love."
Paul O'Grady delivered the final tribute which was filled with laughter as he recalled his "great friend".
He said: "She taught me lots of things - mainly never to turn right on the plane. She was a great friend. She was full of fun.
"She was a wonderful woman. She was talented. She was so witty. She adored family. She loved her sons. She loved her grandchildren. She was so proud that she came from Scottie Road.
"I am just so grateful that she allowed me into her whirlwind of a life and we spend nearly two decades together hellraising - if you pardon the expression.
"Cilla, I would just like to say 'thanks for all the fun, thanks for all the laughs - ta-ra girl I will see you on life's highway'."
Born Priscilla Maria Veronica White, she grew up with her parents and brothers above a barber's shop in the tough dockland district of Scotland Road, the inner-city area ravaged by wartime bombing.
Her first 'performances' were as a youngster standing on a chair during post-pub singsongs with her family in the days long before TV entertainment.
But her big break came after she took a part-time job as a cloakroom girl at The Cavern Club, met The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein and rose to fame and fortune in the Merseybeat era of the Swinging Sixties.
Younger generations grew up with her as a staple of Saturday night TV, on her long-running popular shows Blind Date and Surprise, Surprise.
Ms Black's career spanned six decades before her sudden death, aged 72, after a fall at her villa in Spain on 1 August.
During the Catholic requiem mass presided over by the Right Reverend Thomas Williams, Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool, psalms and biblical readings were given and Amazing Grace was among the hymns sung by the church choir.
Poems were read by two of Ms Black's three sons, Robert - who is also her manager - and Ben.
Ms Black's 1964 number one 'Anyone Who Had A Hear't was played and The Beatles composition 'The Long And Winding Road' closed the service.
She was buried at a private ceremony in Allerton Cemetery alongside her parents.
