Their anguish, tears and heartbreak
Katy's mother Janet is hunched over as she blows a kiss to her daughter at the graveside in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, yesterday
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SHE was the plump little baby with the bonnet tied under her chin. The lovely solemn-faced child engrossed in a family boating trip one sunny summer's day. The snaggle-toothed, gangly schoolgirl happily enjoying a picnic lunch on the lawn with friends.
This was the Katy French her family desperately wanted to reclaim from the media frenzy, analysis and counter-analysis of her tragic demise. Their "Katykins" and the happy days they had enjoyed together.
Private snapshots of her all too short life, set to a soundtrack that put a lump in the throat of all those who watched Katy's progress from a child, visibly growing in poise and confidence, into an already beautiful young teen, fooling around for the camera with her parents and embracing the grandmother to whom she had been so close and whom she had resembled.
Just a few shots included in the family album showed Katy as the public knew her -- the stunning blonde model who had quickly garnered so many column inches that in the space of just 12 months she had become an icon of the Celtic Tiger era, symbolising all its glittering attractions and -- in the end -- all its murky perils.
"Don't look no more, coz it'll only make your eyes sore... coz we are indestructible," the lyrics of the Alisha's Attic song blaring to accompany the video of still pictures, produced by Katy's sister, Jill, seemed sorrowfully appropriate.
A smell of sweet wood smoke hung in the bitterly cold air as mourners trudged sadly into the picturesque churchyard of St Peter's in Katy's hometown of Enniskerry, Co Wicklow to bid farewell to the 24-year-old woman whose life was brought so horribly to a close.
Withered crab-apples clung to their branches in gardens and fairylights strung prettily on the eaves of the shops in the village were a poignant reminder of how close it is to Christmas.
Illuminated by the harsh winter's sunshine, the hearse carrying her coffin, bedecked with an enormous wreath of white roses arrived at the church and was carried tenderly inside, amid the hushed and frozen crowd of mourners.
Katy's estranged parents John and Janet, sister Jill and grandmother followed closely. In a touching gesture, they had brought along their family dog, in need of the comfort the animal seemed to offer.
Immaculately groomed women wearing red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes and with luxury designer handbags slung over their shoulders and men with winter tans and cashmere coats showed that this was, indeed, a society funeral.
Amongst the 500 strong crowd, were public faces from the world of celebrity and fashion over which Katy had presided.
Rosanna Davison, with father Chris de Burgh; model Glenda Gilson, with her hair scraped back into a ponytail, Katy's good friend Andrea Roche, in duck-egg blue -- adhering to the French family's request for mourners not to wear black.
Claudine Palmer, the model and girlfriend of soccer player Robbie Keane, was there, alongside singer Brian Ormond and others such as Michelle de Bruin, Daithi O Se and Michael Healy-Rae from the Celebrities Go Wild programme which had propelled Katy into the spotlight.
A sombre silence fell as Katy's mother Janet stood to pay tribute to her beloved daughter -- an angel who had "lived her life in sunlight".
"Who is Katy French?" She wanted to answer that question, speaking of Katy's openness of heart, speech and spirit.
She could forgive Katy for anything, Janet declared -- and Katy had always been ready to forgive her too. She spoke of all Katy had learned and taught her from her five-day visit to Calcutta, working with GOAL, quoting Katy herself, who had said: "I not only learnt what a smile can do, I also came to realise that it's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving that matters."
Then Janet referred obliquely to Katy's tragic passing as she told how she had used to call her daughter "My little Persephone".
In Greek mythology, Persephone was Queen of the Underworld.
Katy had spent "some of her time in Hades on the dark side," said Janet, whilst she, "as her mother Demeter, cried my tears to water the flowers and the trees to make everything beautiful for her return to the brightness and the light".
Katy had been "confident, beautiful, intelligent, cheeky... and had one hell of a temper," her tearful younger sister Jill said.
She could have done anything she wanted -- but she chose the path she had because she was a "people person".
Katy had "lived love, she is love and she is loved", she declared, inviting her sister to carry on living through her, to travel with her and to experience with her.
Her father John said much had been written about Katy in recent days -- some true, some false, some simply made up.
He believed his daughter was not gone but was here, close, right now -- "thoroughly enjoying the show".
Sobbing, the grieving family held one another in the fast-fading light as their beloved Katy was laid to rest amid the peace and tranquillity of the beautiful old churchyard.
- Nicola Anderson
