Lorraine McColgan was so overcome with grief that she collapsed and had to be carried into the car which took her to the funeral Mass for her husband, John.
Friends and relatives attempted to comfort her but it was no good. White-faced and shaking, she wailed and sobbed uncontrollably.
John McColgan (33), a west Belfast taxi-driver, kissed his wife and told her he loved her as he left for work on Saturday night. A few hours later he picked up a fare in Andersonstown. It was to be his last.
He was shot five times in the back of the head. His body was dumped at the side of the road on Hannahstown Hill. The killers escaped in his car.
Yesterday Mr McColgan's son, Sean (11), pleaded to be allowed walk behind his father's coffin as the cortege made its way from the family home to Corpus Christi Church. His other two children, Mairead (9) and Gavin (3), travelled with their mother. Mairead's school friends lined the entrance to the church.
In an interview on Ulster Television earlier, Sean asked: "Why did they kill my daddy? I loved him. He was big and he brought me everywhere." Mairead, in a letter to her father, said: "To the best daddy in the world. I hope you are looking down on us. We will say prayers for you.
"I will help my mummy in the house. I will not fight with Sean. We will never forget you. You were a special daddy to all the family. We love you very much. Love from Mairead, Sean, Gavin, and my mummy."
Several hundred people attended Requiem Mass. Father Denis McKinlay told mourners that many Catholics now felt vulnerable and isolated. "Whole communities feel fearful and close to rejection in this land, our land, the land we call home. Sometimes we have wondered were we welcome in the North of Ireland.
"The evil that can be in men's hearts is almost incalculable. Those who killed John have little or nothing to offer. They thrive on the vilification of the whole Catholic community. Their peddling of death is as a result, not of chance, of a hatred born of careful nurturing, sadly even from those who claim to be in positions of leadership," he said.
The Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Michael Dallat, who presided at the funeral, said: "John was just trying to earn a living to help his family when he was shot dead. I do not know if these assassins would claim to be Christians.
"But even nominal Christians accept that murder is a heinous crime, accept that human life is sacred, accept that God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning to its end, and that no one can under any circumstances claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being."
Dr Dallat said Mr McColgan's killers had rejected a universal morality. "In their twisted mentality, John was not an innocent human being. Not innocent, but guilty, guilty of being a Catholic.
"John's murder was nakedly sectarian. What a comment on life in this part of the world that, on the eve of the millennium, people are being murdered because of their religion."
Mr McColgan was buried in the City Cemetery. His three children each carried a red rose. At the graveside, Sean laid an extra floral tribute to his father. The card read: "I love you millions."