KINGSTON, Ont. - Both of Maj. Michelle Mendes's families -- military and civilian -- said goodbye to her on Friday.
Eight days after she was found dead in her living quarters at Kanadahar Air Field, a death that is still under investigation by the military, Mendes's body was returned to this eastern Ontario city for a funeral service at Sydenham Street United Church.
Only 30 years old, Mendes was one of the two highest-ranking military members of the 118 Canadian Forces members to die in Afghanistan.
Maj. Raymond Ruckpaul, 42, was found dead in his quarters in the International Security Assistance Force compound in Kabul in 2007. His death was ruled a suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hundreds of mourners, many military, packed the church to show their respects, a number openly weeping as the flag-draped casket was carried into the church by an honour guard from her Ottawa unit, the chief of defence intelligence (CDI).
Her parents, Ron and Dianne Knight, clung to each other as they watched the pallbearers remove the casket from the hearse.
It, along with a small floral wreath with the banner CDI Family and Mendes's Afghanistan service medal, were carried on a cushion into the church.
As per military protocol, the honour guard carrying her casket was from her home unit, each one wearing the North Star insignia that denotes military intelligence, and a comrade from Afghanistan accompanied her body the entire trip still wearing his desert camouflage uniform.
Her sister Melissa, often confused with her lookalike sister when the two were teenage athletes growing up near Cobourg, Ont., delivered a moving eulogy for the young officer to the packed church.
"It breaks my heart that my little girls will never get to know you," she said, her voice breaking with emotion as she remembered the pair growing up on an apple farm near Grafton, Ont., and engaging in the usual sort of teenage rivalries with her sister that are common among young girls before learning to appreciate one another as they grew older.
Her sister remembered how Mendes, known as "Mich" to her friends, thrived in the intellectual and athletic pressure cooker of Royal Military College and how she fell in love there with soccer coach Victor Mendes, whom she married after graduation.
She was immediately accepted by his family and the Portuguese community in Kingston, her sister recalled, and she said the death of the young officer had left a hole in the heart of those who knew her.
"She was so beautiful, inside and outside," Melissa said. "Maj. Michelle Mendes, we salute you."
"Thank you for your service here on earth. We will always love you, until we meet you again."
Two of Mendes's classmates from RMC, Rebecca Barton and Amber Comisso, remembered her as an athletic overachiever, noting that she was the first person in the 2001 graduating class to achieve the rank of major, an appointment she earned just months before being posted to Afghanistan.
Mendes served there in 2006, but was repatriated to Canada after she was one of a number of Canadian soldiers injured in a friendly-fire attack by an American jet that mistook them for enemy forces.
"We were so proud to have known her," said Barton. "Her beautiful, brilliant smile would light up any room she was in."
Alan Okros, a friend and former military member, said the memories of Mendes will be those of someone more than just a first-rate officer.
"She was more than just a soldier," he said in his own eulogy, noting that she was remembered widely for her empathy and friendship as well as a promising military career.
"You served your country with honour," he said.
Her family has not spoken publicly since her death, but released a written statement Friday thanking the public for their gestures of condolence.
"She was all Canadian -- proud, strong and free," her family said.
