But as colleagues of Jo Cox lined up to pay tribute, there was no escaping the controversy around the vote on Britain's membership in the European Union.
It has loomed large in the days after her death.
The British parliament was recalled so MPs could pay tribute to their young colleague, attacked and killed in the street late last week.
Roses lay on the seat where Jo Cox usually sat, as members of her family watched on from the public gallery.
Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose party the 41-year-old from northern England represented, said her death was likely a case of what he called extreme political violence.
"Her community, and the whole country, has been united in grief, and united in rejecting the well of hatred that killed her in what increasingly appears to have been an act of extreme political violence. Jo would have been 42 this Wednesday. She had much more to give and much more that she would have achieved."
He then turned his attention to her family.
"We're filled with sorrow for her husband Brendan and young children. They will never see her again. But they can be so proud of everything she was, all she achieved and all she stood for, as we are."
Jo Cox was remembered for many things, as an activist for women's rights, a compassionate and passionate politician and a champion of human rights.
Her colleague Alison McGovern added:
"Half holding you upright, half shoving you forward, that was what it meant to have Jo's arm around your shoulder. And how we all long for those arms around our shoulder today, for one more hug, and definitely for one more smile. But it cannot be."
Prime Minister David Cameron recalled his first meeting with Ms Cox.
And he praised her for her aid work and advocacy for refugees.
"I first met Jo in 2006 in Darfur. She was doing what she was so brilliant at, bravely working in one of the most dangerous parts of the world, fighting for the lives of refugees. Her decision to welcome me, then a conservative leader of the opposition, had not been entirely welcomed by all her colleagues and friends but it was typical of her determination to reach across party lines on issues that she felt were so much more important than party politics."
The occasion did not pass without mention of Britain's upcoming vote on European Union membership, even as campaigning was suspended following Jo Cox's death.
She had been a staunch supporter of immigration and of Britain remaining in the European Union, and she was attacked by a man reportedly shouting, "Britain First!"
Fellow Labor MP Stephen Kinnock made reference in his speech to a poster produced by the anti-EU UKIP Party.
The poster, carrying the slogan "Breaking Point," features an image familiar to Europe - refugees walking through a field.
"Mr Speaker, I can only imagine Jo's reaction had she seen the poster unveiled hours before her death, a poster on the streets of Britain that demonised hundreds of desperate refugees, including hungry, terrified children fleeing from the terror of ISIS and from Russian bombs. She would have responded with outrage and with a robust rejection of the calculated narrative of cynicism, division and despair that it represents, because Jo understood that rhetoric has consequences. When insecurity, fear and anger are used to light a fuse, then an explosion is inevitable."
UKIP leader Nigel Farage was in parliament to pay tribute to Jo Cox, but later appeared to accuse his opponents of using Ms Cox's death for political advantage.
(Farage:) "I'll tell you what's really going on here, and that is that the 'Remain' camp is using these awful circumstances to try to say that the motives of one deranged, dangerous individual were similar to half the country, or perhaps more, who believe we should leave the EU." (Journalist:) "Who's saying that? Who's saying that?" (Farage:) "They're all talking." (Journalist:) "Who? Who? Name me one prominent ..." (Farage:) "The Prime Minister, the Chancellor." (Journalist:) "When did he say that?" (Farage:) "They're all talking about the politics of hate."
