Isabelle Gaston remembered her five-year-old boy, Olivier, as a good pal to his buddies, someone who was quick to lend a hand.
And she recalled how her three-year-old girl, Anne-Sophie, loved to playfully test her skills as an emergency room doctor.
Ms. Gaston painted these descriptions Monday to more than 100 mourners who gathered for their funeral service in Montreal.
The children were found dead on Feb. 21 in their father's home in the Laurentian ski village of Piedmont, northwest of Montreal.
Their father, cardiologist Guy Turcotte, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in their deaths.
Reverend Raymond Gravel, who presided over the private ceremony, said Ms. Gaston shared her memories of Olivier and Anne-Sophie with everyone in attendance.
"Like her little guy who helped others when he went snowshoeing," Mr. Gravel told reporters after the ceremony. "If his little friends fell he helped them get back up. He was a guy who was very bright and sharp.
"Her little girl, who knew her mother was a doctor ... she sometimes pretended to be sick."
Ms. Gaston delivered an emotional tribute, which brought just about everyone in the funeral home to tears, Mr. Gravel said.
"She said, 'I know that if I truly love you, I have to let you go. And if I truly love you, I must keep on living, have projects and continue to be happy - even if you're not there,' " he recalled.
Two balloons, one of Dora The Explorer and another featuring a cartoon vehicle from the Disney film Cars, were released into the sky after the ceremony.
Mr. Gravel said mourners attached stickers to the outside of the caskets and children's songs were played during the service.
Ms. Gaston, who is separated from Mr. Turcotte, was away on a ski trip when police found the bodies.
Mr. Turcotte was hospitalized for what was initially described by police as a medication overdose.
Quebec provincial police said he has been discharged from the hospital and is being detained in the corrections system pending an April 30 court appearance.
Ms. Gaston asked their children during the funeral service to help their father because he is surely living through pain, Mr. Gravel said.
She also called Mr. Turcotte, 36, the "best father in the world," he said.
Outside the complex, mourners described a moving service.
"It was silent, people were crying the whole time," said Raymond, one of Ms. Gaston's relatives. "There were emotions, feelings - we can't put them into words."
A friend of the Turcotte family, who did not want to give her name, said she didn't sense that people were making judgments during the ceremony.
"It was sad, but still very serene, full of love," the woman said as she headed to her car.
Mr. Gravel, a former Bloc Quebecois MP, said he hopes the deaths somehow have a positive impact.
"I think that if this could bring parents closer to their children, if this could unite more families, then so much the better," he said.