The mother of two young boys killed in a canoe accident has said life without them is too hard to bear.
Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of Ewen Beaton, five, and his brother Jamie, two. The boys died after the six-man canoe they were in with their father and three family friends capsized on Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross, in the Scottish Highlands, on Sunday August 26.
They were rescued by helicopter but died that night in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness. The body of the boys' 32-year-old father, also named Ewen, has not been found. He is presumed drowned.
Their friend Grace Mackay, five, was also pulled from the water but she too died last week in Glasgow's Yorkhill children's hospital. Grace's sister Callie, eight, and their father Garry, 35, managed to swim the 500 metres to shore and raise the alarm.
At the service, a tribute from Ewen and Jamie's mother Joanne was read out by family friend Pauline Gault: "Please tell them both that I love them and I miss them so very much and that, because of them, so many lives have been touched.
"Tell them I know they are with me each and every day and that they know just what I can't find the words to say. Tell them they will always be a part of me, and me a part of them.
"To express how much I love them, these words seem so few. I know you both are in the best of care but life without you two is too hard to bear. I want you to know mummy will try her best. And we'll meet again the day I am laid to rest."
About 300 people packed into the service at Inverness Crematorium, conducted by the Rev Iain Macleay.
He described Ewen and Jamie as "two wonderful happy boys, content, full of life and fun" and said they were "like twins".
He said: "They were always together, always best friends, always doing things together. If it was outdoors, then they did it. They loved doing it."
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