MICHELLE Coudray-Greaves' three children last saw her on May 30 when she left for Jamaica to take up a teaching position.

Yesterday, the children were asked to sprinkle holy water on an urn containing their mother's ashes, during her funeral at the Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church, San Fernando.

The funeral of Coudray-Greaves, the daughter of San Fernando Mayor Marlene Coudray, was attended by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and several members of the newly reconfigured Cabinet.

Among those attending were Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, and Ministers Prakash Ramadhar, Errol McLeod, Roodal Moonilal, Rudy Indarsingh, Winston Peters, Fazal Karim, Ganga Singh, Chandresh Sharma, Clifton de Coteau, Stephen Cadiz, Nizam Baksh and Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan.

Persad-Bissessar was called to the podium to recite Psalm 27.

Mayor Coudray was one of the people given a portfolio, that of Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development in Friday's Cabinet reshuffle.

She spent last week in Jamaica helping police identify the remains of her daughter, who police believe was beaten to death and whose body was burnt in a cane field in Montego Bay.

Coudray-Greaves was last seen getting into a taxi on the afternoon of June 2.

She was reported missing several days later. A taxi driver has been detained by police. The body of Coudray-Greaves was cremated in Jamaica.

Yesterday, Coudray-Greaves was remembered by friend Petal Parris-Charles for her "big smile" and love for Jamaica, where she lived for eight years, and met and married her now estranged husband Shane Greaves, who attended the funeral.

"What will we remember most about Michelle? Her laugh, her abundance of love for those close to her, especially her children, her kindness and sincerity, and her general belief that everyone is good and means well," Parris-Charles told mourners.

Political leader of the Congress of the People, Prakash Ramadhar said of Coudray-Greaves killing: "My heart is filled with pain. It is the most horrific thing that no parents should have to undergo. As a parent myself I can only imagine the trauma."

Officiating priest Canon Dr Steve West told mourners that God had created a world that was good in the beginning but made evil by the sins of people.

"The brutal murder of Michelle is a disrespect for the human body. It is a human tragedy of enormous proportions".

Following the church service, Marlene Coudray, who did not attend last Friday night's Cabinet reshuffle announcement at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's, met with Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar and other Cabinet members at City Hall in San Fernando.

She did not attend the service at the grave site.

At the Paradise Cemetery, San Fernando, the children of Coudray-Greaves placed roses in the grave in which their mother's ashes, contained in a small wooden box, were buried.