As Malcolm Coram stood at a small memorial in the French village of Le Vernet he was within a few kilometres of the crash site where his sister and nephew died in the Germanwings disaster.
He looked beyond the snow-capped Alps to where Carol Friday and her son, Greig, were apparently killed by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, and told them he'd love them forever.
The refrigeration mechanic from Melbourne said it again and again.
Then Malcolm embraced his daughters, Georgina and Philippa, who'd travelled with him to the French Alps, and they wept.
Mr Coram would later tell reporters he understood, for the first time, the true meaning of the phrase "grief stricken".
"My family suffers this loss terribly," he said in Le Vernet.
"I felt the need to come here to France. I have a need to see the crash site myself and pay my respects to my sister and my nephew."
Le Vernet is as close to the debris field as Malcolm could get on Monday. It's a beautiful place but over the mountains recovery workers are performing a grim task.
They're collecting human remains for identification using dental records, fingerprints and DNA.
They are also searching for the plane's second black box in inhospitable conditions. Police spokesman Patrick Touron says there are slopes of 40 to 60 degrees, falling rocks and ground that tends to crumble. "Some things have to be done by abseiling," he said.
"Since safety is key the recovery process is a bit slow which is a great regret."
Authorities are building a new road to the crash site to ease access for those collecting body parts and sections of the Airbus A320.
The road will also be used by families who want to see more precisely where their loved ones perished.
Malcolm will be back and is hoping to bring other family members too. It's possible Carol's husband, Dave, and daughter, Alex might visit. For now they are too devastated to travel. Malcolm's two brothers also remained in Australia.
They are refusing to believe Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane even though prosecutors are sure that's what happened.
The family want to treat the disaster as an accident at this stage. Georgina says maybe down the track they'll be able to process the anger that comes with realising it was actually murder. But for now that burden is too much to bear.
The Le Vernet memorial is above the village near a cluster of low wooden buildings that once formed a youth centre but now house a small restaurant, a smaller school, the village library and some chalet-style accommodation.
In the summer people stay for the walking.
In winter it is all about skiing. Georgina, in her early 30s, revealed the family brought a painting of the Australian bush produced by Carol to leave at the memorial. Her aunt and cousin loved the outdoors.
"Their final resting place is at least somewhere beautiful," she said while standing alongside Malcolm and her younger sister Philippa.
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