NEAR the end of the Requiem Mass for her father, six-year-old Ava McCabe, showing no sign of nerves despite being watched by family, friends and politicians such as Gordon Brown, read the opening four lines of a funeral poem.

"I love you Dad with all my heart," she began, "and hate that we should be apart."

It was an affecting moment from yesterday's well-attended mass for Tom McCabe - former Hamilton South MP, former government minister, architect of Scotland's smoking ban - who died last weekend after a battle with cancer. He would have been 61 next Tuesday.

Ava, who had been the absolute apple of her father's eye, earned a round of applause from the mourners crowded into St Mary's RC church, in Hamilton.

Mr McCabe's popularity across the political spectrum was reflected not only by the number of mourners but by the identities of the political contingent, who occupied much of the left-hand side of the church.

In addition to Mr Brown, there were Scotland's Deputy First Minister John Swinney, Labour leader Jim Murphy, ex-Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace, and former First Minister Henry McLeish.

Another former First Minister, Jack McConnell, was unable to attend, later tweeting: "Sad to be missing Tom McCabe's funeral today. Thoughts with Shuming, his children, grandchildren and wider family."

Lord Robertson, former secretary-general of Nato, was there, as were many of Mr McCabe's old Holyrood colleagues: Wendy Alexander, Frank McAveety, Andy Kerr and Dr Richard Simpson. Joining them were Glasgow's Lord Provost Sadie Docherty and Labour election candidates Margaret Curran and Tom Greatrex.

In his eulogy, Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council, and a close friend of Mr McCabe's, described him as a 'Lanarkshire great'.

He said his friend's character and politics "were hewn from lived, sometimes hard, experience." He told how, at a young age, Mr McCabe would steal turnips from a neighbour's garden to feed his family - he had three siblings, and his father Tommy had lost both legs in an industrial accident at Ravenscraig.

This was no ordinary neighbour, however - he was a police constable, Hughie Martin.

PC Martin eventually told Mrs McCabe: "I know it's your Thomas who's stealing the turnips." But nothing else was ever said about the matter.

Mr McCabe barely drank alcohol but once took part in a "mentally tricky" drinking game called Buzz after a day's golf with close friends.

"After just two shots," Mr Matheson added, "Tom couldn't count backwards from 10. This was disconcerting, because while everybody knew he wasn't a drinker, he was the Finance Minister at the time."

Like his character, Mr McCabe's approach to politics was "straightforward and determined," the mourners heard. As Chief Whip at Holyrood, he was "tough, frank and scary at times," but he was the ultimate team player, capable of earning loyal support and last affection from those who worked for him.

Mr Matheson spoke of his friend's love for his wife Shuming and Ava, his "two good reasons" for him to fight his cancer. "He didn't want to die, because he wanted to watch Ava grow. None the less, he bore his illness with great dignity."

Mr Matheson concluded: "He made a difference during his life that very few people could ever hope to ... And while he died too young, we give thanks for a life that was full - fuller even than this church."

Near the end, Shuming could be seen gently caressing, with both thumbs, the photograph of her husband that graced the front cover of the order of service. She and her daughter were then presented with the framed picture of him that had sat atop his coffin. It was another affecting moment, in a morning full of them.

"You may be gone," was Ava's last line, "but never forgotten."