IT was like watching a football match, Charles Kennedy's 10-year-old son Donald said as he looked down from the Commons public gallery to watch MP after MP shower his late father with praise and affection following the former Liberal Democrat leader's death on Monday at his home in the Highlands.
Next to Donald, who has inherited his father's bright red hair, sat with his mother Sarah Gurling and his uncle James.
As he entered to watch the politicians pay tribute, he turned and said: "It's like sitting in the away end when you go to football."
The young boy was seen to smile and glance into his mother's eyes as MPs shared fond memories of his dad.
Afterwards, Mr Gurling said it had been a very special moment for Donald to see David Cameron, who he knew from television, talking about his father.
"There really was a treasure trove of memories, something that will be very comforting for him in future. We are going to get a copy of Hansard for his treasure box."
Mr Gurling said his sister found the tributes comforting, adding: "There were a couple of tears."
The fulsome and, at times, emotional tributes were led by the Speaker, John Bercow, who said Mr Kennedy had been "blessed with the popular touch", who had the rare ability to reach out to millions of people of all political persuasions and none. "Charles," he said, "was the 'boy next door' of British public life."
David Cameron described the former Liberal Democrat leader as "the most human of politicians"; a man of great principle and intellect.
"At his best," Mr Cameron told MPs, "he was the best that politics can be and that is how we should remember him." Noticeably, the PM sat through the entire 70-minute tribute.
Harriet Harman, the acting Labour leader, recalled how as a fresh-faced 23-year-old Mr Kennedy entered the Commons. He was, she recalled, "the golden boy from the Highlands," who "shone in this chamber".
Nick Clegg emphasised his late colleague's "enduring humanity", noting: "People always came before politics for Charles."
The former Liberal Democrat leader stressed how Mr Kennedy's good humour should not obscure his steely courage, nowhere better displayed than when the ex-Highland MP opposed the Iraq war.
"Just because that might seem now an obvious thing to have done, it most certainly was not at the time. Charles was often a lone voice in this House, standing up against a consensus on all sides in favour of war. The fact that he was proved so spectacularly right is a tribute to his judgement and his intuitive common sense."
The ex-Deputy Prime Minister added: "If we could all carry ourselves with a little more of the honesty, wisdom and humility of Charles Kennedy, politics would be held in much higher esteem than it is today."
Angus Robertson, the SNP leader, described his fellow Scot as "a giant in Scottish and UK politics...a lad o'pairts from Lochaber, an area of Scotland of which he was very proud".
He added: "He was liked by people of all political persuasions; there are few people in politics, who can live up to that. It is such a tragedy that he died so young."
His Nationalist colleague Ian Blackford, who succeeded Mr Kennedy as MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber at the election, said the late MP was a "supremely talented man", who had many Highland characteristics; jovial but also shy.
Recalling how Mr Kennedy had not put the boot in but consoled him on a bad night for the SNP in the 1990s, Mr Blackford said: "That was the mark of the man: a decent, human man, who saw the struggles that others were going through."
After many MPs extended their heartfelt condolences to Mr Kennedy's family, the most emotional contribution came from Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leadership contender, who, looking up at the public gallery, addressed Donald and said: "You should be really proud of your daddy, I am proud of your daddy. I loved him to bits and I am proud to call him my friend. God rest you, Charlie."
Mr Kennedy, 55, was found dead at his home in Fort William on Monday. The cause of death is unknown and a post mortem is expected to be carried out. Police have said there are no suspicious circumstances.
No date has yet been set for his funeral.
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