They had gone on holiday, joining thousands of other British holidaymakers on the beaches of Tunisia for their summer break.
But there was nothing but tears as the shock and emotion of losing their loved ones in last Friday's massacre on the beach of Sousse hit home for the families of eight of the 30 British victims on Wednesday.
The bodies of eight Britons, who were among 38 killed by gunman Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, were flown home by British military transport aircraft to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
The coffins of Adrian Evans, Patrick Evans, Joel Richards, Carly Lovett, Stephen Mellor, John Stollery, and Denis and Elaine Thwaites were adorned with white flowers and were carried off by members of the armed forces.
The repatriation process of all the victims is expected to take a number of days. They will include Scots couples James McQuire, 66, his wife, Anne, 63, from Cumbernauld, and Billy Graham, 51, and his 50-year-old wife Lisa from Bankfoot, Perthshire.
Further names of victims, including John Welch, 74, from Corsham in Wiltshire, have been confirmed.
Mr Welch was with his partner of eight years, Eileen Swannack, aged 73.
Police are still waiting for the formal identification of Eileen Swannack but it is highly likely that she also died with her partner.
A statement issued on behalf of Suzanne Richards for the Evans and Richards families said: "We are a very small and normal family, but nothing will ever be normal again.
"My son Joel, dad Pat and brother Adrian were our rocks and we are all heartbroken and devastated and will never get over losing them."
Joel's 16-year-old brother Owen survived.
Ms Richards said the holiday was intended to be a celebration and had only just begun.
Charles Evans, known as Patrick, was believed to be 78.
Adrian worked as a manager in a gas services department, while Joel was a talented football referee.
Mr Stollery, 58, was a social worker from Nottinghamshire who was on holiday with his wife Cheryl.
Mr Thwaites, who had been on holiday with his wife Elaine when they were both killed, was a former Birmingham City football player.
Mr Mellor, an engineer from Bodmin in Cornwall, was killed as he shielded his wife on the beach.
Ms Lovett was a 24-year-old fashion blogger from Lincolnshire.
Those wounded have already been brought back to the UK, with four severely injured holidaymakers flown home for treatment.
Among the four is Allison Heathcote, 48, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, who was celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary when she was gunned down.
Tunisian authorities are questioning several suspected associates of Rezgui, who had links to the terror group Islamic State (IS). He is thought to have had accomplices, despite acting alone in the actual attack.
Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi said there would be armed police on their beaches.
A minute's silence will be held in memory of the victims at noon on Friday
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article