VANCOUVER - Reporter Michelle Lang's steely core was wrapped in a love of life and a curiosity that led her to Afghanistan and her death, her funeral heard Monday.
About 400 people filled a banquet hall Monday to hear poignant, tearful remembrances of the award-winning journalist's life and final days.
Lang, a reporter with the Calgary Herald on assignment for Canwest News in Afghanistan, died Dec. 30 when a roadside bomb destroyed a Canadian Armed Forces armoured vehicle, killing her and four soldiers. Four other soldiers were injured.
A funeral for Sgt. Kirk Taylor also was held Monday in Yarmouth, N.S.
Lang's brother Cameron said while as children his big sister tried to mentor him, "Michelle and I were often partners in crime" playing pranks on their parents.
He broke down recalling the day the family got word of her death, making her the first Canadian journalist killed in Afghanistan.
Her mother Sandra exclaimed she'd warned Michelle not to go to the increasingly dangerous Kandahar war zone.
Cameron Lang said a wave of guilt washed over him initially -- perhaps he should have tried harder to persuade her not to take the six-week assignment. But it has since been tempered with understanding.
"We loved Michelle for who she was, and who she was was a stubborn, adventurous reporter," her brother said, sobbing.
"And it was precisely what we loved her for that led her to that convoy outside of Kandahar. She died being who she was. She died doing what she loved and we should all take some solace in that."
Her father, Art Lang, said Michelle's fascination with Afghanistan may have come from photos of her parents' 1972 visit to the country in a period of stability before internal conflict, a Soviet invasion and years of war made it a desperate place.
Michelle, whom her parents named after the hit Beatles song the year of her birth, wanted to tell the story of the struggle to recover some of that stability, he said.
"I hope for all of us this is not a futile effort," he said.
The 34-year-old, Vancouver-born Lang showed early talent as a writer and quit university to take a summer internship at a Prince George weekly newspaper, followed by stints at the Moose Jaw Times Herald, Regina Leader-Post and finally the Calgary Herald.
Herald editor-in-chief Lorne Motley called her "uncompromising, trustworthy, fair and courageous," but also "sweet, fun-loving, caring and kind."
"Michelle represented the best of our craft but even more so the best of us as people," he said.
Last year, Lang won a National Newspaper Award for beat reporting, recognizing her coverage of health and medicine in Alberta.
"As her skills and talents grew, Michelle never changed as a person," Motley said.
Motley and other colleagues said she cultivated a crusty professional persona but felt things deeply.
Lang was to be married to fiance Michael Louie this July.
The devastated Louie remembers the precise time he was called to learn "my perfect life was shattered."
"All this still seems unreal to me," he said as he looked down at the flag-draped coffin below the podium.
"Many times Michelle took me out of my comfort zones, freed me from my personal constraints and inhibitions and showed me how to live life outside the box," he said.
In Yarmouth, more than 2,000 gathered at a hockey arena to pay respects to the Taylor, 28, who was laid to rest with full military honours.
He was described as a "natural born leader" who also had a "wild and witty sense of humour."
Before beginning his Afghanistan tour, Taylor, a reservist with the 84th Independent Field Battery, worked for a non-profit agency in Yarmouth that supports people with disabilities.
One of his best friends, fellow soldier Wayne Zwicker, told the crowd that Taylor had a mischievous sense of humour that often left others laughing at themselves.
"And it didn't matter what he did, you still had to laugh and smile because he had that grin on his face that said it was up to mischief," Zwicker said.
"Kirk lived every day like it was a celebration. Every day was worth living, every day was exciting and something new was going to happen,"
His mother, Tina Smith, has said her son's commitment to the Afghan mission never wavered, and the outpouring of grief over her son's death has been a great comfort to her family.
Funerals were held Saturday in Edmonton for 21-year-old Cpl. Zachery McCormack and 28-year-old Sgt. George Miok.
A funeral is scheduled for Tuesday in Surrey, B.C., for Pvt. Garrett Chidley.
Since 2002, 138 Canadian soldiers and two civilians have died during the mission in Afghanistan.
