MOURNERS have been urged to "live each day as a blessing" as they paid their final respects to a 29-year-old man who died from a heart attack.
Requiem Mass for Tony Campbell, who died on Sunday after collapsing at his west Belfast home, was celebrated at Christ the Redeemer Church in Lagmore on Thursday.
Friends sobbed and comforted each other as his coffin passed a guard of honour formed by his football team, Tullymore Swifts FC, outside the church.
Mr Campbell, who worked as a plasterer, lived in Mount Eagles with his fiancée Róisín Laverty and baby son Cónal, who was born in September 2015.
His death came just two days after that of Louise McIlwaine (30), a former next door neighbour in Lenadoon who suffered an epileptic seizure.
Fr Patrick Sheehan told the congregation that "we have been stopped in our tracks".
"We have been brutally reminded that our lives are not our own. Eerily, Tony saw this just before he died, when he visited the family of Louise McElwaine. We remember them in our prayers today as we pray for Tony.
"Tony had much to live for. He was planning to marry his sweetheart Róisín and they were both devoted to their ray of light Cónal. He came from a loving family.
"We are left wondering why. Sadly, there are no answers. There are no physical answers, there are no reasonable answers, there are no spiritual answers."
He added: "Just like Jesus and Mary, Brenda and Frank are standing at the cross. They never expected to have to bury their son. We pray that each of us, in God's own time, will be reunited with Tony."
Fr Sheehan encouraged all present to "live each day as a blessing, for that is the hard lesson we have been taught today".
"To everyone here, especially young men, all of you still have the gift of life that was so cruelly taken from Tony," he said.
"Live your life the best you can; look to your relationships, cherish your children, and leave behind regrets and grudges from the past."
Mr Campbell was buried at Blaris Cemetery in Lisburn.
