ELLIOT LAKE, ON - Family, friends, community members and rescue workers filled Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church to near capacity on Wednesday morning to say farewell to Doloris Perizzolo, who died after the partial roof collapse at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, ON.

Pam Brown, who grew up next door to Perizzolo, delivered the eulogy, calling her 74-year-old neighbour a "kind, gentle, loving, caring person."

"She was a devoted wife, and a loving mother and grandmother. And she never allowed her unfaltering love for her children to go unspoken," said Brown.

She was also a person of faith in good and rough times, her friend added.

Brown was two years old when she met Perizzolo in 1968. She had just moved in next door and went over to the Brown house and asked to borrow a pail of water.

"I looked at her promptly and said, ‘Lady, you can't have our water,'" said Brown. "Then I ran to tell my mother that some lady wanted to take our water."

She said Perizzolo mentioned that first meeting many times. But the two became fast friends, and Brown loved the homemade cookies Perizzolo was known for in the neighbourhood.

During his funeral mass, Father Paul Conway spoke of how Perizzolo had missed her husband Giuseppe (Joe), who died in May 2011.

He recalled she recently said: "I want to be with Joe."

"It was a constant plea," said Conway.

Conway also mentioned the second woman who died after the mall roof collapse on June 23, Lucie Alywin, several times during the mass.