The sense of relief and release in the McConville household last night was palpable.
It had taken almost 31 years, but here was a family at last mourning their mother Jean in the proper manner.
Michael McConville's home, about a mile from Crumlin, Co Antrim, was a typical Irish wake house. There was a steady stream of visitors throughout the night, and all were welcomed.
Jean McConville's coffin was in the sitting room, a photograph of the mother of 10 beside it.
There were candles around the coffin, and vases of flowers. You could have a cup of tea or coffee or a drink.
You could touch the coffin, say a little prayer, hope that the demons of 31 years would be banished.
That is happening: there was a true feeling of peace in the house last night, a gradual lifting of an awful weight - perhaps not for all the family, but that may come in time too.
The family and mourners swapped stories, as at all wakes, sad stories, happy stories.
The family did not want to dwell too much on how the IRA abducted their 37-year-old mother around Christmas 1972 and, after a period of interrogation and who knows what other suffering, shot her dead with a bullet in the back of the head and left her in a sandy grave on a beach in Co Louth.
"My last memory of my mother is not a good one," said Michael.
"I was 11. I remember her being pulled out of the house. There were four women involved and a number of men. . ."
And he shakes the memory away, turning to something happier. "She loved bingo, played maybe a couple of times a week. If she ever won, she brought back fish and chips for all of us. That was her treat."
The IRA said she was an informer. They said they did not know what happened to her. They said she had run away with a British soldier.
The McConvilles say she was murdered because Jean, a Protestant who married a Catholic and settled in the Divis area of west Belfast, went to comfort a British soldier shot by the IRA.
"I want the IRA to tell the truth about my mother," said Michael, "instead of telling lies and saying she was an informer. I think they owe the family that."
Standing in the wake house, you couldn't help but hope that all the McConvilles could be united for tomorrow's funeral Mass for Jean off the Falls Road in west Belfast, and her burial later in Lisburn.
There are still tensions between Jean's daughter Helen and the rest of the McConvilles.
The McKendrys have the vindication of knowing that, but for their pressure over long years, the IRA might never have provided some assistance in yielding up Jean McConville's mortal remains.
Perhaps that might be sufficient validation in itself and the family could come together.
"We want Helen to be with us, as a family, for our mother," said Michael.
