Hundreds of friends joined family mourners on Monday for a service of remembrance and thanksgiving for the life of much-loved Bournemouth restaurateur Karleen Pang.

The service for 67-year-old Mrs Pang, who died last month after falling from the cruise liner the Oceana, was held at St Mark's Church in Talbot Village.

It was a heartbreakingly fitting location. For this was the church where she had attended Sunday School as a child, where she was married and where her children were christened.

The familiarity of the surroundings may at least have brought some comfort to her bereaved husband Chi Ming Pang and a family still trying to make sense of her sudden and shocking death.

For the many friends who knew Karleen and Pang from the years they ran, first the Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant in Boscombe and then Mr Pang's in Springbourne, the sadness is tempered by the happy memories they have of one of life's special people.

For as long-time friend, BBC man Ian Whitely observed in a moving tribute, Karleen Pang was a woman of "high principles and a heart of gold." Kind, generous, full of warmth, friendship, loyalty and humour, she had time for everyone.

She met Chi Ming Pang in 1957 when she was a young nurse at Christchurch hospital and he was working at a restaurant in Albert Road. They married in 1960 and for the next four decades this inseparable and devoted couple became a part of countless people's lives. They retired seven years ago but for many the restaurant years hold the defining memory of the bubbly, caring personality of Karleen Pang.

As Mr Whitely said: "Many customers became friends and friends were treated like family."

Her real family - husband Pang, daughters Kimm and Ka-ling and her five grandchildren James, Aimee, Chloe, Daniel and Thomas - were described as "the rock on which she built her life".

The service, taken by the Rev Colin Hodge and attended by some 400 people, also included a tribute in Chinese by Mr Tai Ming Pang.

It was followed by a private committal at Bournemouth Crematorium.