Mr [Jarrod Newman] provoked laughter and tears as he told of Mr [ADAM Holt] and Ms Bragg’s love for their children and each other, recalling stories about the “full-on” little girls and the “top little bloke” [Travis Bragg].

“`Oy! What’s going on?’ That’s how Adam answered the phone,” he said. “He went by a number of names — Mr Trouble, Gentle Giant. The truth is he was an absolute champion — champion father, champion friend, awesome person.”

Sharon Bragg, mother of sports-mad Travis, sobbed as she spoke of her son’s ceaseless energy. “Travis was just a joy,” she said. “He loved all his family, soccer, cricket, union, AFL. He also loved his school, and he loved his sister.”

ADAM Holt had a habit of calling “Pick up your handbag” when friends and family started whingeing.

At his funeral yesterday, family friend Jarrod Newman said: “There goes the handbag.”

Hundreds of mourners jammed into the Hillside Chapel at the Palmdale Lawn Cemetery on the NSW central coast for the funeral of Mr Holt, 30, his partner Roslyn Bragg, 29, their daughters three- year-old Madison and two-year-old Jasmine, and Ms Bragg’s nephew, nine-year-old Travis Bragg.

The five were killed when a fissure opened up on the Old Pacific Highway during wild weather at Somersby on June 8, and their car plunged 40m into a swirling torrent below. They were victims of the worst storm to hit the east coast in more than 30 years.

Mourners were urged to “shed tears that they are gone” but “smile because they have lived”. The five coffins were covered with floral tributes in a sign of how the local community had rallied.

Both the Holt and Bragg families are large. When the service began and ended with a favourite song, Shannon Noll’s Shine, many wept.

Mr Newman provoked laughter and tears as he told of Mr Holt and Ms Bragg’s love for their children and each other, recalling stories about the “full-on” little girls and the “top little bloke” Travis.

“`Oy! What’s going on?’ That’s how Adam answered the phone,” he said. “He went by a number of names — Mr Trouble, Gentle Giant. The truth is he was an absolute champion — champion father, champion friend, awesome person.”

Ms Bragg was dropping Mr Holt off for his night shift at a Somersby factory when the ground literally opened up beneath them.

Sharon Bragg, mother of sports-mad Travis, sobbed as she spoke of her son’s ceaseless energy. “Travis was just a joy,” she said. “He loved all his family, soccer, cricket, union, AFL. He also loved his school, and he loved his sister.”

Family friend Steve Clark spoke of Roslyn Bragg’s tomboy upbringing around Dubbo, where she would boast of being able to “shoot the balls off a blowfly”. Later in life her love of pool and a good party earned her the nickname “crazy Ros”. She moved to the central coast four years ago to settle down and start a family.

The Reverend Matt Watt, who conducted the service, said the dash that appeared between the five’s all too short years showed that “it doesn’t matter, the cars and cash — what matters is how we live”.

“Realise this dash may only last a short while,” he said.