Thousands lined Newton Road from the top of the hill down to the sea on Saturday afternoon as Bonnie Tyler was brought home to Mumbles for the last time.
They stood two and three deep on both pavements outside the shops, some sitting on the kerb, waiting in the sun for a car that would take less than a minute to pass.
Total Eclipse of the Heart was playing on the street as the cortege appeared at the top of the hill. Applause moved down Newton Road with it, and a funeral director in a top hat walked ahead of the hearse at little more than walking pace.
Her coffin was draped in the flag of Wales, red dragon against the white and green, with white lilies and roses laid alongside it. A framed black and white portrait of the singer in her 1980s heyday was propped in the window.
Flowers were thrown onto the car as it came, until the bonnet was covered in bouquets. Single red roses lay in the road behind it.
People stepped off the pavements and followed the hearse on foot to the end of the road. Among them were fans who had travelled from Germany and Austria for the day.
The hearse left William Pressdee Funeralcare on Stanley Street at about 3.15pm, travelling down Newton Road towards the White Rose before turning onto Mumbles Road and back to her home at Llwynderw.
Newton Road had closed from around 3pm so people could line it safely, from the Mumbles Road junction up to Langland Road near Oystermouth School. Buses were let through for as long as it stayed safe to do so.
Others waited further along at her home on Mumbles Road, where floral tributes have been left outside the property.
Gaynor Sullivan, known to the world as Bonnie Tyler, was 75. She died at a hospital in Portugal on 8 July, two months after emergency surgery in Faro.
Invited guests inside the Minster, a big screen outside
The celebration of her life takes place at Swansea Minster, St Mary’s Church, at noon on Monday 17 August.
Entry to the church is for family, friends and invited guests only. That is a change from the arrangements set out last month, when a limited number of seats inside had been expected to be available to the public.
Instead, the service will be shown on a large screen in St David’s Square for anyone who wants to be there. Roads around St Mary’s close from 7am to 3pm, with a restricted area immediately around the Minster and the viewing area to its south.
It will also be streamed online, and the funeral directors have asked anyone planning to watch to use the official link and set themselves up on the platform beforehand.
They have a warning attached: it is the only live stream, and no payment will be asked for at any point. Anyone directed to a site requesting money should not pay it.
A last drive through Skewen before a private farewell
The service is expected to run about an hour. Afterwards the singer makes a final journey through Skewen, reaching the village from around 1.20pm.
The route runs along Fabian Way to Ashleigh Terrace through Jersey Marine, then Pen-y-Heol, Burrows Road, Hen Heol, New Road, Siding Terrace, Park Avenue and Peniel Green Road. From that point the arrangements are strictly private.
Her family have asked for family flowers only, with donations invited instead to the two charities she was patron of, Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales and Cerebral Palsy Cymru.
A book of condolence remains open at Y Storfa on Oxford Street until 24 August during normal opening hours, with an online book on Swansea Council’s website.
A post on the Bonnie Tyler Fans page on Saturday evening described an extremely sad day, and the crowds in the streets and watching online as wonderful to see. It ended: “Goodnight, Gaynor.”
She split her time between Mumbles and the Algarve and never really left either. On Saturday, Mumbles came out and filled its main street to bring her home.
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