At Sunday's memorial service, Obama solemnly read out the first names of those Lanza killed.

"God has called them all home," he said.

And for every victim, there's a story.

Six-year-old Emilie Parker was "bright, creative and very loving," her father, Robbie Parker, recalled Saturday.

"My daugher Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing up and giving her love and support to all of those victims, because that is the type of person she is," he said. "...This world is a better place because she has been in it."

Victoria Soto, 27, moved her students away from her first-grade classroom door when she heard gunfire. She is being hailed for having saved some of her students, even though she herself didn't survive.

"She was truly selfless," her mother Donna Soto said Sunday. "She would not hesitate to think to save anyone else before herself and especially children. She loved them more than life."

Many more tears will be shed in the coming days, as victims are laid to rest.

The first two funerals tied to the massacre -- for Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both Sandy Hook students -- will begin Monday at noon and 1 p.m. respectively, according to the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association.

Malloy, Connecticut's governor, said Sunday that they will never be forgotten. At the same time, he expressed hope that the strength of community will make a difference.

"We will go on. We will find strength," he said at Sunday's memorial service. "We will get better."