On her parliamentary farewell, Jacinda Ardern is being feted and remembered for one moment above others during her six-year prime ministership.
Ms Ardern's leadership in the aftermath of New Zealand's worst modern-day shooting, the 2019 Christchurch Mosques attacks, defined her time in office.
Her "They are us" speech, delivered at Christchurch's Hagley Park two weeks after the March 15 attacks, won plaudits abroad and gave strength to a vulnerable community when it was most needed.
"Her response got us international attention and solidarity with us," said Hamimah Ahmat, who lost her husband Zekeriya Tuyan at Al Noor Mosque.
"She showed compassionate leadership with a simple 'They are us'."
Ms Ardern's sisterhood with the widows and victims of the 51 killed in the Mosque attacks continued long after the shooting.
Aya Al-Umari, whose brother Hussein was killed, said the prime minister took time to get to know her family, remembering small details years later.
"My mum shared a gift from the Kingdom of Saudi which was a cloth from the Kaaba," Ms Al-Umari told AAP, referencing the holiest site in Islam.
"Jacinda told my mum something like, 'You must be a queen'. It really meant a lot to her. Small words make such a big impact.
"When I saw her last year, she asked again, 'How is your mum, how is Auckland treating you'.
"She remembers conversations. Her commitment to engage and be present is really a testament to her public service."
Ms Al-Umari said Ms Ardern's public embrace of NZ's small Islamic community "gave us time to grieve".
"It really made us feel that we were being looked after. That we are included," she said.
AAP asked a number of Ms Ardern's parliamentary colleagues for their dominant memory of her prime ministership.
All cited her efforts to heal NZ in the days and weeks that followed the attacks.
"The way that she showed great leadership - exemplary leadership, I felt - during the Christchurch massacre made the whole country feel incredibly proud about that response," Opposition Leader Chris Luxon said.
"It was really important."
Ms Ardern has returned to parliament in Wellington this week for the first time since yielding the leadership in January.
On Tuesday morning she attended her final caucus meeting, where she was gifted a hamper.
"Some gifts were given. Some speeches were made. It was just a really lovely way to send off such a great leader ... a little bit sad, but quite touching," Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said.
Michael Wood, who held an ethnic communities portfolio in 2019, travelled with Ms Ardern to South Island the day after the attack.
"I remember her walking into the room where the families had gathered, families who didn't at that stage know what had happened to the loved ones," he said.
"I can't imagine there being any other person in New Zealand at that time who could have given those poor people some comfort.
"But she walked into the middle of them and she was able to provide leadership in the most extraordinary way."
Al Noor Mosque imam Gamal Fouda said the country was "losing one of New Zealand's best leaders in history" with Ms Ardern's departure.
"You led our country at the wrong time in history," he told the NZ Herald.
"You are the mother of compassion and care in a time when many people have forgotten to feel or care for others."
Later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced Ms Ardern would continue to serve NZ's Islamic community, appointing her as a special envoy to the Christchurch Call.
