Best makes final journey home
His personal illustration of grief and devotion came after silence enveloped the RAF airbase.
Best had been flown home for a funeral that will be a celebration of Belfast's own global icon.
Yet for the family huddled under dark grey skies this was a sombre and unwanted reunion.
Amid the gloom enveloping Aldergrove, Co Antrim, a private plane carrying the remains touched down just before noon.
Two pipers played a lament as they were carried from the aircraft.
A Manchester United flag was draped over the coffin as Calum and Phil Hughes, Best's agent and close friend, disembarked from the flight.
Waiting for them, Dickie Best, 87, wiped away tears for the son he has lost.
Best's four sisters Carol, Barbara, Julie and Grace were also among the party of 11 comforting each other.
With his grandfather by his side, Calum made his spontaneous gesture of love once the coffin was place in a waiting hearse.
All around the base had come to a standstill as military staff paid their respects.
They broke into a round of applause once the family returned to two waiting limousines and began to move out.
Six police outriders flanked the convoy for the 20-mile journey to Dickie's home on the Cregagh estate, east Belfast.
It was on fields here in this staunchly working class Protestant district that Best first honed the skills that would regularly bewitch opposition defences and entrance thousands of spectators.
Rain had soaked the huge shrine outside his terraced house on Burren Way by the time they arrived.
After a policeman saluted the hearse, Best's coffin was wheeled into the house where the blinds on all the windows were closed.
Both ends of the 200-yard long street were sealed by police, but neighbours from the houses in the street gathered opposite the Best house and stood silently in pouring rain as the coffin was taken inside.
Dickie stood with Calum in the front garden for several minutes, showing him the mass of wreaths, flowers and football shirts and scarves that have built up in the week since the football legend died.
Just moments before the cortege arrived at the house, police allowed a teenager through the cordon to place one more wreath outside the house.
Hundreds of fans stood patiently at the end of the street paying their respects, but most adhered to the request from the Best family to stay away.
Their privacy will be shortlived, however, as hundreds of thousands of fans are expected to line the three-mile route from the home to Parliament Buildings, Stormont, for Saturday's funeral.
But as the rest of the family shied away from the intense glare surrounding the occasion, Calum was given another reminder of what his father meant to the people of Belfast.
Accompanied by Mr Hughes, they surprised onlookers by turning up at a massive mural in the heart of east Belfast.
The menacing Ulster Volunteer Force painting which boasted of loyalist paramilitary strength in the area had already been turned into a depiction of Northern Ireland's soccer greats.
But other household names had been ditched as a whole gable wall on the Woodstock Road became a portrayal of Best at the height of his powers.
With the paint still wet, Calum gazed up at the black and white image of his father, the people's hero.
As he did, a pensioner carrying an umbrella in one hand to shield her from the downpour, and bags full of groceries in the other, stopped and offered her condolences to him.
What she said went unheard, but it brought a tender smile from a young man coping with the greatest loss of his life.
The day will begin with a private blessing at George Best's family home in the Cregagh estate.
The funeral procession will then drive to the Parliament Buildings at Stormont for a public service at 11am which will be relayed to crowds outside on big screens.
This will be followed by a private burial at Roselawn Cemetery, in the same plot as his mother, Ann.
The funeral route leads from Cregagh Road along Upper Knock Road until it reaches Upper Newtownards Road, where it will turn right.
It will continue along this road until it reaches the gates of the Stormont Estate, where it will turn left and drive up Prince of Wales Avenue.
After the ceremony at Stormont, the cortege will leave by the same route until reaching Ballygowan Road where it will turn left and continue to Roselawn Cemetery.
The council asks that people respect the Best family wishes and remain behind barriers along the route, rather than following the cortege.
Crowds will be allowed into the Stormont Estate from 9am but there is a limit of about 30,000 for safety reasons. After this limit is reached the gates will be shut.
For those who do make it inside, there will be big screens showing the service.
No parking will be allowed within a two-mile radius of the Stormont Estate and the authorities are urging the public to keep cars away.
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