(CNN) Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy McCain, and daughter, Meghan McCain, released poignant statements of thanks and remembrances Saturday evening just after it was announced that the Arizona Republican, 81, had passed away at his home in Arizona.
"I was with my father at his end as he was with me at my beginning. In the thirty three years we shared together, he raised me, taught me, corrected me, comforted me, encouraged me and supported me in all things," Meghan McCain wrote. "He loved me, and I loved him. He taught me how to live. His love and his care, ever present, always unfailing, took me from a girl to a woman -- and he showed me what it is to be a man."
Meghan continued "all that I am is thanks to him. Now that he is gone, the task of my lifetime is to live up to his example, his expectations and his love."
"My heart is broken. I am so lucky to have lived the adventure of loving this incredible man for 38 years," Cindy McCain wrote. "He passed the way he lived, on his own terms, surrounded by the people he loved, in the place he loved best."