For the past four weeks Maureen Wood has lived every parent's nightmare after her son Alan, 55 was found stabbed to death at his home in Lound on October 24.
And Mrs Wood, who is 75, says nothing will help to ease the pain until the police catch whoever is responsible.
She said: "We are trying to carry on with our lives but we need closure. We need someone out there to tell us who did this because it's getting more difficult as time goes on.
"I lie awake at night thinking about the last minutes of Alan's life and how frightened he must have been. I just can't stop thinking about it and don't know why anyone would want to hurt him."
Mrs Wood, who lives in Stamford, last spoke to her son six days before his body was found at his home in Main Road, Lound. One of her biggest regrets is not telling him how much he meant to her.
She said: "We don't tend to tell older children, especially men, that we love them and we don't hug them. I just wish I had kissed Alan goodbye and told him I loved him the last time I saw him walking away. I thought he was coming back, but he didn't.
"I don't know if I will ever get over this but we have to try because I won't let whoever did this take my life as well as my son's. I have to keep going for Alan. He wouldn't want us to be miserable and crying all the time."
Police officers are still trawling through hours of CCTV footage from Stamford and Bourne town centres and carrying out forensic tests to help trace Alan's killer. Yesterday they played the images to shoppers on a big television screen at Bourne market in attempt to find more witnesses.
Mrs Wood says she is confident that the police will catch Alan's killer.
She said: "I didn't feel anything when I saw the CCTV images, but someone out there must know who he is.
"I have every confidence that the police are doing everything they can and will do until they have caught the man who did this, but my fear is that he will do this again unless someone comes forward."
As police investigations continue Mrs Wood and her daughters
Janice and Sylvia are focusing on the funeral arrangements. They are also looking ahead to Christmas and will be going out for the day rather than staying at the family home where Alan, 50, would normally have been.
Mrs Wood said: "We have had fantastic support from people. I didn't realise Alan had so many friends. He was a very quiet man so it makes me proud to know he had touched so many people in his life.
"He will be remembered for his dry sense of humour, his generosity and for being so laid back he would fall over. He was always there if you needed him."
Alan's funeral will take place on Friday, December 4 at Peterborough Crematorium at 2.30pm.
It will be a humanist service to celebrate Alan's life followed by drinks at The Willoughby Arms in Little Bytham where he was a regular. The family have asked that donations be made to the Lives First Responders.
An E-fit of the murder suspect and CCTV footage of a man using Alan Wood's cash cards in the days following his death can be viewed on the Lincolnshire Police website at www.lincs.police.uk and at www.stamfordmercury.co.uk

* Due to a production error the front page story of the Mercury (Stamford and Bourne editions) was incomplete. We apologise for the error and the story will run in next week's paper.