So we get to the top of the lighthouse in Alpine Unrest to rescue the family…but they’re just food boxes stacked to look like people…
It was a genuinely sad and emotive moment, that she just went mad sitting there - but I’m beginning to think I’ve imagined it, because NO ONE else has mentioned it. At all.
Did she replace them one by one, did none of them make it into the lighthouse, or was there never a family to begin with? Did I miss something?
I’ve seen it mentioned before… Somewhere, but I think it may be one of those things that people just don’t notice. I certainly did, and I think it’s a great way to end the mission. Little stories like that make the game world such a bigger place.
I’ve edited your thread’s title and added proper spoiler tags, btw 
There is mission journal with that mission that you can read. And from that, you can also read that Viktoria (mother), at 4th of December (last journal entry) was going outside to find food for her kids. Good chances are that she didn’t make it back, leaving kids alone. And since kids miss their mom, they erected a statue to remember her.
A sad scene to look at. But there is hope that kids found a guardian who takes care of them since no dead bodies are seen there.
Though, to me, the worst mission is Normal Lives since what happened there, is horrifying and i’m still mad that it was put in the game in the first place. 
But what truly rubs salt to the wound is devs laughing at it when they showcased that mission in the dev stream. 
Now lets put a bit darker gear on and think if all the kids were integrated to machine that controls ticks.
Tactical thinking not required, just straight blind action command: see target - go to target - detonate.
Oh yeh? Do you know there is always something darker?
What if it´s the opposite? Adult brains being incapable of fully integrating with the machines, and in reality Ticks and Seekers are being controlled by what remains of the Adults thinking capacity.
The ones going around killing are the children and teenagers brains fully integrated with the machines, with their humanity forever lost.
Well… reality is FAR worse…
Imagine, miss, the game would be realistic in that matter.
It would be a bit different, in those regards, I think…