Madonna Badger Gives Heartbreaking Eulogy At Funeral For Daughters Killed In Christmas Day Fire
Jan. 6 2012, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
By Alexis Tereszcuk - RadarOnline.com Senior Reporter
In a heartbreaking speech, New York fashion executive, Madonna Badger sobbed as she remembered her daughters who tragically were the victims of a Christmas Day fire in their home.
“My little girls are not gone from us entirely because my little girls are in my heart,” she said while sobbing. “Right here. And this is where they live.”
The St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was packed with mourners who listened to Badger speak lovingly about her lost girls.
There were three tiny caskets topped with white and pink floral arrangements for her daughters Lily, 10, and twins Grace and Sarah, 7 in the church.
Madonna fondly remembered Lily, saying “she was naturally shy, but when she let her smile glow it glowed completely,” and spoke about a heart wrenching conversation she had with Grace.
“Gracie asked a thousand times if she was going to die before me. I said, ‘No. that’s never going to happen.’”
The horrific Christmas Day fire also killed Badger’s mother and father, Lomer, 71, and Pauline.
All five bodies were found on the top two floors of Badger’s three-story $1.7 million mansion in Stamford, Conn.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, the blaze is believed to have started from Yule log embers.
The prominent New York businesswoman, who created the iconic Calvin Klein underwear ad with Mark Wahlberg, had been wrapping gifts by the fireplace with her boyfriend, Michael Borcina until around 3 a.m. They apparently then loaded the embers from the fireplace into a bucket and left it in the foyer before going to bed.
Investigators believe that is where the blaze started in the $1.7 million Victorian home that Madonna only moved into last year.
Lomer had valiantly tried to rescue his grandchildren by climbing onto a flat section of roof atop the three-story home and was close to getting one of the trapped children out but collapsed from carbon monoxide poisoning.
He was found buried underneath rubble just outside an open window which was near to where his granddaughter’s body was located. The proud grandfather had dressed up as Santa Claus at Saks Fifth Avenue this year to hand out gifts to children at the urging of his granddaughter Lily.
Neighbor and eye witness Charles Mangano told The Stamford Advocate he heard a man screaming for help as flames consumed the house shortly before dawn.
"They were both obviously in a state of shock," Mangano said. "He was in his boxers and a T-shirt, with no shoes. They were leading him up to an EMS truck. The woman said -- she was mumbling -- and she said, `my whole life is in there'."
Madonna Badger was seen fighting to get back inside the home to try and save her girls but she was eventually subdued and loaded onto a stretcher.
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