Mom mourns 3 daughters, parents who died in Conn. fire

The Capital

NEW YORK — Lily, her firstborn, was her "angel," her "life." Sarah was her "little whippersnapper, loved and lovable and full of love." While her twin, Grace, "fearless," often asked her mother if she was going to die before her.

Madonna Badger told her daughter it was "never going to happen."

"But it did, and I wonder why," she said during a eulogy to her "girl tribe" in New York City yesterday. "Why my children?"

The three young girls died along with Badger's parents during a Christmas morning fire at their Connecticut home. More than 500 mourners joined the grieving mother at St. Thomas Church in Manhattan for a somber funeral.

"My girls are in my heart," Badger said. "They're right here. And that's where they live now."

Badger broke down several times as she described each girl in turn - Lily, 9, and 7-year-old twins Sarah and Grace - then wailed as she followed their coffins out of the cavernous Gothic church. She was accompanied by her estranged husband, Matthew Badger, and her friend and contractor, Michael Borcina.

Borcina was with Madonna Badger and her family when the lethal fire ripped apart their lives. He walked behind the grieving parents as the coffins were brought out of the church.

Badger's parents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson, also died in the fire.

Badger told mourners, "In all the incomprehensible loss and chaos, all I can hang onto is that love is everything."

The pallbearers were 18 firefighters from Stamford, Conn., who responded to the fire.

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