SAD: Kids’ dad Matthew Badger (l) and mom’s beau Mike Borcina.
DEVASTATING: An emotionally shattered but stoic Madonna Badger arrives yesterday at the Madison Avenue wake for her three young girls and parents who dies in Christmas blaze. (
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The anguished mom who lost her three young daughters in a horrific Christmas morning fire grieved with a parade of mourners at the girls’ heartbreaking Manhattan wake yesterday — joined by more than a dozen Connecticut firefighters who fought in vain to save them.
Fashion ad exec Madonna Badger, whose parents also died in the predawn blaze that swept through her Stamford mansion, appeared exhausted but stoic as she walked alone into the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on the Upper East Side just before 2 p.m.
Her estranged husband, Matthew Badger, who lives in lower Manhattan, gave a weak smile and shook hands with law-enforcement officers as he arrived a short time later for the farewell to Lilly, 10, and her sisters, twins Grace and Sarah, 7.
“It is an incredibly, incredibly difficult time for them,” family friend Kate Askew said in a statement read at the wake.
The beloved little girls — in mahogany caskets decorated with white and pink lilies — were in one area of the funeral suite, next to the matching cherrywood caskets of their doting grandparents, Pauline and Lomer Johnson.
Photos of the five tragic family members were placed nearby, and a video-tribute montage was played .
Stamford Fire Chief Antonio Conte, along with at least 14 of that city’s still-shaken firefighters, also came to pay their respects.
“It’s not easy,” an emotional Conte said after visiting with Madonna Badger inside. “We tried to save all those children, and their grandparents, but the fire beat us back. It’s a bitter pill to swallow.”
Family friend Askew read a statement on behalf of Madonna, Matthew and their families, thanking firefighters and rescue workers for their efforts and the public for its support.
“The incredible outpouring of love and compassion,” Askew said, “it has touched them deeply through this unbearable tragedy.”
Madonna Badger’s contractor boyfriend, Mike Borcina, arrived at the funeral home just before 4 p.m. Matthew Badger left the wake minutes later, with his girlfriend and a nephew in tow.
Borcina had been overseeing the renovation of Madonna’s $1.7 million waterfront, 19th-century house and was with her when the fire broke out sometime after 3:30 a.m.
Investigators said the blaze was sparked when still-smoldering fireplace ashes — which Borcina had placed outside in a bag so the kids wouldn’t worry about Santa getting burned — ignited the home.
The home was wired for smoke detectors, but they hadn’t been installed, police said.
Additional reporting by Andy Campbell