WARM EMBRACE: Krista Rekos receives a hug yesterday after the mom eulogized 6-year-old daughter Jessica (inset) at her funeral in Newtown. (
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The procession of pain continues.
Funerals for two more young victims of Adam Lanza’s elementary-school rampage were held yesterday — in the church where both children had been baptized.
Under somber gray skies, James Mattioli and Jessica Rekos, both 6, were eulogized in back-to-back services at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown, Conn.
Nearly 2,000 people — their faces twisted with grief — packed the church, first to say goodbye to James, who was remembered as a precocious child with an equal hunger for learning and hamburgers.
“You were a good, good baby, and your big brown eyes followed everything [big sister] Anna did,” James’ sobbing mother, Cindy Mattioli, said in her heartbreaking eulogy.
“Thank you for always asking me to cuddle on the couch with you and have a chat and talk about what we did today and what tomorrow will hold,” she said.
James was among 20 first-graders murdered Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School by Lanza, 20 — who was once a parishioner at St. Rose, along with his mother, whom he also killed.
After James’ body was taken from St. Rose for burial, Jessica’s casket arrived.
With her sobbing parents, Rich and Krista, wearing black in the front row, Jessica’s tiny white casket was placed before the altar.
“She made it very clear to Rich and I: She was a leader, a planner and our little CEO,’’ Krista said.
The youngster had her mischievous side as well.
“When she was 2 1/2, she was misbehaving one night. It escalated . . . to the point where I told her if she didn’t stop her temper tantrum by the time I counted to three, I was going to throw her princess shoes in the garbage,’’ the mom said.
“Sure enough, she kept up the temper tantrum. I grabbed her shoes and walked down the basement stairs, right out to the garbage can in the garage.
“She waited until I was about halfway up [the stairs again] before she slammed the door and locked me in the basement, “She clearly won this one, and I loved her for it.”
Even the hardened cops on hand had a difficult time.
“I’ve never been in a situation like this where I am watching a sea of people leaving a funeral for a child, and another sea of people waiting at the side of the church, trying to get in for the next funeral, Fairfield Police Lt. Jim Perez said.
Hundreds also packed St. Rose later for the wake of 7-year-old Daniel Barden .
“It’s very sad. He had a promising future ahead of him,” a family friend said.
A wake also was held yesterday for Charlotte Bacon, 6, at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Newtown.
Additional reporting by Kenneth Garger and Daniel Prendergast