Mom eulogizes 3 daughters killed in fire

The mother of the three young girls who died during a Christmas morning fire in Connecticut delivered a heartbreaking eulogy to her "girl tribe" at their somber funeral in Manhattan Thursday .

"My girls are in my heart," Madonna Badger told more than 500 mourners at St. Thomas Church.

"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 cried as she followed their coffins out of the cavernous Gothic church.

She was accompanied by her estranged husband, Matthew Badger.

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

Badger, a fashion advertising executive, 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.

Among the mourners were fashion designers Calvin Klein and Vera Wang, rocker Lou Reed and actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Three blonde girls wearing pretty dresses laughed delightedly in a photo that adorned the program for the service.

Badger said Lily was "my angel and my life and she was my firstborn."

Sarah was "my little whippersnapper, loved and lovable and full of love."

Grace was "fearless" but often asked her mother "if she was going to die before me." "I said no, that's never going to happen," she said.

"But it did, and I wonder why. Why my children? Why my parents?"

Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright performed a haunting a cappella version of "Over the Rainbow" during the service.

A private service was held later at Woodlawn Cemetery for the girls and their grandparents.

Authorities have said that embers in a bag of discarded ashes started the blaze.

They had been taken out of a fireplace so the children wouldn't worry about Santa coming down the chimney.

Madonna Badger and a friend, Michael Borcina, were treated at a hospital.

Fire officials have said Borcina is believed to have placed the ashes in or outside an entryway, near the trash.

The victims died of smoke inhalation.

Grandfather Lomer Johnson also suffered a blunt head and neck trauma, which resulted from a fall or being hit by an object.

One of the girls, found dead just inside a window, had been placed on a pile of books, apparently so Johnson could reach in and grab her after he jumped out. Instead, authorities say, he fell through the roof.