A city says goodbye to firefighter Daniel Capuano

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A little boy gazed at the face in the casket and saluted.

Grown men — no-nonsense guys normally — struggled to speak.

And a widow wondered how she’d cope now that her heart has been broken “into a million little pieces.”

This was how a city said goodbye to Chicago firefighter Daniel Capuano Friday in a packed South Side church.

“They simply do not make them like Dan Capuano any more,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel, one of a number of dignitaries who spoke at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel. “He was a big guy, who had even a bigger heart.”

In his eulogy, Father Tom McCarthy said: “Thanks, Dan, for being our hero.”

Capuano’s widow, Julie, sat with her arm around her youngest son, Nick, 12. Her smiles dissolved into tears and back again as friends and family recalled the life of the 15-year department veteran, killed Monday after falling down an open elevator shaft while battling a blaze at a vacant South Chicago neighborhood warehouse.

A little earlier, in a biting wind, white-gloved firefighters from all over Illinois and beyond gathered in front of the church. Capuano’s firefighter coat and helmet adorned the front of a Chicago Fire truck — the truck that would later carry his body to Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery in Alsip.

Inside the church, seven easels displayed countless photographs of Capuano — many of him enjoying vacations with his beloved wife and three children.

The service was filled with touching, sweet and heart-breaking moments — perhaps none more so than when firefighters from Capuano’s firehouse read aloud notes his children and wife had written for Friday’s farewell.

“He loved watching me play hockey,” went Nick’s note. “He was a well-liked man . . . Dad really loves my mom, Julie.”

And from the eldest son, 13-year-old Andrew: “I really look up to my dad. He would teach me how to do things, like cook, mow the lawn, be a gentleman, put others first.”

Capuano’s firefighter buddies struggled at times to keep reading.

Julie Capuano spoke of groping for a way forward without the man she’d married 20 years earlier, when both were 22 years old, and who she wanted to be with “for 100 more years.”

“It breaks my heart into a million little pieces to know that you will never get to walk [daughter] Amanda down the aisle or sit with me while we watch Andrew and Nick play hockey,” she wrote. “I am broken inside by losing you, Dan. I’m just not sure what I’m going to do.”

A little while later, the family walked down the steps of the church — a sea of firefighters facing them — and watched as Capuano’s casket was loaded onto a Chicago Fire truck.

Daughter Amanda, 16,  blew her daddy a kiss.

And soon, accompanied by the rumble of dozens of fire truck engines from all across Illinois, the funeral procession made its way to the cemetery.

Julie Capuano the wife of Chicago firefighter Daniel Capuano, grieves at his funeral at St. Rita High School’s chapel on Friday. | Ashlee Rezin/For Sun-Times

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel was among the mourner’s at the firefighter’s funeral Friday. | Ashlee Rezin/For Sun-Times

A member of the Chicago Fire Department wipes a tear away as personnel line up for the procession after funeral services for firefighter Daniel Capuano Friday. | Ashlee Rezin/For the Sun-Times

Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Jose Santiago addresses the media after the funeral services for firefighter Daniel Capuano Friday. | Ashlee Rezin/For Sun-Times

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Julie Capuano, the wife of Chicago firefighter Daniel Capuano, grieves with her two sons, Andrew, 13, and Nick, 12, while fire department personnel lift Daniel’s casket onto a fire truck for the procession after his funeral. | Ashlee Rezin/For the Sun-Times

Chicago Fire Department personnel lift Daniel Capuano’s casket onto a fire truck for the procession after his funeral Friday. | Ashlee Rezin/For Sun-Times media

The funeral procession for Chicago firefighter Daniel Capuano | Ashlee Rezin/For Sun-Times

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