Cindy McCain remained stoic for most of her late husband John McCain’s funeral, but an emotional cover of one of his favorite songs during the ceremony left her in tears.
The late senator’s wife could be seen weeping throughout Renée Fleming’s performance of “Danny Boy,” which happened towards the end of the Washington D.C. service on Saturday.
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Cindy McCain sat through the whole ceremony stoic and gracefully,,,,till @reneesmusings singing “Danny Boy” which rightfully moved her. pic.twitter.com/9t3xkBYK0v
— #Thinker 🌀 (@ReadFlyRun) September 1, 2018
At one point, she even leaned her head against son, Jack McCain’s shoulder.
The emotional song is about a dying father talking to his son, who has gone to war. In the song, the father knows that his son will return to find his father dead and buried. The father says that, even in death, he will hear his son “treading atop the grave,” PEOPLE writes.
“If you’ll not fail to tell me that you love me / I’ll simply sleep in peace until you come to me,” reads one of the song’s lyrics.
According to the outlet months before he died of brain cancer last Saturday, the senator asked that the song, one of his favorites, be suggested during the ceremony.
“It was absolutely one of his favorite songs,” Carla Eudy, a fundraiser who has worked with and been friends with the McCain family for decades and also served as a pallbearer at his national memorial service, told the outlet. “He wanted it sung at his funeral.”
“I can hardly talk about it let alone listen to it,” she added. “I saw him last July, and we have been working on what the services would be. He wanted to make sure that the final time that was going to honor his passing would have only things he wanted.”
Shortly after news of his passing broke, McCain released an emotional statement mourning her husband’s death.
“My heart is broken,” McCain wrote on Twitter. “I am so lucky to have lived the adventure of loving this incredible man for 38 years. He passed the way he lived, on his own terms, surrounded by the people he loved, in the the place he loved best.”
“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” John’s daughter Meghan McCain said during her eulogy, seemingly taking a jab at President Donald Trump. Washington Post‘s Philip Rucker said that the comment was met with “sustained applause” from the gathered mourners and dignitaries.
Sen. John McCain passed away on Saturday, Aug. 25 after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. He was 81 years old.