by Brian Harmon and Michele Mcphee, New York Daily News
As dozens of mourners left a graveside prayer service for slain Police Officer Rodney Gillis yesterday, his mother stood alone by her son’s coffin.
Geraldine Gilliam had waited 11 long months, regularly attending Sunday Mass at Ground Zero, praying that rescue workers would find her son’s remains in the rubble so she could give him a proper burial.
Last week, the city medical examiner identified Gillis’ remains, comparing DNA cultivated from a small piece of bone to genetic material taken from family members and his toothbrush. “We have him. We didn’t have him before,” Gillis’ older brother, Ronald, 36, said after the service at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, L.I.
“Whatever parts we have . . .” he added, his voice trailing, “my mother has him back home. Now, we have closure for our mom.”
Known as The Hulk --
Gillis, 33, a handsome 6-footer, was an Emergency Service Unit sergeant nicknamed The Hulk.
He was off duty the morning of Sept. 11, finishing some paperwork at Truck 8’s Brooklyn headquarters. When the planes hit, he rushed to the scene, rounded up four other ESU cops and headed inside 2 World Trade Center.
“We’re on the 20th floor of the south tower,” Gillis transmitted over an NYPD radio to a boss outside. “We’re meeting a lot of resistance.”
Minutes later, the tower collapsed, killing Gillis and his ESU colleagues - Santos Valentin, Ronald Kloepfer, Walter Weaver and Jerome Dominguez.
During the prayer service, Gillis’ 6-year-old son Rodney Jr. was handed the ceremonial folded American flag and later gave it to his 14-year-old sister, Jonique, who wept as she carried it away from the grave.
A bugler played taps, then the Emerald Society bagpipers bellowed “Going Home.”
Detective Andy Vallis, Gillis’ friend and fellow cop for 14 years, said the burial helped put his buddy’s soul to rest.
“This is final,” he said. “Before there was nothing. He was just gone.”
Still, Ronald Gillis was not ready to say farewell to his slain brother.
“I’m not saying goodbye. I’m saying, ‘See you later,’ ” said Gillis, sporting a gold necklace with the officer’s photo on a dangling charm.