Celine Dion lays husband to rest in Catholic funeral mass

Hundreds of friends, family and fans gathered at Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica on Friday to pay their final respects to Celine Dion’s husband and manager, Rene Angelil.

The family entered the church at 3:20 p.m. accompanied by a French recording of Dion’s 1984 song “Twenty Minutes Past Three”. The church is also where the couple had a lavish wedding in 1994. “Dad, I promise you here that we are all going to live up to your standards”, he added. Rene Angelil who died of throat cancer last week at the age of 73. He also has other children from his previous marriage namely Anne-Marie, Patrick, and Jean-Pierre. “Je t’aime papa”.

“He couldn’t always be with us, but he never missed a chance to tell us he loved us”. “Now, more than ever, we realize how exceptional it was to have a father who never hesitated to say those so precious words”.

“He was larger than life, but he was also the little boy from Villeray”, Coderre said.

Celine took to Twitter on Thursday (21Jan16) and invited fans from around the world to take part in her late husband’s funeral, writing, “From anywhere across the globe, it will be possible to follow Rene Angelil’s state funeral online tomorrow”.

Dion, who wore a black veil to the ceremony, stood to embrace her son after the eulogy.

Friday’s funeral service will be the first of two Dion will attend in a span of four days. The note said that Dion considers her career to be Angelil’s masterpiece, and that she must continue without him, for him. An insider said that Angelil has been preparing for it in the past months as he did not know when it will happen so he wanted everything to be set.