Family and Friends Mourn Jacqueline and Janessa Greig

Family members remembered Jacqueline Greig as a warm, loving mother and Janessa Greig as a natural leader at a funeral Mass at St. Cecilia Catholic Church today.

More than a thousand people crowded the pews to mourn Jacqueline, 44, and her daughter Janessa, 13, who were killed Sept. 9 when a natural gas pipeline exploded in their Crestmoor neighborhood.  They were among four victims confirmed dead in the fire.

Jacqueline's husband, James Greig, and their other daughter, Gabriella, 16, sat in the front row of the family's church where both girls had gone to school.  James and Gabriella weren't home at the time of the explosion.

"We want it to go back to the way it used to be, James, Jackie, Janessa and Gaby here with us," said James Grieg's brother-in-law, Leo Cabatu, as he spoke about the lives of Jacqueline and Janessa.  "We remember that we were blessed to have Jackie and Janessa in our lives."

Flowers lined the entrance to the church and a large collage of family photos showed Janessa as a newborn in her mother's arms, surrounded by her father and sister.  A mariachi band led the procession as family members, clergy and pallbearers with two caskets entered the church at the start of the service.

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, whose district includes San Bruno, and San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane were among the standing room-only crowd. 

Suzette Cabatu, James' sister and Leo Cabatu's wife, remembered Janessa, an eighth-grader, as "a tour de force of energy and personality" who acted in school plays, was elected student body president and known at St. Cecilia School as commissioner general.

Leo Cabatu remembered Jackie as a loving wife and mother who was delighted to take a long-awaited trip to Italy last year to celebrate the couple's 19th wedding anniversary.

"You took the lifelong trip Jackie always wished for," Cabatu said.  "You did it together, you did it as a family."

Cabatu assured James and Gabriella that they won't be alone.

"Remember how our families have never experienced a Christmas without each other?" he said.  "James, Gaby, you'll still be there with us, and Jackie and Janessa will be there, too." 

Jacqueline Greig worked the California Public Utilities Commission for 21 years and worked on natural gas issues as a consumer advocate.

Some mourners in the church wore tags around their necks that read, "Janessa and Jackie are alive in God's care."

Monsignor Michael Harriman gave a homily in which he spoke about that year's school theme at St. Cecilia School, "Don't stop believing."  Janessa, as commissioner general, had helped pick the theme.

"She realized when she was with us on Earth how much we needed to hear those words." Harriman said.  "As you are struggling with this, I say to you, 'Don't stop believing.'"

School at St. Cecilia's was cancelled today, but children of all ages attended the Mass in school uniforms.  At the end of the service, students formed an honor guard and lined the aisle to let the family and pallbearers through.  Athletes from St. Ignatius, Gabriella's school, stood in their varsity jackets.

"I'm a cheerleader, and I remember she was telling the whole student body something, and I looked up and I thought, 'She's going to be a great commissioner general,'" said Katerina Doricko, 12, choking up after the service.   Doricko is a seventh-grader at St. Cecilia School.

"Janessa had such a bright smile," said her sister, Izabella Doricko, 10, a fifth-grader.

Their mother, Cecilia Doricko, said she wanted to come to the funeral to support the family, even though she didn't know the Greigs.  She said she appreciates the strong community at St. Cecilia School.

"It's so much more than the books, it's the community, the spirit," she said.

After the funeral, mourners drove to Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma for the burial.  A reception would immediately follow at St. Cecilia Hall.