Twitterati Mourn Stephen Hawking Funeral
London: Hundreds of family and friends, including actor Eddie Redmayne, who played Stephen Hawking in the 2014 biographical drama "The Theory of Everything," attended the renowned scientist's private funeral Saturday in Cambridge.
The service honoring Hawking was held at the University of Cambridge's St. Mary the Great church, even though the celebrated cosmologist and mathematician, who died on March 14 at age 76, was an atheist. Hundreds of people lined the streets for the funeral procession, from Hawking's home in west Cambridge to the city's centre, where the church is located. His coffin was topped with white "Universe" lilies and white "Polar Star" roses, which were placed on the casket by his three children, Lucy, Robert and Tim. When the funeral procession arrived, St. Mary the Great's bell tolled 76 times, one for each of the professor's life, who was diagnosed with motor neuron disease in his 20s and was soon forced to use a wheelchair and eventually a speech synthesizer.
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