'I'm proud to be his son'
Family honors lawyer killed by high-rise gunman
With her husband's casket just a few feet away, Suzanne McKenna held her 2-year-old son -- pressing her cheek to his, swaying from side to side and singing with steady determination.
Little Jonah McKenna, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and clutching an orange plastic toy truck, seemed mostly in awe of the crowd packed into St. Teresa of Avila Church in Lincoln Park on Wednesday morning. Sometimes, he poked a finger into his mouth -- other times, he just stared at the somber, silent people wiping away tears.
The gathering, which included Mayor Daley, came to remember Michael Malec McKenna -- described by friends and family as a passionate, smart and endlessly curious man.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
A Buddhist reading, a favorite quote from Nelson Mandela and -- in the pews -- a cluster of cyclists in colorful cycling garb, reflected McKenna's wide-ranging interests.
Melber recalled when McKenna, a widower, fretted about his first few dates with the woman who would become his wife.
"I felt like I was listening to a 16-year-old," Melber joked.
And then when Jonah came along two years ago, it was "like a breath of fresh air," Melber said.
"He was going to give Jonah the idyllic life," Melber said, drawing chuckles from the church gathering. "I was not going to burst that bubble."
Warren McKenna, one of three adult children from Michael McKenna's first marriage, fondly recalled the time he and his father worked on a remote control invention.
"He was a good man," Warren McKenna said. "I'm proud to be his son, proud to be a big brother to Jonah."
At the end of the service, Suzanne McKenna -- with Jonah in her arms -- followed the casket out of the church.
At one point, McKenna spotted Leib in a wheelchair, her wounded foot heavily bandaged.
McKenna reached down and put an arm around Leib, who then joined in the slow procession out of the church.
