Thousands attend funeral to honor Chicago police Officer Ella French: ‘A woman with empathy for the sufferings of others’
CHICAGO — Slain Chicago police Officer Ella French helped save a baby who was shot in Englewood this summer, rushing the infant and the mother to the hospital on her own.
She chased stray dogs down the street while on duty so she could take them to the animal shelter. She brought banana bread and cinnamon rolls to work for her colleagues. She listened to people — even those who were angry and disrespectful — so she could better understand them.
Amid stories about her compassion and desire to help others, French was eulogized Thursday at a funeral replete with the traditions and tributes bestowed upon a police officer killed in the line of duty.
“We are only beginning to know her as you have known her over a lifetime,” Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Chicago Archdiocese told French’s family. “A woman with empathy for the sufferings of others, humble enough to know she
