After the ceremony, a host of officers from around New England, dressed in their finest, some walking, some on horseback, some on motorcycles, escorted the hearse carrying Ambrose to his final resting place at Hillcrest Park Cemetery.

Residents stood on sidewalks holding American flags. A dozen boys and girls from the Sixteen Acres Primary School and Kindergarten sat with their teacher in the school’s front lawn, in the shade of a leafy tree, to pay their respects.

As Ambrose’s coffin was laid to rest, the skies grew darker and fat droplets began to fall. Still, the thousands of officers stood patiently in rows as they waited to place their white gloves on top of Ambrose’s glistening blue coffin — a finally gesture of goodbye.