The entire city of Waltham and police from all over lined Trapelo Road to say their last goodbyes to Officer Paul Tracey, who’s life was cut short while doing his job.

An American flag flew high above as bagpipers led a procession of heartbroken colleagues and family members to the same church where Tracey got married.

“As a family, this is the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do,” Jim Tracey told thousands who gathered for his brother’s funeral at Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted Church on Friday. “Where do we begin? How do you capture in words in just a few minutes the life of a man who meant so much to so many?”

Paul Tracey, a 28-year member of the Waltham Police Department, died at age 58, “doing what he loved most, protecting and serving the citizens of Waltham,” his brother Jim said.

Tracey’s life came to an abrupt end the afternoon of Dec. 6 when a man allegedly drove through a Waltham construction site, striking and killing him and National Grid utility worker Roderick Jackson, 36, of Cambridge.

Jim Tracey delivered a powerful eulogy that lasted nearly 20 minutes in which he remembered all that his brother, whom he called “an advocate of the underdog,” stood for. Paul’s wife Kristin, a school resource officer at Waltham High School, filled the church’s front with their children, Danika and Tyler, or “Tylah,” as Paul would call his son with his thick Boston accent, Jim said.

Tracey and his wife got married at Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted on Aug. 18, 2007, the same venue they were baptized and received first communion, said the church’s pastor, Rev. James DiPeri.

Jim Tracey recounted Paul getting his daughter’s “very first” concert tickets to see Taylor Swift with her cousin Abby and how his brother “honed” Danika as a Blackjack player. Meanwhile, Tyler enjoyed going to the 99 Restaurant in Woburn where “he was able to sit at the bar with his dad, feeling like one of the big guys,” Jim chuckled.

Paul Tracey had a passion for taking his family to the beach during the summer, whether it be to York, Maine or to South Yarmouth, so his children could connect with their cousins. But he was just as passionate about being a police officer, a job he’d always be willing to go the extra mile for, Jim said.

In 2018, Tracey was hailed as a hero after he helped save the life of a woman who overdosed on drugs on a Cape Cod beach. Tracey was off duty, on a family vacation, at Riviera Beach Resort in South Yarmouth when he and a cousin began CPR on the woman in distress.

“So many lives were changed forever on the evening of December 6th,” Jim Tracey said. “Unfortunately for us, this day will always be remembered as the day that the life of a great man was cut short, a law enforcement career that ended too soon, and a husband, father, brother, uncle, godfather and friend who had so much more to give was taken from us.”

“Paul Tracey is our hero,” Jim continued. “A hero is someone who faces danger, has integrity, bravery and strength. That’s what police officers do every day, performing responsibilities that most people do not want or cannot do.”

Hundreds who couldn’t get inside the church stood outside listening to and watching the funeral on large screens.

DiPeri remembered Jackson, the 36-year-old National Grid gas technician who died alongside Tracey at the detail site on Totten Pond Road. Jackson’s family attended Tracey’s wake on Thursday, “knowing that they have their own services for the one they grieve and love so much,” he said.

Jackson’s services are scheduled for Saturday at St. Paul AME Church on Bishop Allen Drive and Columbia Street in Cambridge. A wake will be held from 9 to 11 a.m., with the funeral directly following.

“We pray for God’s justice, God’s peace, God’s mercy to rest upon the world so that we may act as his representatives in creating a world that is safe and stable for the common good and the individual good,” the pastor said, “so that we may live in peace so there’d be no need for unnecessary death, killing of people in any capacity, including our police officers, firefighters, and those beyond.”

The suspect, Peter Simon, 54, of Woodsville, N.H., who had a lengthy criminal record prior to the incident, is being held on two counts of manslaughter and a slew of other charges.

A program for fallen Waltham police officer Paul Tracey. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)