A teary mother gently fixed her little boy’s red locks and then planted a soft kiss on his forehead before the tiny white coffin was closed for the final time.
Shattered mom Svetlana Kanarikov was joined Thursday by about 100 mourners at a heart-rending funeral Mass for her 3-year-old son — tossed to his death from an Upper West Side high-rise roof by his dad.
Family and friends placed white flowers near both the white casket and a photo of Kanarikov’s beloved son Kirill wearing a flannel shirt and a broad smile.
The weeping mother, a bit unsteady on her feet, stood watching nearby inside the Synod Cathedral of the Mother of the Sign of God on E. 93rd St.
After the 45-minute funeral, one of its three celebrants tried to explain the inexplicable killing of the helpless child by his own flesh and blood.
“I had no idea that anything like this could ever happen,” said Bishop Jerome Shaw.
“But God evens everything up. If we suffer in this life, if we die young, or if we’re persecuted … God rewards us for all of that.”
The mother’s farewell came inside the same Russian Orthodox church where Svetlana was married four years earlier to abusive husband Dmitriy Kanarikov, 35.
The father tossed his helpless child 52 floors to his death on Sunday. Kanarikov then killed himself by leaping from the roof of the W. 60th St. skyscraper.
The vindictive Kanarikov apparently carried out the murder-suicide as revenge on his wife after their marriage fell apart.
Lvov recalled that the mother and her adorable son were regular attendees of Sunday services at the church. Her family was close with the church clergy, including Bishop Jerome Shaw.
A pale Svetlana Kanarnikov wore a black scarf and an all-black outfit Thursday as she greeted distraught mourners offering their condolences.
“God will reward her for her suffering,” promised Shaw. “God knows everything. God has a plan for each one of us, so we’re at the hands of God.”
The Mass on the day after Christmas ended with the mourners joining the choir to sing an Easter hymn of resurrection to celebrate Kirill’s life.
Congregants then carried candles in a procession behind the child’s casket before his mother climbed into a waiting hearse without saying a word.
Four pallbearers brought the coffin out of the church through a light snow. The boy’s burial was set for a Russian Orthodox cemetery in Nanuet, Rockland County.
Sunday’s shocking deaths came on the first unsupervised visit between little Kirill and his father, described by his wife as a violent and controlling man.
Svetlana Kanarikov said the twin plunges were her husband’s “sick way to take Kirill away from me.”
The couple split in August, with the wife receiving temporary custody of their son from a New Jersey judge on Dec. 18.
But the mom agreed to allow the dad a visit with their boy after a 10 a.m. dropoff at the 17th Precinct stationhouse — an indication of the marital acrimony.
The Ukrainian immigrant dad sent the boy, clad in Christmas pajamas, hurtling to his death barely two hours later, cops said.
