A downcast and doleful Anderson Cooper watched as his mother's coffin was taken from an Upper East Side funeral home and loaded into a hearse ahead of her burial service.
The CNN host was joined by his ex-boyfriend Ben Maisani as he took care of funeral preparations for Gloria Vanderbilt earlier in the day, a little over a year after Cooper revealed he had split from his partner of almost a decade.
Not seen however were Vanderbilt's two sons from her second marriage to conductor to conductor Leopold Stokowski: Leopold Stanislaus 'Stan' Stokowski and Christopher Stokowski.
Cooper had spoken in the past about this day, and in one heartbreaking passage from his memoir explained: 'My father died in 1978, when I was ten; and my brother, Carter, killed himself in 1988, when I was twenty-one, so my mom is the last person left from my immediate family, the last person alive who was close to me when I was a child.'
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Orphaned: Anderson Cooper (above) watched as his mother Gloria Vanderbilt was carried out in her coffin on Tuesday ahead of her burial
Reunited: He was joined by his ex Ben Maisani (above), a little over a year after he announced they had split
Difficult day: Vanderbilt, who passed away Monday from stomach cancer at the age of 95, was the only member of Cooper's immediate family who was still alive (Maisani on left and Cooper on right)
Vanderbilt and her oldest son Stan, 68, had a close relationship but that was not the case with Christopher, 67, who had been estranged from his mother for over four decades.
In addition to her three sons, Vanderbilt is survived by at least two greanddaughters, a grandson and
Vanderbilt's youngest son, 52-year-old Cooper, did begin speaking with his brother two years ago after he and their mother published their memoir The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss.
That book focused a good deal on the Vanderbilt's other son, Cooper's brother Carter, who took his life at the age of 23 in 1988 by jumping off the balcony of the family's Manhattan apartment building.
Vanderbilt, who passed away on Monday at the age of 95, also appeared with Cooper in the HBO documentary Nothing Left Unsaid that same year.
Cooper paid tribute to his mother in a pair of poignant social media posts on Tuesday, first on his own account and then later on his mother's Instagram page.
'In her final week my mom liked me to play a video of Peggy Lee on YouTube singing, "Is That All Their Is?" We’d hold hands and sing the chorus, pretending we were dancing,' wrote Cooper.
'"Is that all there is, is that all there is If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing Let's break out the booze and have a ball If that's all there is."'
He continued: 'My mom would giggle while singing, "it’s so Marvelous..." she’d say, with a sound of delight, and mischief, knowing that she was on the cusp of discovering if that really is all there is.'
Vanderbilt will be buried alongside her fourth husband Wyatt, who passed away in 1978, and her son Carter at the Vanderbilt
