CHRISTIANSBURG -- Derrick McFarland never got to be a police officer.

He'd been turned down by the Blacksburg force once, but planned to try again.

Though he never made it into that brotherhood in life, more than a hundred officers came to his memorial service Thursday.

Gov. Tim Kaine told Cindy McFarland and her children, "You're part of that family now."

McFarland, a security guard at Montgomery Regional Hospital, died early Sunday. McFarland was shot as he tried to help a Montgomery County deputy who lay unconscious after an attack. While law enforcement officers usually come to other people's aid, Kaine said, McFarland gave his life coming to the aid of a law enforcement officer.

That officer survived to hug McFarland's widow Thursday afternoon.

The funeral home could barely hold the mourners. Attorney General Bob McDonnell, Del. Dave Nutter and Blacksburg officials shared three rooms and a hallway at Horne Funeral Service with family, friends, more than a dozen members of the Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad, Cindy McFarland's Wal-Mart co-workers and employees of Montgomery Regional Hospital -- some of them still in their scrubs.

There were too many flowers to fit in the McFarlands' apartment.

"You see how much this community loved your son," Kaine said to McFarland's parents, Harold and Rosalind McFarland. "There is some joy in that. So take that with you."

Kaine assured Cindy McFarland that the circle of caring for her and her family was much larger than the crowd she could see.

"It's a big commonwealth," Kaine said. "All Virginians are with you today."

Tributes to McFarland praised his cooking, his tinkering, his compassion, his calm and his calming nature. They praised his courage.

Jason Goldman said his friend since childhood had "a laugh so large it was surpassed only by the size of his heart." Goldman said McFarland "embodied the spirit of hero."

"A hero rushes into the fray knowing they may not return," he said. And that's what McFarland did Sunday.

Scott Hill, chief executive officer of Montgomery Regional Hospital, quoted from the Gospel of St. Mark, telling the congregation that anyone who would be great must first be a servant. McFarland gave his life serving the hospital and the community, Hill said.

"If that's not greatness," he said, "I don't know what is."

As mourners gathered, the family sat sequestered, except for a brief visit from the governor. Then, when the building was full, everyone with a seat stood up. The standing-room-only crowd in the hallway cleared a path. Cindy McFarland, wrapped in a black shawl, led the family in, 3-year-old Kaneisha on her left, 11-year-old Jonny on her right.

Cindy McFarland clutched two stuffed animals -- a giraffe and a tiger -- meant to help occupy Kaneisha during the long afternoon.

A large picture of Derrick McFarland, an enlarged close-up from a wedding photo, sat in front of the altar. His body was already in Baltimore, where he will be buried Monday. Images of McFarland appeared on a monitor above the mourners. There he was with his best man on his wedding day, with Jonny, with his wife, with Kaneisha asleep on his chest.

Cindy McFarland wiped her eyes as the pictures she'd chosen flashed by.

When the service ended, the line of people waiting to offer sympathy, help and advice to the family stretched through the long hallway and back again.

"Hold onto your babies," one woman told Cindy McFarland.

Her babies were close at hand. Little Kaneisha bounced with the tiger and giraffe, hardly able to contain her energy. Jonny, except for an occasional tug at his collar and tie, stood solemnly at his mother's side.

Jonny's new teacher, Erin Bull, was one of the people who bent to hug his neck. His classmates wanted her to tell him they're thinking of him and they want to see him.

"They're ready to take him and take care of him," Bull said. "And so am I."