Hundreds of people Wednesday attended in the Old Elefterie Church the funeral ceremony for Zoia Ceausescu, 57, the only daughter of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and wife Elena. She had died Monday evening after loosing her battle with lung cancer.

Zoia, a heavy smoker, asked for her body to be cremated; Orthodox Christians usually prefer their bodies to be buried.

At noon only close friends and family members entered the church, with body guards carefully screening the people, while hundreds of people waited outside. Fifty wreaths accompanied the coffin.

The people waiting outside got restless after one hour, commenting: "it’s a pity people paid so much money on wreaths when she was to be cremated. They should have given us the money, since we are living in such dire conditions," said one elderly woman to another.

Family and friends did not openly shed tears. Zoia’s husband, Mircea Oprean, family members and public figures from the former and current regime stood by her coffin, among them Ion Dinca, Tudor Postelnicu, Ana Muresan, Stefan Andrei, Paul Niculescu Mizil, Peter Imre, Lucian Bolcas, Paula Iacob, Madalin Voicu, Gino Iorgulescu and George Copos.

There was an open casket ceremony, but afterwards the coffin was closed. This made unhappy some of the people waiting outside. "They should have left the casket open, for us to see how she looked and what she was dressed with. After all, this is why we came here for," some said.

In Orthodox Church tradition the funeral ceremonies are regularly conducted with open caskets.

At Vitan Barzesti Crematory a thick, black smoke went up into the air. That was the end for Zoia Ceausescu.

Valentin Ceausescu, the eldest of the Ceausescus’ three children, is the only one still living. Nicu Ceausescu, the youngest child of the dictatorial couple died in 1996 of cirrhosis.