Hundreds line up for wake of ex-Gov. Cuomo.

Byline: Verena Dobnik

NEW YORK -- Hundreds of mourners waited outside a funeral home Monday in a line that stretched more than a block to pay their respects to former three-term Gov. Mario Cuomo, who died just hours after his son was sworn in for his second term.

Vice President Joe Biden arrived in a motorcade late Monday afternoon. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, actor Alan Alda and former state Comptroller Carl McCall were also among the prominent arrivals at Cuomo's wake on Madison Avenue.

Inside, Cuomo's casket was draped with the state's flag, and his widow, Matilda, stood by it. Flower bouquets and wreaths of roses were all over the main chamber, along with photographs telling Cuomo's life story, from a black-and-white image of him as a younger man playing stickball on his native Queens streets to Cuomo holding a Wheaties cereal box with his image on it.

Cuomo, 82, died in his Manhattan home on Thursday evening, hours after his son Gov. Andrew Cuomo was inaugurated for a second term. The governor spoke Saturday for the first time publicly about his father's death, saying, ''There is a hole in my heart that I fear is going to be there...