Hundreds of Strangers Show Up at Funeral of El Paso Victim After Husband Extends Open Invite

Nearly 1,000 strangers showed up at El Paso shooting victim Margie Reckard’s funeral after her husband made a public appeal for visitors.

The local news first reported that Reckard’s husband, Antonio “Tony” Basco, worried that no one else would show up to his 63-year-old wife’s funeral because they don’t have family nearby and invited anyone else who wanted to pay their respects to come.

And did they ever.

According to CNN, at least 850 people came to pay their respects, at times forming a line down the street more than a block long. Hundreds more sent flowers, which ended up overflowing the La Paz Faith Memorial and Spiritual Center in El Paso.

“If you ever started to lose faith in humanity, this will bring it back,” CNN’s Gary Tuchman told Anderson Cooper, while reporting from the funeral. “We’re standing outside this large funeral home in El Paso. You saw the inside of this building where there are 500 people inside right now. This is the line, the waiting line people trying to get in. These are members of motorcycle clubs holding American flags. None of these people know Tony personally but in this line you’re looking at, I have counted over 400 people waiting to try to get in.”

Per Tuchman at least 850 people turned up for the funeral, with some coming from as far away as California, Arizona, and from Utah.

“We spent the day with Tony yesterday. He’s such a nice man,” Tuchman added. “When he walked in today and looked at me he said ‘I can’t believe there really are this many people here.’ He was so thrilled and honored and happy and it makes us very glad to be part of this. It really feels like this is what humanity is about.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.