Posted ByadminFILE – In this Aug. 6, 2019 file photo, Antonio Basco cries beside a cross at a makeshift memorial near the scene of a mass shooting at a shopping complex, in El Paso, Texas. Basco, whose 63-year-old wife was among the Texas mass shooting victims says he has no other family and welcomes anyone wanting to attend her services in El Paso. Margie Reckard was among 22 people fatally shot on Aug. 3 at a the Walmart. Reckard and Basco were married 22 years. JOHN LOCHER, FILE AP PHOTO
EL PASO, TEXAS
When Jordan Ballard read that one of the victims of the El Paso massacre had few relatives and the public was invited to her funeral, the Los Angeles resident bought a plane ticket and flew to El Paso to honor a woman she had never met.
She was one of hundreds of strangers who braved 100-degree (38 Celsius) heat to pay their respects to 63-year-old Margie Reckard. Feeling alone after her death, Reckard’s companion of 22 years, Antonio Basco, had welcomed anyone to come.
“I arrived here this morning,” said Ballard, 38, who lived in New York City during the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “His story moved me.”