22 hearses to carry hundreds of floral arrangements from Margie Reckard funeral to Walmart memorial

In a “symbolic” gesture aimed at showing that the community will “never forget” the El Paso mass shooting that claimed 22 lives, hundreds of floral arrangements sent from around the globe for the funeral of 63-year-old victim Margie Reckard will be transported in a 22-hearse procession from the church to the makeshift memorial at Walmart.

Funeral home owner Salvador Perches, who is handling Reckard’s funeral services, made the announcement Friday in a live appearance on ABC-7.

Reckard’s widower, 61-year-old Antonio Basco, felt so alone after her death that he invited the world to join him in remembering his companion of 22 years.

Since then, condolences and orders for flowers have poured in. When her prayer service is held Friday evening at the La Paz Faith Center in central El Paso, an overflow crowd is expected. The venue can hold up to 400 people.

“The response of the public has not just been locally, but nationwide and worldwide,” Perches told ABC-7. “We’ve gotten flowers from Australia and Norway, we have over 500 arrangements.” (Editor’s note: As of Friday evening’s prayer service, the number of flowers had grown to over 1,000.)

One of those arrangements even came from the family of a victim of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

“We were thinking, what are we going to do” with all the flowers once Reckard is laid to rest on Saturday? Then Perches said he talked it over with Basco and reached out to the other funeral home owners in El Paso — and the idea was born for a hearse procession carrying the flowers Sunday at 10 a.m. from the La Paz Faith Center to the makeshift memorial set up near the Cielo Vista Walmart store.

“It’s been a tremendous outpouring, of just true love, from everybody,” Perches explained.

Now that the time has come for his wife’s services, Basco fears he may break down.

“I won’t know what I’m going to say until I get up there,” he told CNN. “I may not be able to do it.”

Knowing so many people will be there to help him grieve has been a “good feeling,” Basco said. He didn’t imagine he’d see an outpouring of support this massive, but he said he knows everyone who attends his wife’s services will realize how special she was.

“They’ll feel her in there,” he said. “They’ll feel her presence.”

(CNN contributed to this report.)