Currents News Staff
Tony Basco loved only one person in the world: his wife, Margie Reckard.
Now, she’s gone.
They met in Omaha, Nebraska in a bar. “It was love at first sight,” Tony said.
“I don’t know what she saw in me sometimes. We had wonderful years. The best years in my whole life.”
He had no other family members besides his wife. And while he did have just a few of her own, but none in the El Paso area.
Attendance at her funeral was expected to be minimal, and least until the Internet took over.
An overwhelming response to support Tony resulted from media, tweets and a Facebook posting from the funeral home that read, “Mr. Antonio Basco was married 22 years to his wife Margie Reckard. He had no other family. He welcomes anyone to attend his wife’s services.”
People from all over the United States have contacted the funeral home as well as Tony to say they plan to attend Margie’s funeral.
“There are going to be hundreds of people here from throughout the country! It’s nice to see people really caring about people,” Tony said.
He recalled how his life had been very difficult prior to meeting her, and remembered her as “a caring loving, the most beautifulest person.”
Every day now, he goes to the memorial site next to the Wal-Mart and takes exquisite care of her memorial, making sure the flowers and the wind chimes she always loved so much look the best they can.
He still wakes up each morning in disbelief that she is gone.
“She made me the happiest man in the world and the luckiest. no one is luckier than me in the whole world,” he explained.
“I sit on my table looking at the front door waiting for her to walk in. I even tried calling her on the phone.”
At the memorial site, Tony tells Margie he will meet her someday in heaven, asking, “So what you’ve been up to? What do you do up there? I wish you would tell me sometime.”
Tony is now beginning a new life alone, but for at least one day at Margie’s funeral, he won’t be.