A city that last week coursed with the joy of children arriving to visit its famous theme parks will spend this weekend convulsing with grief as the community begins to lay dozens of shooting victims to rest.
Orlando’s trauma hospital was pushed to the brink early Sunday after a gunman unleashed his firepower on unsuspecting carousers at a gay nightclub, leaving 49 dead. Now, the region’s clergy, florists, funeral directors and cemetery workers will face the equally exhausting, emotionally draining task of burying the dead and consoling inconsolable families.
Many of the victims are being buried close to the city that's become the site of the nation's worst mass shooting in history.
“Tensions are high right now," said Douglas Dobbs, owner of the Dobbs Funeral Home in Orlando, who is helping arrange two out-of-town services and one at his funeral home Tuesday.
Funeral directors now face the unusual task of coordinating schedules so friends and relatives of the deceased can attend multiple funerals.
As many as 2,000 are expected to attend the funeral for Antonio Brown, 30, on Saturday. The family moved the services from a smaller church when it became clear an overflow crowd would turn out to honor the Army Reserve captain, said Jacquelyn Gordon, pastor of the New Shiloh Christian Center in Melbourne, Fla.
"He was a young man who would give you the shirt off his back," she said. "My message will be God is love irregardless of our sexual preferences."
The families of the victims received an outpouring of support from the city and local businesses. Orlando set aside 30 plots at the Greenwood Cemetery for victims, and many florists offered flowers free of charge.
The demand left Katherine's Florist in Clermont, Fla., struggling to keep up. Morgan Elliss said 17 or 18 families took up her shop on the offer, which came to her as she waited to donate blood in the wake of the shootings. She wished, simply, that "there was something more we could do to help," she said.
The acts of kindness and remembrance will spill far beyond central Florida over the weekend, with vigils from California to New Jersey and beyond.
Nancy Montier, office manager and volunteer at the Skyline Community Church in Oakland, Calif., wanted to create a safe space for gay and lesbians members of the community to honor the lives lost in Orlando. On Sunday, the church will hold a vigil where participants will be invited to walk a labyrinth the church built as part of a meditative and spiritual healing process.
“I read that a club, for gay people, has kind of been their safe place … their church, in a way. And their space was invaded," Montier said. "We’re just welcoming everybody to come.”
The Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, N.J., is bringing in the healing power of yoga for its Saturday vigil, which will include a roll call of the victim’s names and a silent meditation in their honor.
The event "has nothing to do with policy or politics, nothing to do with gun control," said Gist Finley, founder of Om Clinton Yoga, who helped organize the vigil. "It’s just to honor the lives of those who were taken … and the love that they had in their lives.”
