The sky was overcast and there was a bit of a chill in the air when Mike Starr arrived at the state capitol building to pay his respects to Melissa Hortman and her family.
“I was home, figured I might as well come down early, beat the traffic,” he said after arriving in St. Paul from St. Francis.
All three flags atop the capitol building, the American flag above the House, the POW remembrance flag above the Senate, and the Minnesota state flag above the old Supreme Court chamber were all flying at half-staff.
Inside, members of Hortman’s family were in the ornate rotunda, the floor decorated with flowers and photographs.
They had their own time with their loved ones before the doors opened at noon.
“I think it hits you once you get inside,” said Starr. “When you go by the casket and you see the layout and the flowers, that’s when I think it hits the people.
Other early arrivals were also from outside the Twin Cities area.
“It’s going to be hard, it’s really going to hit us that it’s real,” said Julie Fryer of Chatfield, who campaigned with the House Speaker emerita last fall. “We’ll see other friends here, too. That always makes it hard and good at the same time.”
Julie and Allie Fox of Spring Valley made the two-hour drive this morning, not knowing how crowded the line would be.
“I just want to be here to keep the memory with me that this happened,” said Fox, who ran for a House seat in Fillmore County last fall.
“Melissa Hortman is the kind of leader that I think we all aspire to be,” she said.