Braving the line for a last goodbye

By Cheryl Wetzstein, Monique E. Stuart and Megan Fromm

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

They came, thousands strong, from all across America and beyond, to mourn Ronald Reagan, taking position, one-by-one, at the end of the winding line.

They came and stood, and waited, and shuffled along, until their knees cracked and their backs ached, until the officers in charge tried to turn them away.

And still they kept coming.

You won’t see the casket, an officer told Maggie Hall, of Smithville, Va., at about 2 a.m. The line’s too long and you won’t get in before they shut it down, he said.

She took her place anyway, knowing the wait was six hours at least.

“Even if I couldn’t get in, I had to wait. I couldn’t give up,” she said. “[Reagan] was an optimist. So I was an optimist.”

The Madsen family — Joe, his wife and eight children — drove 10 hours from Wilmington, N.C., to take their place at the end of the line at 1:40 a.m., on the Mall. When officers later tried to turn them away at the Reflecting Pool, Mr. Madsen pleaded his case.

“We’re not cutting in line,” he said. “We have been waiting all night.”

After taking a look at the tired family — two of the youngest children in strollers — the gatekeepers relented.

“Sir, we can let you in, but we can’t make any promises you’ll actually get into the Rotunda,” said one guard.

Like Mrs. Hall, the Madsens got in, joining more than 100,000 others who waited in line and walked through the Rotunda to pay their respects to the former president during the 38 hours his body lay in state under the Capitol dome.

Thursday, just before midnight, people arriving at the Capitol to join the line had to walk seven blocks — to Seventh Street SW — to find the end. The wait, they were told, was seven hours.

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