One week after a shooting at the Monkey Junction Walmart claimed the life a 67-year-old employee, friends, family and coworkers gathered at the store sharing stories, hugs and lighting candles in his honor.
“Mark is here,” Alma Paz, wife of Mark Paz, said, speaking with the Walmart store manager at Saturday’s vigil. “I come here and at first I was overwhelmed but then I began to … feel all the love … because he was too much love to hold in one body.”
As music softly played in the background, the crowd at the vigil raised their phone lights, casting a bright glow across the gathering. Voices murmured heartfelt tributes, with some saying “we love you, Mark” and “you’re always in my heart.”
Alma described her husband as a man who loved his community and respected everybody.
Valerie Jenrette, a deli worker at Walmart, said “there will never be another Mark,” adding that “he touched so many people in so many different ways.”