Hundreds of mourners lined up an hour early to pay their respects Thursday afternoon at the first wake for a victim in the deadly limo crash upstate.
More than 300 people were waiting outside the Walrath & Stewart Funeral Home in Gloversville when its doors opened at 3 p.m.
Inside, a box holding the ashes of Savannah Burese, 24, sat in front of a large projection screen that displayed pictures from her childhood.
Photos showed Burese as a pre-teen, posing in an oversized brown sports jacket, and as a high-schooler with a half-dozen female friends.
In another, Burese posed with her late pet Chihuahua, Gino, who was described in her obituary as “the first love of her life.”
A collection of photographs on an easel included an ultrasound image of Burese as a fetus in mom Kim Burese’s womb.
Most of Burese’s grieving family greeted visitors as they cycled through the room, but one of her three sisters stood in the hallway, weeping and sobbing uncontrollably.
“I loved your sister. She touched my life in so many ways,” one man said, prompting the woman to throw her arms around him in a paroxysm of anguish.
Burese was the youngest of 20 people killed Saturday afternoon when an out-of-control stretch limo blew past a stop sign and into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store & Cafe in Schoharie.
Another wake is scheduled Friday for four sisters, three of their husbands and a brother-in-law who also died inside the limo, which was headed to a birthday party for one of the sisters — newlywed Amy Steenburg, who would have turned 30 on Wednesday — at the Ommegang brewery in Cooperstown.
All 18 people inside the customized 2001 Ford Excursion were killed when it smashed into a drainage ditch.
Two bystanders were also killed when they were struck by a parked car that was hit by the limo, owned by Prestige Limousine.
Nauman Hussain, who was running the company for his dad — former FBI informant Shahed Hussain — was charged Wednesday with criminally negligent homicide.
According to the state police, Nauman, 28, bears “sole responsibility” for putting improperly licensed driver Scott Lisinicchia behind the wheel of the rundown vehicle, which was deemed “unserviceable” following an inspection it failed last month.