(WISH-TV) There was standing room only Tuesday morning at the funeral service for a veteran who had no family to give him the dignified burial he deserved.
Billy C. Aldridge, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran, died at a local nursing facility on Oct. 14 at the age of 80. The nursing home had no records of any family, but those who attended said he had one on Tuesday.
"You are his family. Thank you," said Joe Johnson, the pastor of Lawrence United Methodist Church.
"He served our country and gave us the freedoms that we have and the privileges that we have today," said Patrice Gehring who attended the funeral.
Aldridge was a native of Jeffersonville Indiana. He entered the service in 1956. He worked in supply, and after four years was honorably discharged. He then moved to Indianapolis.
"The reason he moved to Indianapolis was to care for his sick mother, who passed on 1 January 1997," said Brig. Gen. J Stewart Goodwin.
Legacy Cremation & Funeral Services, Private Label Caskets, Memorial Park Cemetery and Indianapolis Police Escort worked together to give Aldridge a proper burial.
As the 10 a.m. service began, the church was filled with strangers who came to say goodbye to a man they never knew. The funeral director says more than 1,000 showed up.