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Weeks after the series finale of “Breaking Bad,” local fans laid to rest the memory of Walter White.
The Saturday-evening funeral, held at Sunset Memorial Park, charged attendees $20 to remember and mourn the lead character of AMC’s TV show and to raise money for Albuquerque Health Care for Homeless (AHCH).
“It’s a great television show coming to an end,” said Randy Royster, a funeral attendee and president of the UNM Alumni Association’s board of directors. More than 200 fans who RSVP’d through Facebook attended the event.
Anita Cordova, one of the event coordinators, said she hoped to raise proceeds of up to $100,000, which would go toward helping treat up to 40 people with substance-abuse problems, including medical visits, dental visits, behavioral health and social services for up to 12 months. Cordova said a count Saturday night showed over $11,000 was raised.
AHCH is a local nonprofit organization that offers medical and psychiatric care to homeless individuals and their families. According to the website, the group provides more than 70 hours of services per week to those in need, serving more than 7,000 men, woman and children throughout the year.
“People with unaddressed substance abuse illness are at great risk for premature death, just like Walter. Your support is appreciated and I want to thank you for coming and ensuring substance abuse services for people who need them most,” Cordova said to attendees.
The funeral was streamed live via YouTube with the help of local telecommunications company One Headlight Ink, which used its high speed internet service to broadcast the event.
“This shows that people are really attracted and drawn to the show and that’s a good thing as it brings up the awareness of problems that we have with meth and drug abuse. And we can work together as a society to fix that and eradicate it,” said John Brown, a technician for One Headlight Ink. “The writers were really able to grab the audience and we can now expand that out to help folks that are homeless through the donations being made.”
UNM graduate Marko Koric said he had been a big fan of the show and flew to Albuquerque from Switzerland to attend the memorial service.
“I was definitely addicted. There was no one episode that I didn’t like. When you start you just hope that it never ends,” he said.
Michael Flowers, the show’s set director and a funeral attendee, said he felt that Breaking Bad had penetrated popular culture in a way that he had not seen since the heyday of the original Star Wars films.
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“People are falling in love with each other and writing letters to each other and getting on planes and flying thousands of miles to have a donut covered in crystal blue,” he said, referring to the “Blue Sky” crystal candy donuts that Albuquerque’s Rebel Donut started selling last year, echoing Heisenberg’s iconic crystal blue meth from the show.
For the $20 entry fee, service attendees received a package that included a handful of earth to toss into White’s grave and a baby blue silicone bracelet, imprinted with the drug lord’s name, according to walterwhitefuneral.org.
Albuquerque businesses are also contributing to the cause as 15 percent of sales from Joliesse Chocolate Bars will be donated to AHCH, and Frank Sandoval, a local who offers tours in his RV replica of the rolling meth lab, said he will also donate $5 for every ticket sold.
Those who wish to see Heisenberg’s headstone can find it at The Village Shops at Los Ranchos, located at 6855 Fourth St. N.W.
