But Ferragine, 52, also believes that by being at Neverland, away from the big event in Los Angeles, she's closer to what matters.
"I believe that he's here, that they brought him Saturday night," she said early Tuesday despite reports that the musician's body would be taken to the Staples Center.
The event in Los Angeles is "a circus," she said. "It's not what Michael would have wanted. I believe it's an empty casket they're taking [to Staples] to please the sheeple."
In Detroit, Michigan, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History broadcast the public memorial for free. It did the same for the inauguration of President Obama, CNN affiliate WDIV reported.
The city, home to the original Motown Records, is where Jackson's career took off, and being around Detroiters for his memorial is exactly what fan Gloria Rios wanted.
"Just the love, the emotions. You can laugh, you can cry, listen to the music, reminisce," she told WDIV.
While students and faculty congregated on the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College in downtown Miami, Florida, people took in the memorial around big TVs at a Bennigan's in Gary, Indiana, and peered up at a large screen in the food court at CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Some did so in passing; others sat or stood riveted, with tears in their eyes.
Many fans on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, lined up to get into the Harold Washington Cultural Center to watch the event, CNN affiliate WGN reported.
"This is a man who spent his life entertaining people," Rick Hughes, 56, told WGN. "It's just sad that there's not going to be any more music."
The memorial was beamed by satellite directly to the screens of 50 movie theaters in places as various as Topeka, Kansas; Missoula, Montana; and Evansville, Indiana.
"We expect every theater to be packed," said Bud Mayo, CEO of Cinedigm, the digital cinema company that made the live broadcasts possible.
