Placed Flowers On Her Grave, Came Home & Died: Gut-wrenching Story Of A Grieving Husband

A Texan family has been ripped apart by a double tragedy this week after a school shooting in Uvalde claimed the lives of both teacher Irma Garcia and, two days later, that of her husband.

Irma, 49, was one of 21 people massacred on Tuesday by an 18-year-old gunman who barricaded himself into her fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School and opened fire on those inside with an assault rifle.

AP

Wife died in shooting, husband died of grief

Irma Garcia’s family was already reeling from her death and two days after the attack, Joe Garcia, her grieving husband collapsed and died at home from a heart attack, a family member told the New York Times.

AP

Garcia, 50, had dropped off flowers at his wife’s memorial on Thursday morning in Uvalde, Texas, and returned home, where he collapsed and died, his nephew John Martinez said.

AP

“Extremely heart breaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irma’s husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grief, I truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling,” wrote Martinez on his Twitter account, using the Spanish word for “aunt” and requesting prayers for the family. “God have mercy on us, this isn’t easy.”

The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed Joe Garcia’s death to The Associated Press.

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Their family??

Married for 24 years, the couple had four children. They loved to barbecue, and Irma also enjoyed listening to music and travelling to Concan, a community along the Frio River about 40 kilometres north of Uvalde.

The school year, scheduled to end on Thursday, was Garcia's 23rd year of teaching - all of it at Robb. She was previously named the school's teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University. She had co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed, for five years.??

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Relatives briefed by authorities said Irma Garcia and her co-teacher Eva Mireles died trying to protect their students.? ? ? ??

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