Heartbreaking video shows the widower of a teacher murdered in the Texas school shooting visiting a shrine to his late wife only hours before he died of a broken heart, according to family.
Joe Garcia visited his wife's memorial this morning to place flowers on a cross with her name on it. Joe is the husband to Irma Garcia. Not long after Joe visited Irma's memorial, he suffered a heart attack and died.
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) May 26, 2022
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Joe Garcia, 43, was seen carrying a huge vase of red flowers to the memorial site in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday morning, two days after the death of his wife Irma.
Joe died of a heart attack just hours later, with family claiming the grief of his wife’s death for the deadly cardiac arrest. Joe, a teacher, and Irma, a fourth grade teacher at the now-infamous Robb Elementary School, had been married for 24 years.
They had 4 kids, three of whom were recorded hugging one another at a memorial service for their parents later that night. Cristian, 23, Jose, 19, Lyliana, 16, and Alysandra, 12, are among the youngsters.
Jose was observed crying at one point, devastated by the week’s awful events. Father Eduardo Morales blessed the three siblings present at the liturgy, telling them, ‘We are your family. Your parents will always find a way to take care of you.’
Cristian is in the military, and her second son, Jose, attends Texas State University.
By Thursday night, a GoFundMe campaign put up to assist the Garcia kids in rebuilding their lives had received more than $557,000 in donations.
Following Tuesday’s massacre at the hands of 18-year-old shooter Salvador Ramos, many more accounts of personal sorrows and acts of heroism have appeared.
The Garcia children, however, have been subjected to one of the most devastating cascades of sadness.
Irma, her co-teacher Eva Mireles, 44, and 19 of their students were shot by shooter Salvador Ramos, 18, who was later shot dead.
These are 17 of the 19 children that have been identified by families from Tuesday's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas….
Posted by WSYX ABC 6 on Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Irma’s nephew, John Martinez, said Joe died of ‘sadness’ after returning home from taking flowers to the memorial.
Debra Austin, Irma’s cousin, said she was ‘saddened to learn that Irma’s husband Joe sadly died this morning as a consequence of a medical issue.’
Survivors described that Garcia and colleague instructor Eva Mireles, 44, died sheltering them from the gunman’s gunshots.
