Irma Garca, one of the teachers killed in the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, attended Mass every Sunday with her husband José and worried about her young students’ academic performance.
In an interview outside the elementary school where a memorial has been set up for the 21 victims of the May 24 massacre, ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister news agency, spoke with Elia Gómez, a 77-year-old resident of Uvalde and close friend of the family.
Gómez described Irma and José as “very well, a family very dear to everyone”.
“They are always willing to help others. Always treating everyone with respect,” she recalled.
Salvador Ramos, 18, entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 80 miles west of San Antonio, with an AR-15 rifle on May 24, killing 19 children and two teachers and injuring many more before being shot down by police.
Eighty percent of Uvalde’s 15,000 residents are Hispanic, with a sizable Catholic population. A total of 11 funerals are scheduled at Sacred Heart, the town’s only parish.
Irma Garca was one of the teachers killed. José, her husband, died of cardiac arrest two days later, unable to bear the pain of her death. He died of a “broken heart,” according to his family. The couple has four children, ages 23, 19, 15, and 13, who survive them.
The couple’s funeral Mass was held on June 1 at Sacred Heart Parish, Uvalde’s only Catholic church, by San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garca-Siller.
Gómez stated that she had known José, also known as Joe, “since his mother was pregnant with him. I saw him grow up. When he started to crawl, to walk, to go to school.”
“I‘m a close friend of that family. For years they have even been telling me that I’m their aunt,” she recalled emotionally.
“I knew Joe’s mom for years and years. I know Joe’s sister very well, his brothers,” she continued.
Gómez noted that Irma was a “very good teacher, always giving good advice to her students.”
“This shows it: She gave her life for her students.” Piecing together various accounts of what happened that day, Gómez said Irma “was the first one who confronted that boy. She spoke to him calmly and politely. She wanted to make him understand, but he wasn’t listening.”
Gómez highlighted the family’s unity, because “the two always went together as a couple. They were always in agreement with each other. And they respected each other.”
Irma and Joe, she said, “went to Mass every Sunday, right on time.”
“They were very sweet people. One felt at ease with them,” she reiterated, recalling that Irma García told each child “behave well, study, because learning (is something) no one is going to take away from you.”