Pallbearers and U.S. Marine Christian Garcia, son of Linda Garcia, carry the casket of Irma Linda Garcia and her husband Jose Antonio Garcia during their funeral mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde, Texas, on June 1, 2022. Irma Garcia, a teacher, was killed in a mass shooting at a local elementary school on May 24, 2022. / Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images.Andres “June” Ybarra can’t sleep and claims to be a zombie.
No further explanation is required once you know where he lives and the two main functions he plays in his community.
Ybarra’s responsibilities include serving as Grand Knight of Knights of Columbus Council 3245 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde, Texas, a parish that has been at the forefront of efforts to help the traumatized community of 16,000 people cope with the May 24 shooting deaths of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. Eleven of the victims were Sacred Heart parishioners. This week, the Knights served hamburgers to attendees at a candlelight vigil held on Thursday night.
His second job is as a mortician at a local funeral home, where he prepares bodies and arranges funerals for 16 of the 21 victims.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever seen, the hardest thing I’ve ever seen,” Ybarra told CNA on June 2. “I never ever thought something like this would happen in Uvalde.”
Joe Garcia, Ybarra’s second cousin, died at one of the funerals he assisted in. Joe Garcia’s wife, Irma Garcia, was one of the instructors slain. Joe died of a heart attack two days later. The couple, who met in high school and were high school sweethearts, attended a funeral Mass at Sacred Heart on June 1.
A grieved Ybarra, who is 58 years old, stated that God’s grace allowed him the ability to continue his work and “be strong for the families” after learning of his cousin’s death.
“Especially when you have children at home or grandkids at home of the same age,” he added, preparing the corpses and funerals of small children is particularly challenging. When he’s at work, he manages to keep his cool, but when he’s at home with his wife Isabel and their three children and nine grandkids, he loses control.
“If you don’t have a relationship with God, there’s no way you can handle something like this,” he said. He added that he prays throughout the day in his work, and is devoted to the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the rosary.
Ybarra works at Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary, which is less than a mile from Robb Elementary. In the aftermath of the terrible shooting, the funeral home has received assistance from approximately 30 people from throughout the country, he said.
“They were here the next day,” he said.
A mortician for 32 years, Ybarra actually retired years ago, but he felt the urge to come back to work 11 months ago.
Now he knows why.
“God,” he said, “brought me back for this.”