John Martinez awoke Thursday simply earlier than 10 a.m. to a textual content message from his youthful brother: “Pray for tío Joe.”
Washington
Slain teacher’s husband dies of heart attack days after school shooting
Irma Garcia, 48, was one of many two lecturers slain in a capturing rampage at Robb Elementary College within the Garcias’ hometown of Uvalde, Tex., on Tuesday.
Lower than two hours after the morning textual content message, Martinez bought a name from his household to inform him his uncle had died after being rushed to the hospital following an obvious coronary heart assault.
Martinez texted his brother round midday. “That is so overwhelming.”
On Thursday, as Martinez started to fill within the particulars from his kin, he mentioned, he felt in poor health with grief.
Joe Garcia, 50, had simply returned to the household’s house after venturing out to go away flowers at a memorial arrange for the victims exterior Robb Elementary College. He was within the kitchen, Martinez mentioned, when he abruptly seized and fell over.
Martinez’s mom, who was on the home with the household, sprang into motion, administering chest compressions till paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital. He died there.
“We’re all simply in shock,” Martinez mentioned.
Earlier than his uncle’s demise, Martinez informed The Washington Publish on Wednesday that his tia Irma had died a hero and that his household needed her to be remembered as somebody who sacrificed her life to guard her college students.
“They weren’t simply her college students. These had been her youngsters, and she or he put her life on the road. She misplaced her life to guard them,” Martinez mentioned. “That’s the kind of particular person she was.”
On Thursday, he struggled to search out the phrases to explain his aunt and uncle. Collectively, the couple had 4 kids: Cristian, 23; Jose, 19; Lyliana, 15; and Alysandra, 12.
“Their household was an all-American household,” he mentioned of his aunt, uncle and cousins. “They’re nice individuals. Your entire household, they’re all nice individuals. They don’t deserve this.”
Joe and Irma Garcia’s love story stretched 1 / 4 century, filled with barbecues, music, scenic nation drives and the couple’s 4 kids.
“I actually consider Joe died of a damaged coronary heart and dropping the love of his lifetime of greater than 25 years was an excessive amount of to bear,” Irma’s cousin, Debra Austin, wrote in a web-based fundraiser mounted in assist of the Garcias’ 4 kids.
Joe was a devoted father, a pacesetter at his job on the H-E-B grocery retailer and a doting husband, who adored the girl he met in highschool after which married, Martinez mentioned.
However this week, the Garcia house — usually the positioning of jubilant household gatherings, filling vacation meals and traditions like sharing grapes for luck at midnight on New 12 months’s Eve — was reworked right into a monument to the ache of a household that in lower than two days noticed each mother and father perish.
“Our household is simply in shambles proper now,” Martinez mentioned. “No person anticipated any of this. It’s heartbreaking.”