It should have been the first day of a joyous week for Robb Elementary School students — the start of summer break.
Instead on Monday, the first two of 19 children slain inside a classroom were being remembered at funeral visitations.
The gathering for 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza was at Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home in Uvalde, Texas, directly across from the grade school where the children, along with two teachers, were shot to death on Tuesday before the gunman himself was killed.
Amerie was a happy child who had just gotten her first cell phone for turning 10 and had gotten a certificate the morning of the shooting for making the honor roll. She also loved to paint and draw and work in clay.
Her stepfather, Angel Garza, a medical assistant who arrived soon after the shooting and found himself helping injured students learned she had been shot from one of the 10-year-old’s friends.
Visitation for another 10-year-old, Maite Rodriguez, was at another funeral home.
Maite liked and excelled at physical education — after her death, her teacher texted her mother to say she was very competitive at kickball and ran faster than all the boys.
She was among the honor roll students recognized at an assembly the morning of the shooting.
Her mother, Ana Rodríguez, described her as “focused, competitive, smart, bright, beautiful, happy.”
More visitations, funerals and burials will follow over the next two-and-a-half weeks, one after another, after another.
https://www.ktre.com/2022/05/31/uvalde-visitations-funerals-burials-one-after-another/