Updated
Victim of the Uvalde shooting, Irma Garcia died Tuesday protecting her students. Her husband, Joe, has also just passed away.
“I believe he died because of his broken heart.” Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, one of the two teachers killed in the Uvalde shooting on Tuesday in Texas, has also lost his life, his relatives announced Thursday. Debra Austin, the late teacher’s cousin, wrote on the fundraising page opened in her honor: “Losing the love of his life for 25 years was too much for him to bear.” The family said he had died “following a medical emergency” just hours after placing a bouquet of flowers on the memorial in honor of the victims, installed in the city. Joe and Irma had met in high school and had four children. It was on returning home on Thursday that he collapsed at the table, surrounded by his relatives who failed to resuscitate him.
“My Uncle Joe came to lay flowers for my Aunt Irma, and when he got home he sat in the kitchen with his loved ones and after three minutes he fell down. My mother gave him cardiac massage,” John Martinez said in an interview with USA Today. On Twitter, he announced the sad news, after having already shared that of the death of his aunt a few days earlier. “It is with broken heart and infinite sadness that I must say that Tia Irma’s husband (aunt Irma, editor’s note), Joe Garcia, died of grief. I don’t have the words. Pray for my family,” he wrote.
EXTREMELY heartbreaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irma’s husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grievance, i truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling, PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR FAMILY, God have mercy on us, this isn’t easy pic.twitter.com/GlUSOutRVV
— john martinez ❤️ (@fuhknjo) May 26, 2022
He talked about how “those two gave love to everyone”. “They had the purest heart, I love you so much tia et tio”. He told USA Today that their children, ages 23, 19, 15 and 13, now had to prepare for two funerals. “I am so sad for my four cousins. My little brother told me that my father’s heart hurt him too. My parents lost their family and their best friends.
Since the couple’s tragic death, everyone who knew them has hailed their “great moral values that they taught their children”. “Tio Joe worked very hard for his family. They were truly the real American family,” said John Martinez. Irma, she was a teacher adored by all. According to several witnesses, she died protecting her little students, using her body as a shield to save them. “My 27-year-old son had her as a teacher, he adored her like everyone else, she had an extraordinary gift for motivating her students. My youngest son would probably have had it too: he was supposed to join this school next year but now he no longer wants…”, told our reporter on the spot, a resident whose niece was injured in the killing. In total, 21 people including 19 children perished under the bullets of the 18-year-old killer.