The funeral costs for all the victims who died during a school shooting in Uvalde this week will be covered by an anonymous donor.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed during a press conference on Friday that an unnamed person had come forward and contributed $175,000 (£138,568) to go towards the funerals of the 19 children and two teachers who were killed on Tuesday after a teenage gunman opened fire on a fourth grade class at Robb Elementary School.
“We appreciate that anonymous donor for his generosity, and we will ensure that those resources get into the right hands,” the governor said during the Friday briefing.
Gov Abbott also made efforts to reassure the family members, surviving students and anyone who was impacted by the attack at the elementary school, now the site of one of the deadliest school shootings since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, that there would be mental health services made available to them, free of charge.
“No family who is suffering from incalculable heartbreak at this time will have to worry about a single cost with regard to anything concerning this travesty,” the governor said.
Obituaries for the 21 victims of the violent assault began trickling out over the weekend, as the small community of 16,000 made preparations for the first funerals to commemorate the students and teachers who lost their lives starting next week.
Signposts of grief are mixed in throughout the town’s landscape, with a makeshift memorial set up in the square with wooden crosses for each of the lives lost, all draped in flowers and scrawled messages. While further away, 21 empty chairs line the front of one of the main day care centres.
Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home, who will host the first visitation for one of the victims killed in Tuesday’s attack on Monday, wrote on their Facebook page over the weekend that emotional support dog Libby, would be providing its services at the facility.
Shirley Welch, the owner of the Laguna Monument Company, told The Independent this week in an interview that her company would be providing headstones to the families free of charge, a donation that was made possible through a large contribution from the city.
In the local city’s paper, the Uvalde Leader News, the weekend edition began listing the obituaries of the children, ranging in age from 8 to 11-year-old, who were among the students killed by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
Eva Mireles, 44, and Irma Garcia, 46, were the two faculty members who died during the horrific attack at Robb Elementary School, while the child victims were identified as 8-year-old Uziyah Garcia; Eliana “Ellie” Lugo-Garcia, aged 9; 10-year-olds Amerie Jo Garza, Makenna Lee Elrod, Xavier James Lopez, Jose Flores, Navaeh Bravo, Alithia Ramirez, Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, Eliahana “Elijah” Cruz Torres, Tess Marie Mata, Rojelio Torres, Layla Salazar, Maite Rodriguez, cousins Jailah Nicole Silguero and Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, and cousins Jackie Jaylen Cazares and Annabelle Guadalupe Rodriguez; and 11-year-old Miranda Mathis.
