Helping her three granddaughters count out 21 single red roses, Minga Garcia fights back tears.
There is one for each of the 19 children lost in the brutal Uvalde massacre earlier this week - and another for the two hero teachers who died trying to save them.
The square outside the courthouse in the tiny Texas town has been turned into a makeshift memorial, with a cross for each of the victims.
At the centre of each one is a heart, where mourners write messages of love for those who perished in the worst US school shooting since Sandy Hook.
Many - like Minga’s family and the Duchess of Sussex, who visited on Thursday - also leave flowers.
Each cross bears a bible verse, from Matthew 5:4, which reads: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
But for Minga, 46, it is all too close to home.
Because when crazed Salvador Ramos, 18, opened fire at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon, her granddaughters were inside.
Cousins Clarissa and Adalynn, nine, were in the same fourth grade class as those who were slain. Clarissa’s sister Kylie, eight, is in the year below.
Minga and husband Roman, 49, rushed to the school as soon as the news broke, with two-year-old Jocelyn, a toddler Minga babysits.
They were shepherded into a funeral parlour on the next street and waited for an agonising two and half hours before they were told the girls - and several of their other relatives - had survived.
Minga says: “They were in the same grade. I was terrified.
“It was just such a relief when all of the kids came running into the funeral home. One of my little cousins is autistic so I just had to hold him.”
Not everyone in their family was so lucky.
Another cousin of Minga, 10-year-old Kendall Alvarez, was shot and remains in a serious condition in hospital almost 90 miles away in San Antonio.
Minga adds: “She was hurt. She needs multiple surgeries.”
The girls’ grandparents fear the full force of the tragedy is yet to hit them.
Behind us, they scrawl their names on the crosses of their dead friends, often accompanied by a smiley face - barely able to grapple with the fact they'll never see them again.
Clarissa briefly turns around to say: “It was really scary.”
Kylie and Adalynn are silent.
“They haven’t spoken much yet about the friends they have lost,” Roman says. “I think it’s going to take them a few days to realise what has transpired.
“We just have to be there for them when they break down and let us know how they really feel.
“I’m trying to keep them away from the news. It’s bad enough that they’ve lived through it, but to hear it, day in, day out, is worse.
“Right now, Adalynn is the one who feels it most.”
But Roman admits the events of Tuesday are playing on a loop in his brain, too.
“Not knowing anything, and watching kids running out of the school, you glance through everybody to see if you can get a glimpse of your granddaughters,” he says.
“It was about two and a half hours but it seemed like forever. It was a relief to finally know they are safe but my heart was just breaking for everyone else that didn’t come out.”
All across the square there are reminders of the blistering grief searing through this tiny community, which has a population of just over 16,000.
A woman collapses next to the cross laid in memory of her 10-year-old Alexandria Rubio and has to be helped to her feet. She can’t speak through her tears.
Among the most poignant messages are those left for teachers Irma Garcia, 48, and Eva Mireles, 44, who died as they desperately tried to shield the children from the bullets.
Irma’s story took another devastating twist on Thursday when her husband Joe collapsed and died of a heart attack.
The couple - parents to Cristian, 23, Jose, 19, Lyliana, 15 and Alysandra, 13 - were high school sweethearts who had been together for 24 years.
A GoFundMe page set up by Irma’s cousin Debra Austin has already raised more than £1.3 million.
The messages scrawled on her cross included: “You were truly a hero, always watching over your kids” and “You will be missed so much. RIP, another star in the sky.”
Eva leaves behind her husband Ruben Ruiz, a school police officer, and daughter Adalynn.
On her cross, one pupil wrote: “You are a hero in our hearts.” Another added: “Love you, you will be missed.”
A short walk away, at the scene of the massacre, there is another set of crosses bearing the names of the 21 dead but they lie behind a police cordon.
Officers are accepting balloons and flowers from well wishers who have come to pay their respects from a distance.
Ronaldo Vasquez, 20, said: “I have friends who have lost their little cousins. It’s just heartbreaking. But we are all brothers and sisters in Uvalde."
Yet while the tragedy has prompted calls for a radical overhaul of US gun laws, mourners are unsure.
Veronica Chavez, 49, here from San Antonio with husband Alejandro, also 40, son Alfonso, 10, and grandson Kevin, one, says she thinks tighter gun laws would be tough to enforce in Texas.
“It’s kind of hard because there are so many weapons out there already,” she says. “But they have to have it more under control.”
Church volunteer Jessica Aldama, 34, who travelled 70 miles from Del Rio with friend Clarissa Mendoza, 23, said: “I don’t think it’s about guns.
"I think we need to help families to know their kids, and help them to change.”
