Rojélio Torres collected Pokémon cards, played football with his siblings and cousins and loved climbing trees. The 10-year-old joined his school’s robotics club because his brother liked it. When he grew up, his dream was to join the Navy. He also wanted to become a carpenter to help his mother, Evadulia Orta, who had built the house her family currently lives in.
Now, Orta keeps a folder filled with Pokémon cards in her bedroom. No one else can touch it. That folder is the same one Rojélio carried in his backpack on May 24, 2022, the day he died in the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde.
These memories and mementos are what Orta and her family have left of Rojélio one year later.
His siblings and cousins play with the football they and Rojélio always played with. His siblings continue to collect Pokémon cards, leaving them on a table in Rojélio’s room, so he can continue expanding his collection. And on the days they miss him most, Orta takes everyone to the Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery so they can each have a chance to talk to him, one by one.
