Irma Garcia, a fourth-quality instructor at Robb Elementary, cherished to cook and fish and educate kids how to go through, reported Jose Garcia, 19, 1 of her sons. She was wrapping up her 23rd calendar year as a trainer — all of it expended at Robb — and she had won professional honors these as trainer of the year, her son said.
Jose Garcia mentioned authorities verified his mother’s demise on Tuesday night.
“She addressed her students as her very own,” Jose Garcia mentioned, recalling how his mom would rave about the kids she was training at family dinners. He reported his mother normally embellished her classroom with school pennants, mascots and other objects to inspire learners to go after bigger instruction.
“She preferred to instill that in their brains,” he said. “They had been her lifeblood. She liked engaging with children and educating them. She loved her occupation and she cherished her co-employees.”
John Martinez, 21, a nephew of Irma Garcia’s, explained family will bear in mind the beloved trainer as a hero. “They weren’t just her students,” he claimed Wednesday. “She dropped her existence to protect them. That’s the variety of human being she was.”
From calendar year to calendar year, her teaching assignments may possibly differ amongst 2nd, third or fourth grade. Just one 12 months, Jose Garcia mentioned, his mother was his third-grade teacher. Garcia claimed his mother and father, Joe Garcia, had 4 little ones — two sons and two daughters, ages 12 to 23 — and often hosted the prolonged household, which includes nieces, nephews and cousins, for getaway foods.
On Thursday, Joe Garcia died of an apparent coronary heart assault, Martinez explained.
“She liked, loved, loved cooking,” Jose Garcia mentioned in a phone interview Wednesday. “She’s the most effective prepare dinner I have ever identified. She’d usually enjoy feeding every person, the entire family.”
Menudo was one of her beloved dishes, he claimed, together with everyday meals these types of as breakfast tacos with potatoes, chorizo and eggs. She also loved fishing, the son explained, at times joining her partner on a pier along the Gulf Coast.
She had been married for a lot more than 24 a long time, according to a biography the instructor posted on a college web-site at the commencing of the tutorial year. “Hello Boys and Women! Permit me introduce myself,” Irma Garcia wrote. “I am Mrs. Garcia and I will be one particular of your 4th grade teachers this calendar year. I am so thrilled to start this new school calendar year now! I want to share some entertaining info about myself.”
Between these details, she wrote: “I like to BBQ with my spouse, hear to music, and take country cruises to Concan.” She also wrote that she had been co-educating for 5 yrs with Eva Mireles, a further instructor slain Tuesday.
Jose Garcia, who just concluded his freshman calendar year at Texas Condition University, claimed he woke up to a text from his mother on Tuesday early morning. She questioned whether or not he’d be intrigued in a position as a bodily schooling coach during summertime university. He replied certainly. Then arrived the news of the shooting and lockdown and agonizing several hours of waiting. “It was pretty incoherent yesterday,” he claimed, “the way the total working day performed out. I started out getting fearful. I texted her and never got a response back.”
Martinez reported Irma Garcia was a continual presence for him, filling his existence with laughter, appreciate and assistance. She was there at times significant and tiny, he said, recalling how she encouraged him to deal with a steep roller coaster at Universal Studios when he was a youngster. Martinez reported he generally wished he was more mature, nearer to Garcia’s age, so they could hold out, like close friends.
“She was so amusing and sweet,” Martinez explained. “She experienced this random-joke sort of humor. What ever you would not anticipate someone to say, she would say it.” Now, Martinez explained, the family members is in shock, angry, battling to understand that Garcia will not be coming household. “Honestly, we’re all in shock. All of us are,” he explained. “I indicate, wouldn’t anybody be? In a circumstance like this?”
— Nick Anderson and Marissa J. Lang
