$2.8 Million Raised For Kids of Slain Texas Teacher And Husband, Who Died Of Broken Heart

Donors on the internet have contributed over $2.7 million in order to help the children of Irma Garcia, a teacher who was slain in the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and Joe Garcia, her husband, who died of a heart attack a few days after his wife’s passing.

Irma Garcia, 46, heroically passed away last Tuesday while she was trying to protect her fourth-grade kids from a gunman who opened fire in her classroom, ultimately taking the lives of 19 children and a second teacher. 

Flowers were carried by Joe Garcia, age 50, to the funeral service for his wife last Thursday morning. He had hardly arrived at his house when he passed out and then died. Grief, according to John Martinez, the deceased man’s nephew, was the cause of his uncle’s death.

The Garcias were survived by their four children: Cristian, age 23, Jose, age 19, Lyliana, age 15, and Alysandra, age 12. Following Irma Garcia’s passing, her cousin Debra Austin established a GoFundMe campaign with the primary intention of raising $10,000 to assist the Garcia family in paying for a variety of posthumous bills.

“Irma was a wife, a mother of 4, a cousin, a sister a daughter, an aunt and a wonderful person. She would literally do anything for anybody……no questions asked. She loved her classroom kids and died trying to protect them,” Austin writes.

A few days later, Austin published an update in which he said that Joe Garcia had also passed away as the result of a medical emergency.  “I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life of more than 25 years was too much to bear,” she wrote.

As of Sunday night, the fundraising effort had brought in just under $2.7 million, nearly 2.8 million now, with contributions coming in from all across the nation and the globe by way of condolences and expressions of support.

The most significant contribution, in excess of $500,000, was sent over from a separate GoFundMe campaign that Martinez had established for the family. Additional contributions ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 were made to the fund by a number of kind individuals. Donations of less than one hundred dollars were given by tens of thousands of individuals.

Other GoFundMe campaigns established to assist the victims’ families in Uvalde have successfully collected tens of thousands of dollars. Over $157,000 has been donated via the website set up in memory of Eva Mireles, the second teacher who was murdered in the shooting.