More than two million dollars has been raised on GoFundMe for the family of Joe and Irma Garcia as of Friday noon.
Irma Garcia, a fourth-grade teacher who was killed along with her co-teacher and 19 students while protecting her students during a mass shooting on Tuesday at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Two days later, a family member says her brokenhearted husband died from what family members said was a “medical emergency.”
“I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart,” Irma Garcia’s cousin Debra Austin wrote on a GoFundMe page. “Losing the love of his life of more than 25 years was too much to bear.”
One of the couple’s nephews tweeted that Joe Garcia died after suffering a heart attack at home. “These two will make anyone feel loved no matter what,” he tweeted. “They have the purest hearts ever i love you [so much] tia and tio please be with me every step of the way.”
Another nephew John Martinez wrote on Twitter that his uncle had “passed away due to grief.”
“I truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling,” he said. “…God have mercy on us, this isn’t easy.”
Joe Garcia, 50, had dropped off flowers at his wife’s memorial on Thursday morning, The New York Times reported. He “pretty much just fell over” after returning home and died of a heart attack, his nephew John Martinez told the newspaper.
Following Tuesday’s shooting, Martinez told media outlets that his aunt “sacrificed herself protecting the kids in her classroom.”
“Irma Garcia is her name,” he said, “and she died a hero.”
Joe & Irma Garcia Gofundme page organizing by Jamie & Debra Austin has been raised $2.1M as of Friday morning.
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