UVALDE, Texas — Driving into Uvalde on Highway 90 in Texas, it doesn't take people very long to notice it's now a town in mourning.
Flags are lowered to half staff, and ribbons are wrapped around trees. Signs are everywhere, most saying "Uvalde Strong."
Outside of A Child's Discovery day care, 21 chairs are sitting there, each with a person's name on them who was a victim of the nation's latest mass shooting which took place less than a quarter of a mile from there.
Yuban Caballero, who lives in nearby Crystal City, Texas, is an EMT and was working a different medical emergency on May 24 when an 18-year-old walked into Robb Elementary School and started shooting. Two teachers and 19 students were killed before U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and killed the gunman.
"I wish I could have been here to help, but ... " Caballero said before trailing off.
People are coming from all around the state to pay their respects to the lives lost that day. Kimberly Winston is one of them.
"I have four kids, and I just can't imagine," Winston said.
Winston doesn’t know anyone in Uvalde but jumped in her car and drove five hours from the Dallas-Fort Worth area just to be there. She paused at one of the memorials near the day care and wiped her eyes.
"I have kids the same age, the same grade, as the babies who passed away," Winston said. "And it just hurt my heart. I cried as if they were my own."
Near Winston, a family of three laid flowers on the chairs, stopping at the chair of Tess Mata, one of her neighbors who was killed during the shooting.
“Just a sweet little girl,” the mother in the family visiting said about Tess. "It’s heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. Never expected it to happen here."
Her husband and son continued to lay flowers on each chair.
One block over, the civic center has been used as a one-stop-shop for victims' and survivors' families to get much-needed resources like help to pay for funerals or medical bills or counseling.
Former teacher Gloria Garcia found the senseless shooting extremely painful.
“It’s very sad," Garcia said. "I know what it is to be a teacher, too. The kids ... actually become your children."
Garcia’s sister lives right next to Robb Elementary School, where long lines of people wait to pay their respects at the wall outside the building.
"People come here every day," one Texas Department of Public Safety officer said.
The officer said troopers had to enact crowd control tactics outside the school, allowing a few at a time to walk up to the wall outside the school to pay their respects.
But Garcia does not have to wait. Her nephew and niece work at Robb Elementary School. Tragically, her first cousin Irma Garcia did also and was one of the two teachers killed.
“I was just so anxious to hear who it was, regardless of who it was," Garcia shared. "But I really didn’t want it to be my family."
Garcia is also related to Tess “Lexi” Mata. Beyond that tragedy, Irma’s husband Joe died of a heart attack two days after the shooting, meaning Garcia lost three relatives in the span of a couple of days. She said she relies on her faith to get her through the pain.
“It’s hard for all the family members; it’s hard for the whole world,” Garcia said. "We pray for their families and keep on praying because they’re gonna need a lot of prayers.”
Contact Richard DeVayne at rdevayne@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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