"Sometimes I think I'm crazy when (I say) 'check up on her,'" Garcia says. She also visits to make sure the balloons adorning her daughter's grave don't fly away, especially if it has been rainy or windy, and to ensure the lights are working and the grass is watered.Įven in death, Garcia continues to mother her daughter. Garcia says she feels closest to her daughter when she's at her gravesite, adding that when she feels particularly sad she'll visit - even for just 30 minutes - to say hello, read to her daughter or leave behind Amerie's favorite Starbucks order, a vanilla frappuccino. If I can't do it, I make sure someone else can do it." "If I'm out of town I always tell my mom, my mother-in-law or her aunts to go check up on her for me. "People really don't believe me, but I truly go see her every single day," Garcia says. It's a ritual she has done every day since the day her daughter was buried. Garcia knows for sure she will do one thing on Mother’s Day: Visit Amerie's grave. “We really understand each other,” he says. Some days, Garza says, there’s nothing they can do to help each other. Without a plan for Mother's Day, the couple says they're going to do what they've done every day since Amerie was killed - rely on each other. "But if we go somewhere and we see families together, it just breaks her down." that temporary happiness is really all I can give her," he adds. "At the same time, I know that we have my son and I want him to be able to know that Mother's Day is about loving his mom and doing something special for his mom. "It’s so hard, to try and bring any happiness to her when I know I can’t bring her what she really wants," Garza tells. The couple met when Amerie was just 7 months old. Mother's Day will be difficult for Garza, too. I can't count on a plan on that day - it's too hard." "I think about what we did back then and it just brings up so many emotions. "I don't know if I'm even going to do anything on Mother's Day," Garcia says. Garcia and her partner, Angel Garza, have been dreading the day, as they struggle to find a way to honor Garcia as the mom of not only Amerie but of their living child, 4-year-old Zayne Garza. Marks the first Mother's Day since the deadly Robb Elementary School shooting. Garcia now has 'You console me" tattooed on her forearm in her daughter's handwriting, along with the words "I will always love you Amerie." The first Mother's Day without Amerie It was the last Mother's Day gift Garcia would ever receive from her daughter.įorever 10-year-old Amerie was one of the 19 fourth graders and two teachers shot and killed inside Robb Elementary School on just 16 days after Mother's Day. She says her daughter explained: "It means that when I'm sad you hug me, when I'm scared you're there for me and I feel safe with you. "So I asked her: 'What does this mean to you?'" "She's such a smart little girl, because that's a pretty big word," she says. One Uvalde mom opens up on the first Mother's Day since school shooting (Courtesy Kimberly Garcia)
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