HOUSTON, TEXAS — Two Houston teens are figuring out what to do next after the two boys have been made orphans by the COVID-19 pandemic.
When 14-year-old Isaiah Garcia stood over his mother at her funeral earlier this month, he thought it was the hardest thing he would do. Two weeks later, his father died too. "I don't like it, I don't like it at all, it's tragic, "Garcia said.
"I didn't get to say goodbye to my mom or my dad now and that's what hurts me the most right now," Garcia said.
39-year-old Naomi Esquivel died on July 2, 2020, her mother says, from COVID19.
Carlos Garcia, her husband of 24 years, attended her funeral with their sons. He was recovering from the virus when he was hospitalized for kidney failure.
On July 17, 2020, he was found unresponsive. Like Naomi, who was hospitalized only a day, the end went fast.
Jacob Mendoza, the boy's uncle, said, He had just spoken to his son at 11 o'clock. They pronounced him dead at 12:24."
Both parents were alone when they died.
Rita Marquez Mendoza, the boy's grandmother, says, "Dying now is more tragic than it was before because you die alone you die alone without your family members."
Naomi's younger brother, a father of four himself, will now raise his nephews.
"I love them with all my heart and I know this is what their parents would have wanted was for me to take them in, " Jacob Mendoza said.
14-year-old Isaiah Garcia says, "At least since he passed we get to be with our family, we don't have to go to an orphanage or anything, I'd rather be here than anywhere else right now."
"We have no words, no words to describe it, no words, we are Christian people and we accept the will of God and we know if this is his will, he's going to guide us through it," Mendoza says.
Friends and family have supported a go-fund-me page to cover the boys' living expenses.
It had an original goal of $5,000 It has already raised more than $12,000.
