The tragic losses caused by gun violence every day, every week, and every year in the United States are only more tragic because of how little and how painfully corrupt our inaction is. It is a moral failing in our country’s leadership, on par with our worst sins as a nation. Nineteen children and two teachers were murdered in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, in their fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary school.
Texas Republican officials like Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz try to wave their bloody hands and tell people not to “politicize” the tragedy. They offer up nothing more than empty and objectively worthless “tough on crime” rhetoric as a solution. The money and power they have achieved on the graves of Americans killed by gun violence is their single guiding sign.
The rest of the country mourns and is filled with anger, frustration, sadness, and depression over the injustice implicit in the loss of life. One American, Trey Ganem, who owns custom casket company SoulShine Industries, announced that he would be offering his services to the families who lost loved ones. Ganem hopes that in remembering their children and the beauty their children gave them, something like healing can begin.
Trigger Warning: Below the fold are memories of the children killed in the Uvalde school shooting, as well as their memorial images.
Billy Ganem, Trey’s son, said, “We’re here to try to make a hard time a little easier.” Billy, 25, told BuzzFeed News: “There’s nothing we can really ever do to make it easier, but that’s our goal: to help the families ... start their grieving and their healing and just try to make something special for them.” It is heartbreaking.
The SoulShine Instagram is filled with beautifully created tiny caskets, all custom-made for children being laid to rest. SoulShine has not posted any of the Uvalde children’s caskets, but the work they do is clearly inspired by each family's memories of their lost loved ones.
Trey told PEOPLE that while he normally works on these things with his son, the magnitude of the project brought out almost a dozen volunteers “to help sand, paint, and apply vinyl to the caskets for the families of 19 of the 21 shooting victims, including Eliahana Torres.”
Torres’ mother Sandra helped create, along with Ganem, a casket inspired by Eliahana’s favorite things: llamas, the TikTok logo, and neon yellow slime. She told Buzzfeed that her daughter loved llamas, but that wasn’t all. “She would tell me that she needed glue for school because she had a big ol’ project to do, and the glue would be to make slime. She drove us crazy with the TikTok.”
Trey Ganem said the experience with families is always tough, but it is also filled with love and hope. “I take away something from every experience with a family because when they're explaining stuff about their child, they light up. It’s like, ‘Oh, by the way, he loved this,' you know?”
Services for the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting are scheduled to continue this week.