East Aurora High School held a tearful alumni tribute Friday in an attempt to bring peace to a community struggling to cope with the deaths of three local Marines in Iraq.
Family members of Hector Ramos, Edwardo Lopez and Jesse De La Torre took part in the tribute, sharing memories of the graduates and tight hugs with former teachers and staff members.
“I feel really emotional and just very, very overwhelmed by this,” Nancy Ramos, Hector’s mother, said before the event. “And I’m just so glad they’re not forgetting him. That helps me as a mother, to know my son did not die in vain.”
A memorial photo and plaque were attached to a pillar for each of the fallen Marines in the school’s new Serenity Garden, a courtyard on campus memorializing all of East Aurora’s veterans. Rose bushes were planted beneath the photos, and family members watered the flowers, a gesture to symbolize that the young men’s lives will never be forgotten.
Lance Cpl. Ramos, 20, was the first to die when his helicopter crashed in Iraq in January 2005. Lance Cpl. Lopez, 21, was killed by gunfire in October. The two men were in the Class of 2003 and had attended school together since they were toddlers.
Their mothers, Nancy Ramos and Martha Lopez, had long known each other, but they’ve since developed a special bond.
The school’s most recent death occurred in April, when Lance Cpl. De La Torre, 29, died of wounds suffered during combat in the Al Anbar province. He graduated from East Aurora in 1998 and enlisted in 2005.
Ramos was remembered as a drama enthusiast with a constant smile on his face. Lopez was known as the friendly class clown who also loved art. De La Torre was honored for his deep faith. All of them came from close-knit families, and many of their relatives said the loss has yet to sink in.
“I still feel like I’m waiting for him to come back,” said De La Torre’s younger brother, Juan.
“It’s just so hard when I stand in this courtyard and see those halls,” Martha Lopez said after the tribute, choking up. “He walked those halls.”
A teacher approached Lopez afterward and handed her a clay rattle Edwardo had sculpted in art class. She praised Edwardo and hugged his mother tightly.
“It just brings a sense of sadness here,” East Aurora School District 131 spokesman Clayton Muhammad said. “But in the same breath, it also brings a sense of pride.”
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mbreslin@tribune.com
