Provided by Joe Osborne
The Rev. Mario Gutierrez said he always wanted to be a funeral director.
“I know some people think, ‘Oh, that’s weird, that’s creepy.’ It’s not. It’s serving people, it’s helping people … it’s not for everybody,” Gutierrez said.
The minister, who works as a Carnes Funeral Home director in Texas City, is very familiar with loss. When he was young, his family gathered for three to four years straight for somebody’s funeral. Those hardships inspired him to help others through loss and ultimately led him to an early morning procession in Texas City on Jan. 2 for the victims who died in a plane crash in Galveston.
The plane had eight passengers on board when it crashed into the Galveston Bay on Dec. 22. It was on a medical support mission with Fundación Michou y Mau, a nonprofit that helps transfer pediatric burn patients in Mexico to Shriners Children’s Texas hospital in Galveston.
Two passengers survived, but the other six people aboard the small Mexican Navy plane died in the crash, including the young patient.
Gutierrez was heading to his birthday dinner with his family when he heard about the tragedy that occurred during a foggy afternoon in Galveston. In that moment, he knew he had to do everything he could to help honor the victims.
“Four words started everything. ‘How can we help?’ Simple as that,” Gutierrez said. “And that ‘How can we help’ turned into ‘Let’s see how quickly we can get this done.'”
Throughout it all, Gutierrez also wanted to honor the culture of the victims.
“We need to do this as if they were ours, as if they were our heroes,” he said. “If it was our sons and daughters in another country, what would we hope that they would do? So, they’re going to go out in a casket, they’re going to go out in style. We’re going to get their flags, we’re going to put it over their casket.”
Gutierrez said in Mexican culture, when someone passes away, the process moves very quickly. He said it’s common to have a cremation go to disposition within 24-48 hours, whereas the system in the United States tends to take longer than that.
So, Gutierrez, alongside other officials, got to work.
“I’m talking permits, translating permits, death certificates, American death certificates, consulate interaction,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said certain paperwork needed to be completed before the victims could be returned to their hometowns and families. He said it was compassion that fueled everyone from the Carnes Funeral Home team, law enforcement and the Galveston County Medical Examiner, among others, to get everything done right.
Gutierrez led everyone in prayer before taking off from Texas City to Galveston Scholes Field Airport with multiple law enforcement vehicles leading the way and following behind.
“I know that as we were passing people, they knew what those five caskets were about. Immediately it came to their head, ‘Wow. There they go. They’re going home,'” Gutierrez said.
Five of the six passengers who died in the crash were transported back home on Jan. 2. The remains of the young child who died in the crash are in Galveston with his parents for the time being, while his mother, who survived the crash, recovers from her injuries. Gutierrez said they are working on arrangements to get the family home to Mexico this week.
Great Job & the Team @ Houston Public Media for sharing this story.
