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June 8, 2009
Posted: 256 GMT
HERMOSILLO, Mexico - When we arrived at the Panteon Municipal, the largest cemetery in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, a back hoe was digging massive quantities of earth for all the tiny coffins that will be interred here. Dozens of chairs were being set up under a canopy for the many parents who lost children in the terrible ABC Day Care Fire Friday afternoon. Undoubtedly, this is one the saddest days for the people of Hermosillo.
An unidentified mother collapses with grief on the coffin of her child on Sunday in Hermosillo, Mexico.
One of the first people to arrive is 34-year-old Evangelina Terrazas. She walked several miles to the cemetery with her four small children. We found her sitting in the shade of a small tree, her children dressed in their Sunday best. She cried as she watched one of the mothers collapse with grief at her child's gravesite. The child was buried yesterday, a day after she was killed in the terrible day care fire. She was 2-year-old Paulette Daniela Coronado Padilla. Her mother, Maria Jesus, sat with Paulette's older brother, staring at the wilting flowers that covered the grave. The family played Paulette's favorite song, "Las Divinas," from the car stereo. Maria Jesus sobbed as she described her youngest child, a happy girl who loved to dance. She said she had placed her child in day care so that she could run a struggling cafe. She never imagined that the kiss she gave her when she said goodbye Friday morning would be her last. Evangelina, who watched Maria Jesus, held her 4-year-old and told me through tears that even though she doesn't know little Paulette or her family, her heart aches for them. "Even though we're not related, even though we don't know them, we cry for them." Indeed, everyone is crying for the children. Hermosillo is a city in mourning. Posted by: CNN Correspondent, Thelma Gutierrez |
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