The public continues to honor the 21 victims of Tuesday's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Loved ones, classmates and community members have been placing flowers on 21 wooden crosses in the town square, one for each victim.
It is where tears are shed and where people embrace one another.
Mercedes Salas, a 4th-grade teacher at Robb Elementary, gathered the strength to visit the memorial on Friday afternoon.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
Salas and a friend walked from cross to cross remembering the 19 children and two teachers gunned down at her school.
She says she knew the victims well.
"Layla," she read a name on a cross. "I would always say, 'I love your curly hair, Layla.'"
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Salas says her classroom was in the same area as the victims' classrooms.
"They were all beautiful children. They did not deserve this," she said overwhelmed with emotion.
Uvalde is experiencing the kind of heartbreak other communities know all too well.
"You share in their pain," said Jennifer Caballero of El Paso. "The fact that they're all children is harder."
Caballero says she and her family were inside an El Paso Walmart in 2019 when a shooter gunned down 23 people.
"One of the Walmart associates I do remember hearing 'Follow me this way!' so we followed her out the back and by the grace of God we made it out safely," said an emotional Caballero. "You hear the word 'shooter' and just like, you never think it's going to happen."
For many Uvalde parents, their focus is on the victims and not on the ongoing investigation or how police responded, which is already being scrutinized by authorities and some of the victims' families.
"It's a sad time and I feel like this is part of the grieving process," said Uvalde resident Erika Bueno whose children attend other schools in the district.
Bueno says new details released by the director of Texas DPS make her second guess a bit but is giving police some grace over their response.
"You can practice and plan for things like that but it's not going to always just play out the way you practice and prepare for," she said. "I'm a nurse and you plan for situations and emergencies and when things like that happen, it's total chaos."
Asked what advice she has for survivors and the tight-knit community of Uvalde, Caballero responded, "Just take it one day at a time. If you need counseling, please take it."
