Lexi Rubio.
The day that changedKimberly Mata-Rubio’s life started out full of promise and pride.
Not long afterward, a gunman stormed the school and murdered 19 students and two teachers. Lexi was among the dead.
Kimberly’s grief in the past year has been almost unbearable, but it has inspired her to take action to try to prevent further mass shootings.
“I want children to have a chance to grow up,” she tells PEOPLE. “I want moms and dads to be able to keep their babies. I don’t want them to feel what I’m feeling. It’s too much.”
Kimberly, 34, has marched in rallies and worked with elected officials on sensible gun laws. Wherever she goes, she tells her daughter’s story.
“I don’t want Lexi to just be remembered for this tragedy, so I want to share who she was,” she says. “I think honoring her life with action is the greatest way to do that. And I think that had Lexi grown up and had the opportunity to grow up, that she would’ve made a difference in this world. So I’m hoping that she still can, through me.”
In Texas, which has a Republican-controlled government that is resistant to gun safety laws, this has proven difficult. She has worked with State Senator Roland Gutierrez on a bill that would raise the age of those able to purchase a semi-automatic weapon to 21, but the bill has failed to gain traction in the legislature.
“At the Texas level, that’s extremely difficult,” says Kimberly.
Despite her advocacy, the American epidemic of mass shootings persists. Two recent shootings hit even closer to home: The school shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., in which a shooter killed three children and three staff members, and the mall shooting in Allen, Texas, in which a gunman killed eight people, including three children.
“It’s devastating,” she says.
Referencing the Nashville shooting, Kimberly says, “My heart sunk immediately. I know exactly what those parents are going through. I know what it’s like to be given that kind of news. I know what those immediate days after are like. I know what it’s like to plan your child’s funeral.
“I know that a year later, you’re still damaged — and you always will be,” she adds. “I hate that for them. I don’t want another parent to feel what I’m feeling. That’s why we’ve worked so hard. I feel almost guilty that it happened, because you just wonder about what else you could have done to prevent their tragedy.”
Kimberly Rubio, Lexi Rubio, Felix Rubio.facebook
Connecting with Lexi’s Spirit
Kimberly is a spiritual person who believes beautiful sunsets result from Lexi’s spirit painting the sky. Kimberly herself paints these sunsets, and shares her paintings, as well as memories and reflections on Lexi, on her Instagram@nicrubio.
She also blows bubbles with children to remember Lexi. “Just little things to make sure that the world remembers her. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what I want,” Kimberly says. “I don’t want her to be forgotten.”
Lexi Rubio.Courtesy Felix Rubio
“We’re home,” she says. “Trying to pick up the pieces.”
Felix, she says, visits their 10-year-old daughter’s grave every day. “I try to go daily, but some days it’s just too hard,” she says.
On her daughter’s birthday, they saw butterflies while visiting the grave, which Kimberly believes are a sign from Lexi.
“We had been asking for a sign, and we were at the cemetery decorating and a giant yellow butterfly landed on me. It climbed up to where my locket with [Lexi’s] thumbprint is,” Kimberly says.
On a Friday morning, she got a pedicure and painted her toenails a soft yellow — Lexi’s favorite color.
“I want people to hear the name, ‘Lexi Rubio,’ and think of her smile. It just lights up the world,” her mother says. “I want them to remember her for being an energetic, intelligent, compassionate, athletic little girl.”
On the one-year anniversary for the massacre, victims' parents plan to hold a candlelight vigil and release butterflies in honor of the lives lost. Anyone who can’t attend, she asks they light a candle at home.
A GoFundMe campaignhas been set up in Lexi’s honor to support the family.
source: people.com
