LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Monterey High School seniors are remembering a classmate who won’t walk the stage with them at graduation.
Kobe Alonzo, 18, was killed in a fireworks accident in January. He had been accepted into South Plains College welding school and was set to graduate with honors.
“He was my everything. I miss him so much and graduation is coming up and everyone gets to celebrate their kid and I don’t,” Raquel Alonzo, Kobe’s mother, said.
Before Christmas break, Kobe called his grandmother, Sandra Ramos Mudder, to tell her he was graduating with honors.
“He said he was graduating with honors and I asked him when he would find out and he said on Tuesday … but Tuesday never came for him,” Mudder said.
Mudder said Kobe lifted other people up and encouraged friends to keep going. He even helped get another student back in school, and that student will graduate Saturday.
“He was so excited cause he said he was going to graduate and he’s almost done and I kept saying ‘baby, you’re not done; you’re barely starting your life,’” Mudder said.
Classmates Olivia Garcia and Emily Morales said senior year hasn’t been the same.
“He was one of my closest guy friends. Since high school started, we’ve always had a class together,” Garcia said. “When he left us, it was really hard to just sit in class and not do anything without him. But I know that his presence is always going to be right there.”
“God gave us the best classmate ever to exist, and he put him on here to bless all of us in so many different ways,” Morales said.
Raquel said she is proud of her son.
“I love you so much. And I miss you. And I want him back. I wish I could have him back. And I’m proud of him. That you did that you did. You graduated with honors,” she said.
The Alonzo family will host a 5K on Sunday, May 17, in Kobe’s honor. Money raised will go to a scholarship to continue Alonzo’s legacy.
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