Image of the entrance to the funeral home, yesterday afternoon, where the remains of Lara Pérez Valeiro were. Pepa Losada
Ribadeo lived its saddest Palm Sunday due to the death of the four young people
03 abr 2023 . Updated at 05:00 h.
Palm Sunday dawned in Ribadeo, the starting signal for Holy Week, but there was nothing to celebrate, impossible to shake off the weight of the loss of four young people from the municipalityLara, Uxía, Sergio and Jesús, in the tragic accident that occurred in Xove early on Saturday morning.
This Sunday is, traditionally, a special day in the municipality due to the legal prebend that allows its local business to open to the public. There is always entertainment, as a meeting point for Galicians and Asturians. And more on a special day like Palm Sunday. The sun was added, shining, but the drama weighed more and like a silent shadow imposed its tyranny, spreading the atmosphere and an air of sadness.
In the consistory and in the IES of Ribadeo the flags flew at half mast. In several shops, located in the pedestrian zone of Cuatro Calles and which belong to relatives of one of the young women who died, hung signs closed due to death. The morning was waking up and people, little by little, began to fill the streets. In all the conversations, a few words were saved for the tragic accident, a memory for the families of the deceased boys. Above the speculation about the causes of the accident, pain and respect for the victims prevailed.
The organization of Holy Week, the parish church of Santa María del Campo de Ribadeo, suspended the Palm Sunday procession that is traditionally held in the emblematic Plaza de Abaixo, in the old town, moving it to Sunday mass, inside the church. Minutes before noon, people began to gather and fill the temple, which was too small to accommodate as many as there were. At the doors, some laurel branches were piled up, thrown away. Not a few came to cut small bouquets.
Lara, Uxía, Sergio, Jesús, four kids who studied to forge the future they dreamed of
The memory of the four kids hung in the air. The ceremony started, the priest brandished the hyssop and began to sprinkle holy water. The branches struggled to gain air, to bathe with some drop. He began the ceremony and in the homily the priest had words of remembrance for the victims, which the attendees listened to in an emotional silence, lowering their faces. “The passion of Jesus Christ is presented in a special way among us.” And after pausing, he added: «In this Eucharist we remember in a very special way the four young people who died yesterday so tragically in that accident. In them the death of Jesus, the passion of Jesus, is also prolonged. And in their families and friends who live these days the pain and desolation for this event, and it continues, we can be sure, in each of our pains and sufferings, in each of our crosses.
Obituaries earrings
When leaving the church, around one in the afternoon, the hotel terraces already reflected a little more animation. People were awaiting the publication of the obituaries of the young Lara, Uxía, Sergio and Jesús, although at that time it was still unknown that burials would be throughout today. And he also wondered about the condition of the driver of the vehicle, the 19-year-old hospitalized young man from Riba, Daniel CR, who is still very serious in the intensive care unit, fortunately denying the rumors that were circulating insistently about his death. “How are you doing? Do you know anything?”the neighbors repeated trying to find out something about the state of health of this young man.
In Ribadeo they advanced yesterday as if they wanted to recover their pulse, although the obvious feeling was that they were not living a normal Sunday. Because shortly after the four young people were kept in mind again, when the first of the obituaries was known. The family was not to be mourned. The carousel of emotions continued. This is what awaits Ribadeo in these hours, who will undoubtedly turn the page, but first this difficult moment must pass.
A tragedy
“An accident like this, so hard and in which people die so young, is not forgotten in life; will mark an entire generation. We will all remember Lara, Uxía, Sergio and Jesús»pointed out the father of a friend of the deceased, that this afternoon, Monday, they will be buried in Ribadeo and in O Carballiño.
This tragic event continues to generate reactions of sorrow, such as that of the rector of the University of A Coruña, Julio Abalde Alonso, who expressed his condolences for the death of Jesús Navia Pérez, who was a student of the Civil Engineering Technology degree and one of the four deceased in the Xove accident. He also remembered the other three youths. “All deaths are sad, but in these cases, young people with their whole lives ahead of them, they leave us with a deep sorrow”stated Rector Abalde.
Also in the world of sport there were memories for the youngsters killed in the Xove accident. At the Anxo Carro municipal stadium, in Lugo, a minute’s silence was observed for those who died at the start of the match between Lugo and Ponferradina yesterday.
The young people from Ribadeo died 200 meters from the apartment they were going to in Xove
Barely a kilometer and a half separates the Praza do Concello de Xove from the Palmeiro urbanization. And that is the journey that, according to all indications, the four young people from Ribadeo (two boys and two girls), between the ages of 17 and 19, who lost their lives in the tragic accident that occurred on Saturday morning in Xove. The other two occupants of the vehicle, a maroon-colored Citroën C4, authorized for five seats and in which there were six, managed to survive an event that has generated deep commotion. At press time, 19-year-old Daniel GR, who was driving the vehicle, was still admitted to the intensive care unit of the Lucus Augusti University Hospital (HULA). His condition is serious, as confirmed yesterday by the Servizo Galego de Saúde. The same sources specified that the sixth occupant of the car, S.RB, also 19 years old and who suffered minor injuries, has already been discharged from the Hospital Público da Mariña, in Burela, where he had been evacuated in a 061 ambulance. .
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