Trey Ganem owns a funeral home in Edna, Texas, and in May 2022 received a call that no coffin maker wants to receive.
Nineteen children and two teachers had been killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Ganem drove three hours to the city and, instead of sending a catalog, he went into each family’s home. He asked about the children’s favorite superheroes, colors, soccer teams, and the shows they watched before bed.
With his 25-year-old son Billy and more than a dozen neighbors and strangers who showed up just to sand and paint, he built the 19 coffins in less than four days, barely sleeping. A gleaming Superman shield. A smiling dinosaur. A design inspired by TikTok. Each one created for a child who would never grow up.
The work, which normally costs between 3,400 and 3,800 dollars per unit, did not cost any family a cent. In total, he donated nearly 60,000 dollars’ worth of coffins.
Ganem put it simply: it wasn’t carpentry; it was taking one more burden off parents who were already carrying the worst week of their lives.