Parents having to attend their own child’s funeral is a nightmare that words cannot truly describe. Sadly, that is what the parents of three-year-old Ethan Hernandez had to do last Sunday, May 22.
Because of the way little Ethan died, his parents were not the only ones that felt a longing for justice. Funeral director Robert Falcon says that the boy’s funeral has haunted him more than others.
That is why he wrote a passionate Facebook post hoping that Ethan’s killer would see it.
The funeral director and owner of Affordable Burial & Cremation Service, based out of Austin, TX, had something to say to the hit-and-run driver that killed Ethan. The Washington Post reports Falcon as saying:
“My conversation was with one person. I wanted that one person to see the post, I wanted that one person to see the photos, and I wanted that one person to turn himself in.”
Here is Falcon’s post in its entirety:
“THIS POST IS FOR JUST ONE PERSON.
I did a funeral today that I did not have to do.
Sunday, You ran this child over and kept driving down Cameron Rd. I spent most of the night Monday and Tuesday Morning getting this child ready for his mother and father to see him in a casket because of you. I want you to see these pictures and I want you to know how much it pains me to know that you would run over a child and not stop to render aid. What a careless act. I had to listen to a mother and father cry and bargain with God today because you took their son from them.
I hope you can forgive yourself and do the right thing and turn yourself in and take responsibility for the actions you took on Sunday. I want you to look at these pictures of a precious child and see the innocence and want you to know what you took from a family who now hurts beyond anything we can measure.
The media has covered all but today’s burial but I was there. I have seen to the care for this child from the time I picked up his body from the Medical Examiner’s office and prepared his body. I dressed him in a little black suit, white shirt and bow tie and placed him in a little white casket surrounded by angels.
I was there when his mom and dad saw him for the first time yesterday and wept with them. I was the last to see his body before I closed his casket this afternoon and took him to his place of rest. I did this because of You!
You know who you are. I have done my duty, now do YOURS and turn yourself in.
I should have not had to do a funeral today, and I only have one person to blame for that and that person is YOU. it’s Your Turn.”
The Washington Post also reports that:
“Austin police said in a statement this week that the boy was “legally walking in the crosswalk with family members and had the right of way when he was hit by the truck.” The department requested help in finding the driver responsible for his death.
Police released surveillance photos and said the suspect was driving a white Chevrolet 2500 HD pickup truck through an intersection at Briarcliff Boulevard and Cameron Road in Austin.”
For anybody that knows anything, please call this person in.
