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CAGUAS, Puerto Rico — Aida Velázquez has several large framed photographs of her only son, Frankie “Jimmy” De Jesús, scattered throughout the living room of her small apartment in Caguas, a city that is roughly 20 miles south of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan.

The largest of the photographs was the one of her with De Jesús that was taken two years ago when she last saw him. Velázquez also pulled out of a drawer a picture of her son that was taken when he was in seventh grade.

“He was my blessed son,” Velázquez told the Washington Blade.

De Jesús, 50, was the oldest of the 49 people who died inside Pulse, a gay nightclub, on June 12 when a gunman opened fire during its Latino night. He is among the 23 LGBT Puerto Ricans who lost their lives during the massacre that is the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

De Jesús was a window designer for Forever 21, a chain of clothing stores, at the time of his death. He had previously been a bartender at a gay hotel in San Juan’s Condado neighborhood.

De Jesús also danced Jíbaro, a Puerto Rican folk dance.

Velázquez told the Blade that her son liked music and enjoyed writing.

“I was very proud of my son for who he was,” she said.

Velázquez said that she last spoke with her son at 2 p.m. on June 11, roughly 12 hours before the massacre took place.

“I am in pain because all of this is much bigger than I am,” Velázquez told the Blade.

De Jesús’ wake took place in Kissimmee, Fla., before his body was flown back to Puerto Rico.

More than 500 people attended his funeral that took place in Caguas on June 21.

“He was divine,” said Velázquez. “Everyone loved him a lot.”

She told the Blade that people have told her that they “are who they are” because of her son. A woman wrote on De Jesus’ Facebook page that he and his then-partner helped take care of her three children after her ex-husband refused to pay child support.

“You guys were my refuge, my source of motivation,” she wrote.

The woman said on De Jesús’ Facebook page that she has been married to her “best friend” for 20 years and that her three children have graduated from college and now have their own families.

“I love you and I will love you forever,” she wrote. “Thank you to your mom for raising such a spectacular son.”

Ángel Candelario Padró’s aunt ‘very proud’ of nephew

Ángel Candelario Padró, 28, grew up in Guánica, a town on Puerto Rico’s southwestern coast.

His aunt, Leticia Padró, told the Blade during an emotional interview at her home in the city of Mayagüez’s Miradero neighborhood on July 8 that her nephew was a “second brother” to her three children.

Candelario lived in Guánica during the week, but he spent weekends with Padró at her home. He also worked in his aunt’s store when he was a teenager.

“He helped me a lot,” said Padró.

Candelario graduated from high school with high honors. He enrolled at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico to study nursing, but Padró told the Blade that he “was worried” his family did not have the means to help him pay for his education.

“I said, ‘No, you keep going because I am going to help you,’” she said. “My husband and I supported him in everything. All of my kids are going to attend college and all that we do for our kids we did for Ángel.”

Candelario — who was also a member of the Puerto Rican National Guard — moved to Chicago a couple of years ago to pursue his nursing career.

He moved to Orlando in March.

Candelario was a technician at the Florida Retina Institute, a chain of ophthalmologist clinics, and a Zumba instructor. He was to have begun his doctorate in September.

Padró said her priest held a moment of silence for the victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre during Mass on June 12.

She and her family were driving to a restaurant after they left church when she had what she described as a “premonition” that her nephew might have been inside the nightclub.

Padró’s relatives insisted that she go to the restaurant and have lunch, despite her concern. She said they told her that Candelario had not answered his phone when they called it once they arrived.

“I began to call and call,” said Padró. “He did not answer.”

Padró said she eventually reached a friend who was with her nephew at the Pulse nightclub.

The friend — who was shot four times — confirmed that Candelario had also been shot.

“He said that yes, Ángel was there,” said Padró.

Padró and her husband arrived in Orlando at around 1:30 a.m. on June 13. They received confirmation a few hours later that Candelario was among those who died inside the nightclub.

Candelario’s boyfriend was also shot, but he survived.

“I felt as though I had lost my son,” said Padró, referring to her nephew.

She and her husband identified Candelario’s body the next day.

“It was truly hard,” said Padró, speaking through tears. “It’s hard because I thought back to the day he was born, his development, his adolescence. Until he graduated magna cum laude from the university he was with his family: His aunt, his son and his three cousins. We were his parents to him and I feel very proud.”

Candelario was wearing a stethoscope and his white Florida Retina Institute lab coat during his open casket funeral in Florida that more than 200 people attended. Members of the Puerto Rican National Guard lined the streets of Guánica on June 18 as a horse-drawn carriage brought his flag-draped casket to the town’s cemetery.

“It has been very painful for me and for my entire family,” said Padro. “I have always said that things happen when they are going to happen and the Lord has a plan for when he is going to call for us.”

“I have an angel in heaven, but I am destroyed,” she added.

Gilberto Silva Menéndez was ‘life of the party’

Marynell Valentín, the sister of Gilberto Silva Menéndez, was quick to tell the Blade on July 8 during an interview at a Mayagüez mall that her brother was “the life of the party.”

The mall, which is adjacent to the University of Puerto Rico’s Mayagüez campus, is located roughly four miles from Padró’s home.

“He truly was a personality,” joked Valentín. “Everyone wanted to meet him and be liked by him.”

Silva, 25, was born in Manatí, a town on Puerto Rico’s northern coast that is roughly an hour west of San Juan. He had lived with his mother in Orlando for four years.

Silva, who worked at a Speedway gas station, began studying health care management at a local university in 2014. Valentín said that her brother “always wanted to be famous.”

“He always said that he wanted to be in a magazine, that one day he would have his likeness on a billboard,” she said.

Valentín told the Blade that her mother first realized that “something was wrong” at around 4 a.m. on June 12.

Silva, who liked to dance “a lot,” was at the Pulse nightclub with three friends. Valentín told the Blade that his boyfriend was not there with him.

She said that her family received confirmation of her brother’s death at 6 a.m. on June 13. Valentín was on a flight to Orlando from Puerto Rico at the time, and did not receive the news until she arrived in Florida.

“I boarded with hope that he would be there when I arrived,” she said. “When I landed in Orlando, my cell phone rang and my mom tells me that [he had died.] This is a moment that I don’t wish upon anyone.”

Only one of the three friends who were with Silva at the Pulse nightclub survived.

“He died the way he wanted because he was there dancing,” said Valentín.

A joint funeral for Silva and his best friend, Peter Ommy González Cruz, who also died inside the Pulse nightclub, took place in Orlando on June 17. Silva was buried in Puerto Rico next to his paternal grandmother and his cousin.

“Mom is OK,” said Valentín. “She cried a lot for the death of her son, but she has an inner peace because my brother also lived the way he wanted: With the full support of his family, with excellent friendships in Orlando and here in Puerto Rico.”

Valentín said the last time she saw her brother was in May when she made a surprise trip to Orlando to visit him.

“He is not going to come [to Puerto Rico] for Christmas,” she said. “He is not going to come for my birthday.”