On Thursday, Oct. 19, Texas A&M’s Mexican Student Association, or MSA, held a memorial event at Aggie Park for health freshman Britney Romero, who passed away Sunday, Oct. 15 at Dunn Hall.
Speakers, including her roommate physics freshman Brenda Vidal and MSA officers, spoke to attendees to honor Romero before leading them in releasing pink balloons in her memory. Afterward, they provided attendees the opportunity to write letters to Romero’s family.
MSA President Fabian Gonzalez said no one ever expects something like this to happen.
“It’s tough,” Gonzalez said. “It’s very tough news.”
Communication senior and Vice President of MSA Marcela Gonzalez said she, along with other MSA officers, remembered Romero attending MSA events.
“When we heard about Britney’s passing, some of us officers were together when we found out,” Gonzalez said. “We started connecting the dots on her name because that’s all the information we had, and we remembered that she actually attended one of our meetings. We were having a piñata-breaking after a meeting, and she was interacting with one of the officers there. She was a really bright spirit to see.”
Gonzalez said she wants to show students that other people care about them.
“I want students to know that Aggies really do care about each other,” Gonzales said. “It goes far beyond these tragic circumstances, and we’ll always be an Aggie for you. We wanted to show everybody that no Aggie stands alone.”
Engineering freshman Vianca Rios attended the memorial Thursday night.
“I wanted to be here to support [Romero],” Rios said. “It’s really sad what happened. I think it’s really important to support others and honor her this way.”
Engineering freshman and member of MSA Soley Mendoza said she cannot imagine losing someone so close.
“I knew [Romero] was in MSA, so when I heard about her, it was even more sad,” Mendoza said. “It’s especially sad losing someone so close to my culture, so I came to honor her tonight. I can’t imagine what her family is going through, and this loss is felt by all of us. Knowing we were in the same classes and same campus a week ago is a lot.”
Allied health freshman and member of MSA Shelley Ramirez said she attended the memorial to show respect for Britney’s family.
“When I found out this happened, I felt something over it, and it’s a feeling you can’t dismiss,” Ramirez said. “When they said they were going to have this event, I wanted to come to show respect for [Romero’s] family and friends.”
Ramirez also said A&M should make their HelpLine more visible to students.
“I know A&M does offer a lot of things, like the HelpLine,” Ramirez said. “I think it would be better if they promoted these resources a lot more, especially when things like this happen. A lot of people go through a lot of these struggles, so having A&M pushing this out there would make a difference.”
