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When Taurino and Silvia Rivera were laid to rest beneath a California pepper tree on Friday morning, their white caskets were surrounded by their three sons and daughters-in-law and seven grandchildren, members of the church they founded in San Diego and pastors who had grown close to them during their years of ministry.
The couple, who had grown up together in a small town in Oaxaca and had been inseparable since, were buried together after dying weeks apart from COVID-19. Taurino’s casket was lowered first, and then his wife’s on top of his.
Missing from the scene was their fourth son, Ismael Rivera, who watched the final moments of the ceremony on his phone while standing outside a restaurant in Tijuana. Jesimiel Rivera, the third son, held his phone over the grave as his brother sobbed on the other end of the Zoom call.