Elvis Gutierrez with his kids at his wife Alexa’s wake | Image: Instagram/@mfvillaruz, @patricia.uichico via @iloveruffag
The photo of grieving Elvis Gutierrez and his daughters Ezra and Aria in front of the casket of his wife, Alexa Uichico-Gutierrez, moved netizens to tears.
The viral photo, which was originally posted on Angelito Villaruz’s Instagram, showed Elvis hugging one of their daughters, while the other one hugged the coffin of her mom.
“She’s gone. I’m sorry guys,” said Ezra in a TikTok video posted on Sunday, July 28. “I’m just a kid. I don’t know what to do.”
Alexa succumbed to leukemia on the evening of July 27 at age 38. She is survived by her husband and their two daughters.
During the last day of her wake on July 31, celebrities including Claudine Barretto, Vina Morales, and Bubbles Paraiso, among others, paid their last respects to the late entrepreneur.
Family members, including her father-in-law Eddie Gutierrez, delivered their emotional eulogies. Ezra also performed a dance number to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.”
Elvis also delivered a loving tribute to his beloved wife, as he fondly recalled how they met.
“She gave me so much love. ‘Yung love niya (her love) for me; I have never felt it before,” he said. “She taught me how to love so hard. I’ve never loved like that before, and I don’t think I ever would.”
“Now I seriously don’t know how I’d feel a year from now. When the emptiness starts to creep in. When I miss her, telling me, ‘Babe, touch my feet, touch my head,’ simple things like that. I’m going to miss everything she did for me. I’m going to miss everything that she is,” Elvis added.
Alexa’s inurnment was held on Thursday, Aug. 1, after holding a wake at the Santuario de San Antonio, Forbes Park, McKinley Road in Makati City from July 29 to 31.