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'When God is tugging on your heart, you just do it' | Odessa native offers family plot to victims of mass shooting

Ben Hadden lives in Sugar Land and is offering one of his family’s burial spots in the Sunset Memorial Gardens to victims of the shooting in Odessa that killed seven

ODESSA, Texas — As families of the Odessa mass shooting victims grieve and begin plans to bury their loved ones, a Sugar Land man is trying to help.

Ben Hadden is an Odessa native, and his sister currently teaches elementary school in Midland. His family has an extra plot at the Sunset Memorial Gardens in town.

He posted on Facebook Sunday: “I am an OHS graduate and have a special place in my heart to firstly offer this plot to family of the young OHS student who lost her life this weekend, but of course, would be honored to donate the plot to any of the deceased victims.”

The post has been shared more than 1,500 times and has more than 1,200 reactions.

”This sort of jolt to my heart that just said – it was sort of God speaking to me, I felt, to go forward with it," said Hadden. ”We thought this would be a gesture of us wrapping our arms and hugging the city of Odessa."

RELATED: Odessa Police thank public for support during active shooter investigation

RELATED: Funerals being organized for victims of Midland-Odessa mass shooting

The plot is next to Hadden’s father, who died in 2010 of a rare form of thyroid cancer called anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. 

“It just seemed so natural to offer it, like something he would do himself if he were still here,” Hadden wrote in a text message. “And frankly, when God is tugging on your heart like he was mine, you don’t really have a say in the matter. You just do it.”

Hadden is asking people to email him at Benj1018@msn.com, or contact Sunset Memorial Gardens directly.

Hadden said another person with two lots at Sunset may also be interested in donating their plots as well.

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