Mom shares powerful reason for bringing 2 sons to George Floyd's memorial service

Mothers, children, health care workers and students were among the thousands who gathered in the Houston heat on Monday to pay tribute to George Floyd.

Josephine Nwachukwu told "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir that she was taking a break from the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, where she works as a nurse, to remember the life of the black man who was killed by Minneapolis police two weeks ago.

"it is important to me because in my career I'm all for life," she said. "And his death is a senseless death -- when someone is telling you 'I can't breathe.'"

"His death really touched me and, as a mother, when I heard a grown man cry and calling his mom -- I have children, too -- I cried so much," Nwachukwu said.

Jonathan Vasquez, an environmental engineering graduate student at the University of Houston, told ABC News it was "very important" to attend the memorial. He said he stopped on the way over to pick up flowers, which he used to symbolize Floyd's death.

"Nine roses to dedicate the amount of minutes that he couldn't breathe," he said. " I thought there was no better way to be symbolic and just pay my respects. Even if it’s just a little bit of gratitude toward the family, I feel like it means a lot."

It's a "really tough time that we're going through," he added, "and I'm glad I'm able to pay my respects."

Eisha McKinney, a laser safety officer for the state of Texas, brought her two sons, Imani and Pharaoh, to show them the "deep, embedded history that has to change."

"For my sons, it’s really important for them to understand everything that’s going on right now in the current situation," she said. "From generations... my grandfather being born in Mississippi. The same conversations are happening in 2020. It’s bigger than just skin [color]."

McKinney said she wants the world to love her kids like she does, and that she wants them to have equal access to opportunities.

Much like Nwachukwu, McKinney said that "words can't fathom what happened to George [Floyd], because, as a mother, when he called out [to his mom], my heart broke. It can't go no further. No justice, no peace."