OCEANSIDE, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A park in Nassau County was officially renamed Tuesday for to the late NYPD Detective Luis Alvarez, who fought to his dying day to help pass the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.
Terrell Avenue Park, which is located near Alvarez's Oceanside home, was renamed for the fallen NYPD Bomb Squad detective.
From now on the park will be know as the Detective Luis G.
Alvarez Memorial Park and it will feature Nassau County’s first meditation labyrinth.
Alvarez’s wife was at the renaming ceremony and said she could feel his presence with them in the park.
“I know he's with us today. I just feel it,” the emotional widow said.
She said life without her husband has been difficult but feels the park will bring her much comfort.
“Losing Lou has been the hardest challenge my family has endured. The clock tower represents staying present in the now moment. The only place we ever need to be,” she said, referring to a clock tower just outside the labyrinth that has its numerals replaced with the word “Now.”
In the center of the park is a stone engraved with Alvarez’s name, badge number and the phase “Not All Who Wander Are Lost.”
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information John Miller says it will “help ensure we Never Forget.”
Alvarez died at the age of 53 after battling cancer stemming from his work at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
He became a national figure for the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund when he testified with comedian Jon Stewart at an emotional Congressional hearing in June 2019.
Alvarez never saw the legislation pass through Congress, and eventually signed by former President Donald Trump, but Nassau Curran Laura Curran said the late detective fought long and hard and his memory will live on.
“It's seared in all of our memories – that image of him down in Washington D.C. advocating, Jon Stewart by his side, his brothers by his side, advocating for what was right – what was just, what made sense,” she said.
Because of Alvarez and many other first responders’ work in Washington, D.C., the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund can now provide money for victim through the year 2092.
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