By State Senator Marisol Alcántara
Familia with her 12-year-old twins Peter and Delilah.
When I learned of the tragic death of Officer Miosotis Familia, I was heartbroken. She was a woman who lived her entire life in service of others and in service of the community. She worked for the Red Cross, she worked as a nurse, and for 12 years, she protected all of us as an NYPD officer. She had three children.
I was struck by the senselessness and cruelty of her murder – violence is abhorrent and unacceptable, but it seems just a little more wicked and sad when it is perpetrated against someone who was working to keep her neighbors safe.
I know that the loss of Officer Familia will be felt by many in our great city, but not nearly as deeply or as permanently as by those who were closest to her.
Her life and her legacy stands on its own. Her name, Miosotis, meant “forget me not.” Let’s do that.
Miosotis Familia was born in the Bronx as one of ten children in the United States to Dominican-American parents. I did not know her then, but as an immigrant mother, I know how her parents must have poured their time, love, and hard work into their children.
Miosotis was a receptacle for their dreams, the person who they had sacrificed so much for. She pursued a college education, majoring in applied science and psychology at John Jay College. She went even farther, studying at Ohio State University’s College of Medicine. She served others in every job she ever had, from a patient care assistant and phlebotomist at New York University Hospital, to her several years as a nurse working at the American Red Cross.
Read more: We Will Not Forget – A Tribute to Officer Miosotis Familia | Manhattan Times
We invite you to subscribe to the weekly Uptown Love newsletter, like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter & Instagram or e-mail us at [email protected].
