Flight 587: Two Years Later

A somber memorial service for the victims of American Airlines Flight 587 crash took place on a rainy Wednesday, two years to the date of the tragedy. Mayor Michael Bloomberg presided over the ceremony, where Father Brian Jordan of St. Francis of Assisi in Manhattan blessed the victims and read their names and a victims daughter read a letter from her mother.
But, it was the plaintive cries of hundreds of family members that punctuated the event — a telling sign that, though two years have passed, their grief had not subsided.
"We try the best we can to get by," said Ines Nova, who lost her sister Victoria Nova in the crash.
Nova said her sister was going to visit two of her children living in the Dominican Republican.
"She was a good person to talk to," Nova said. "She was always happy."
During the ceremony, Karen Tavarez read a letter her mother gave her before she boarded Flight 587. In it, her mother, Virgilia Mateo, speaks almost prophetically of her death, but tells her son and daughter that she loves them very much.
"Since this is such a great moment full of joy and happiness for you and also for me, my dear children, I shall always be grateful to you for having been such a good son and daughter," Mateo wrote.
At 9:16 a.m., the time the plane crashed, there was a moment of silence accompanied by the bells of St. Francis de Sales tolling in the background.
Father Brian Jordan concluded the event by reading the names of the victims. Family members were then invited to St. Francis de Sales for a mass.
While some attendees processed to the church a few blocks away, others lingered and touched the memorial wall, adorned with pictures and notes to loved ones.
"He was the only brother we had," said Wilvia Lora, a Kew Gardens resident and one of seven sisters, about her sibling, Jose Lora. Clutching a framed picture of her brother smiling widely, Lora and her sister Wanda explained he was a law student in the Dominican Republic and came to the US for a birthday party.
"He was so nice," whispered Wanda Lora, holding back tears.
Aside from the emotional difficulties over the past two years, the families of the 265 victims have struggled to determine a permanent memorial site.
Diverging opinions on where and what should be erected have largely been divided on where the family members live.
The majority of victims in the tragedy were Dominicans living in Washington Heights. However, six Belle Harbor residents died on the ground when the planes wings slammed into three houses lining 131st Street.
While a temporary memorial wall has stood at the crash site on 131st Street and Newport Avenue, discussions over a permanent memorial have petered, upsetting the victims families and the Belle Harbor community.
Until recently, many of the families of non-Belle Harbor victims pushed for a permanent memorial park erected at the crash site — a proposition that residents in Belle Harbor refused.
Gerrie Pomponio, who lost her husband and house in the crash, said she is adamantly opposed to a memorial on the land she once called home.
Pomponio said she invested approximately $20,000 in architectural fees to rebuild her house. But, she said tie-ups in construction and the continuous flow of grieving families to the site led her to sell the property and buy another home in Belle Harbor.
Pomponio also said the mayor has neglected the families of Belle Harbor victims and local residents.
She said she was never informed by the mayors office about a two-year memorial service or monument plans.
"The mayor took the whole decision out of the people that really count — and thats the people who live here," said Pomponio.
Having lost everything dear to her — her husband, her home, her wedding band, heirlooms from her mother — Pomponio empathizes with the other victims families, but she believes a memorial should be built elsewhere, like Tribute Park.
Sources close the mayors office say, however, that all the victims families were notified of the two-year memorial service, by mail and by phone calls made by the Community Assistance Unit.
Moreover, sources said that the mayors office is working with both sides to negotiate a permanent memorial site and that a solution amenable to both sides is developing.
So far, two options have been discussed. The first option, which has been suggested by Hector Algarroba, is to erect a memorial park from Beach 126th Street to Beach 128th Street along Beach Channel Drive. The second option, which the Tribute Park Executive Committee suggested, is to set aside a section of the park dedicated to Flight 587 victims. Memorial bricks and a meditation garden would be erected.
Tensions also flared in September, when Congressman Anthony Weiner, a self-proclaimed mediator between Belle Harbor and the Flight 587 groups, threatened to tear down the temporary memorial before the two-year anniversary to allow construction to begin on the site.
However, families, led by Hector Algarroba and Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America, protested in front of the temporary wall memorial, demanding that it stay up until the two-year anniversary.
The mayors office then interceded and brokered a deal with Robert Rochelle, the owner of the property where the temporary memorial lies. The deal allowed the temporary memorial to stand until after the anniversary. It also permitted space on the Rochelles property for an in-ground memorial stone. That stone, which runs 13 feet by 10 feet, was installed on Friday.
Aside from the planned permanent memorial and the in-ground stone, there are two other sites in the city dedicated to the memory of the victims. A plaque resides at Astoria Park, and Hostos Community College has a meditation garden in honor of the victims.
 
For Karen
I have always kept you in my daily prayers and I ask the Almighty to shower you with every kind of blessing and joy.
I hope that my miraculous Christ will grant you all of your requests, dreams and ideals.
Im offering you these humble and simple gifts, although I would have wished to have given you something of greater value.
As a mother, I should also add that I did not wish to hold on to these gifts for so long.
Perhaps Im rushing this, but I did not want anyone to get ahead of me on this.
I wanted to be the first one.
Besides, perhaps due to my suffering and my ailments, sometimes I become melancholic, but only God my Savior knows if in the end of my life is at hand or far away.
Just know that I love you all very much.
Well, thats enough. I dont want any sorrow or pain.
Since this is such a great moment full of joy and happiness for you and also for me, my dear children, I shall always be grateful to you for having been such a good son and daughter.
You will always be with me, wherever I go.
Lots and lots of luck.
With love…