Mom Cries For A Son-Sgt. Gomez is laid to rest

Supported by family, friends, and the soldiers that had become a second family to her son, Jose, Maria Gomez was carried away from her son’s grave in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria, her body convulsing in sobs. Behind her, Jose’s fianc’ee, Marie Canario, 21, of Mastic, L.I., was supported by her two brothers, also in tears.
“Oh God, oh God,” Canario cried out as she was led away.
Veterans on motorcycles draped with American flags lined the roadway as the Club Patriot Guard carried the coffin containing the remains of 23-year-old Gomez to its final resting place.
“My boy died. He died for this country. He’s gone,” said Felix Jimenez, Gomez’s stepfather, while consoling his weeping wife.
Gomez, 23, a sergeant in the Army’s 10th Cavalry, 4th Infantry, was killed on Friday, April 29 when a roadside bomb tore through his Humvee in Baghdad. He was the second soldier from Corona killed in Iraq since March.
Gomez’ wake was held at the Rivera Funeral Home on Monday and Tuesday, May 8 and 9, and his funeral was held in Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Corona on Wednesday May 10. His coffin was then brought by a police and veteran-led procession to St. Michael’s Cemetery.
“Sgt. Jose Gomez was a man of values who loves his family, especially his mother and served this country,” Major General Bill Grisoli, said during the soldier’s eulogy. Grisoli presented Gomez’ mother with two awards for her son, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
For friend and fellow soldier, Victor Galan, Gomez’s death hit very close to home. “He was my brother,” Galan said.
Miguel Baez, 35, attended basic training with Gomez and remembered him as a kind and personable man. “He was a good friend,” Baez said, explaining that as two native Dominicans from New York they instantly bonded.
On Tuesday, May 9, Baez shook Maria Gomez’s hand for the second time – the first was during graduation from boot camp. “[Jose’s mother] must feel really bad. We are Dominican. We are really attached to our kids.”
For Maria Gomez, an added stress came when Jose’s brother, Severino Peralta, was denied a visa to come to the United States from Santo Domingo, the family’s homeland. Assemblyman Jos’e Peralta’s office contacted New York State Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, and he got the visa. But, while waiting for the visa, Peralta developed an illness that made it impossible for him to fly here.
At the wake and funeral, the family members of fellow soldiers comforted Maria Gomez.
“Your son is my son’s brother,” said Anna Gonzalez, mother of Specialist Carlos Gonzalez of Middletown N.Y. Gonzalez died in Iraq March 16, 2006.