ORLANDO, Fla. — For Mayra Alvear, the month of June brings a tidal wave of emotions — it is her son’s birth month, and the month her daughter was killed during the Pulse nightclub attack 10 years ago.
Her son, Nelson Alvear, died of cancer at the age of 11.
When Mayra is home, in order to process the pain and find peace after Pulse, she surrounds herself with hundreds of Pulse-themed photos and paintings given to her by friends, family and even strangers.
She says each single piece of art or memento brings back bittersweet memories.
Amanda Alvear, who was 25 when she was killed, would have turned 35 this year.
In an area that she calls “Amanda’s Room,” there are hearts everywhere and hundreds of pictures adorn the walls. In this room, she also memorializes each of the Pulse “angels.”
“Every time that there’s their birthday, I honor them on Amanda’s Angel’s page,” Mayra said.
She had their photos laminated and created a birthday card catalog of sorts. She posts them on social media so their families can feel a bond.
That bond was cemented when she and family members filed in alongside survivors to see inside Pulse before it was torn down in March.
When asked how she felt once she came out of the building, Mayra said it was difficult to be in that space.
“It was very emotional,” she said. “It was a different feeling. A feeling of sadness. A feeling of pain, of seeing where your child was killed in the bathroom.”
The Pulse sign came down earlier this year and is now preserved along with other Pulse artifacts at a confidential climate control warehouse. The demolition brought down the entire building, and Mayra said the heaviness of a decade of despair has taken a toll on her and her husband.
“My husband last year had a stroke, I had a stroke,” she said. “I had a life-saving surgery in February of 2025, and so everything changed.”
Recently she had a retirement party with her beloved co-workers in the beauty industry. At this time, she is no longer able to work full time. But she said that is not slowing her down.
She was on Capitol Hill recently, focusing on gun violence awareness alongside other families.
But when she is home, she keeps busy by making beaded bracelets in her garage, every single one of them with angel wings. Through the years, she has hosted an annual toy drive for an organization she started in honor of her daughter called Amanda’s Angels Legacy of Love.
REMEMBERING PULSE
Ten years ago minus one day, the city of Orlando was dealing with a tragedy. Late Friday night, June 10th, 2016, singer Christina Grimmie was shot and killed after a concert at The Plaza Live at Colonial Plaza, just east of downtown Orlando. The Saturday morning news was overflowing about the horrific murder of a young celebrity in The City Beautiful’s own backyard. It was incomprehensible that someone would do such a thing, and then the incomprehensible was followed by the unimaginable. Some 27 and a half hours after Grimmie’s murder, another gunman opened fire at the Pulse Nightclub on South Orange Avenue in the SODO section of Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring 58 others. When daylight came, the numbers were staggering.
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