The mother of Staff Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad broke down as she remembered her 28-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter was the real hero and I will miss her dearly,\u201d Carol Acevedo said Friday.<\/p>\n
Rampersad was killed on July 17 during an attack at a military base in Jordan, and was promoted from sergeant to staff sergeant posthumously. She enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2019, waiting until after she turned 21 at her mother\u2019s request.<\/p>\n
She received several medals in her years of service to the nation, including the Army Commendation Medal for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service.<\/p>\n
Friends remember her as loyal, loved drumming, liked to have fun, but was always considerate, kind and caring.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have all come to know her as a hero,\u201d one friend said. \u201cShe was known to us as a devoted daughter, a loving sister, a charismatic aunt and a friend to many. She had a laugh that could heal your soul and was the friend that would hold us through our disappointments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is the most considerate, humble and selfless person I\u2019ve ever met,\u201d another friend said.<\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other elected officials also attended the funeral service in Ozone Park, including Gov. Kathy Hochul.<\/p>\n
The governor said she had prepared remarks but changed them after hearing Rampersad\u2019s friends and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrief is the price you pay for love,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cSo we\u2019re full of grief today. But that means we love someone so deeply, so profoundly. And that is this young woman, this angel among us.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want you all to know all those who have kids,\u201d Acevedo said. \u201cLove your kids. Hug them. I don\u2019t know have mine to hug anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
To honor Rampersad, both the mayor and governor have ordered flags to fly at half-staff.<\/p>\n
Also, there is now an effort in the City Council to name a street and a school after her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mother of Staff Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad broke down as she remembered her 28-year-old daughter. \u201cMy daughter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[387,25,9,24,12,63,308,122,124,123,298,27],"class_list":["post-311118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-public-safety","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-samantha-liebman","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}