At 76-years-old, Octavio Espinal was enjoying life with his family. Recently, they celebrated his victory over prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
But on Nov. 8, after leaving his job at a building in Freeport, Long Island, he was struck by a car at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and North Grove Street by a hit-and-run driver.<\/p>\n
“That’s what hurts me the most,” said Mary Silverio, the victim’s daughter. “If [the driver] had stayed in the moment and do what he had to do \u2014 anyone can make a mistake, but he could have at least helped him. We didn’t know how he was left, why [the driver] left, just that he had left the scene.”<\/p>\n
According to one of his daughters, he was a full-time employee at the building as a maintenance worker. He lived with his daughter and her family in West Babylon. <\/p>\n
Flowers and candles commemorate the life of the father and grandfather who fought for his life in the hospital for days. The hit-and-run cut short Espinal’s dream of returning to his country of the Dominican Republic, something he had expressed on his last birthday.<\/p>\n
“He said, ‘I’ll work until I’m 80, and then I’m going to Santo Domingo,'” said his daughter, Ivelisse. “He brought together many things, he sent over many boxes, and that was his future.”<\/p>\n
Police have shared security camera footage and are searching for the individual behind the deadly collision. <\/p>\n
A ceremony was held in Espinal’s honor on Monday at Mount Sinai South Hospital for his decision to donate his organs to people in need. <\/p>\n
“It means so much, and it also brings joy, because he will live on in someone else,” shared Petronila Espinal, Espinal’s sister. “But I would have given anything for him to be alive, because of how generous and good he was.”<\/p>\n
The 76-year-old will also live on in the hearts of his granddaughters, who spoke with Telemundo 47.<\/p>\n
“He wanted me to be a good person, and he loved me very much,” said one of the girls.<\/p>\n
An investigation is ongoing and police are seeking the public’s help in identifying the driver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 76-years-old, Octavio Espinal was enjoying life with his family. Recently, they celebrated his victory over prostate cancer.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[776,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-44220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-long-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220","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=44220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}