Luis Alvarez, a hero to fellow 9/11 responders, is laid to rest

In his final days, Luis G Alvarez, a former New York City police detective, told family members that he was imagining himself walking and walking and walking. They asked him where.

“I’m on the pile,” Alvarez replied.

Shorthand for ground zero after the terror attacks of Sep 11, 2001, the pile was where thousands of victims were buried in rubble. His time there would come to define Alvarez’s police career and transform him physically, likely causing the cancer that whittled his stocky frame to bone. He became the face — a grimly urgent one — of others like him in an emotional address to members of Congress last month.

Alvarez, 53, died Saturday from complications of colorectal cancer, just weeks after he, alongside comedian and activist Jon Stewart, pleaded with lawmakers at a congressional hearing to replenish the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

Police officers carry the casket of Luis Alvarez, a former New York detective who became a champion of the emergency workers who had responded to the Sep 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, outside the Immaculate Conception Church in New York, Jul 3, 2019. The New York Times

Hundreds of police officers lined the street in Astoria, Queens, for his funeral Wednesday, the familiar trappings of a ceremonial farewell — the bagpipes with “Amazing Grace,” the coffin draped in the colors of the Police Department — giving way, inside the church, to stories of a one-of-a-kind man who lived his life fully in his prime years and later, during the illness that cut him short.

“Before he became an American hero, he was mine,” said Alvarez’s oldest son, David. “He was my hero, my inspiration. The one above all I wanted to make proud.”

Alvarez was born in 1965 in Havana, but his family moved to Queens seeking to provide their children with greater opportunity, according to Alvarez’s sister, Aida Lugo.

“Little did my parents know that this single act of sacrifice would lay the groundwork for the man that their son would become,” Lugo said.

After turning 18, Alvarez served in the Marines. But it was in 1990, just shy of his 25th birthday, that he found his true calling, Lugo said, and joined the ranks of New York’s finest.

Alvarez was first assigned to the 108th Precinct in Long Island City, Queens. In 1993, he was transferred to the narcotics division and promoted to detective two years later. He spent time working undercover, but by 2004, he wanted a less stressful assignment, the city’s police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, said Wednesday.

“Without a hint of irony — and I still can’t believe this — he joined the NYPD’s elite bomb squad,” O’Neill said. “Talk about an exceptional human being.”

Comedian Jon Stewart speaks with Rep Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) at the funeral for Luis Alvarez, a former New York detective who became a champion of the emergency workers who had responded to the Sep 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, outside the Immaculate Conception Church in New York, Jul 3, 2019. The New York Times

Over the course of a 20-year career with the Police Department, Alvarez was recognised several times for excellent police work. He retired in 2010.

“If his story had ended there, it would have been enough for several lifetimes,” O’Neill said.

But, Lugo said, after her brother learned in 2016 that he had cancer, he began a new chapter.

Alvarez believed his cancer was linked to his time at ground zero and was determined to share his story, posting updates about his health as a way of urging others to register with the compensation fund in case they became ill.

It was his dying wish to see Congress pass the bill that would secure aid for ailing Sept. 11 responders, Lugo said.

“Despite being in pretty bad shape, he travelled to Capitol Hill to have his voice heard,” she said. “He wanted to urge our government to do the right thing.”

His appearance last month before Congress was a final act of service after a career as a public servant. Before uttering a single word, Alvarez offered a vivid image of the stark reality that many Sept. 11 emergency workers have faced. His pinched, jaundiced face and frail body reminded countless Americans — and presumably, some members of the House Judiciary subcommittee to whom he was speaking — that unforeseen, relentless and lethal damage was done to many in the weeks following the attacks.

Police officers salute the family of Luis Alvarez, a former New York detective who became a champion of the emergency workers who had responded to the Sep 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, at his funeral outside the Immaculate Conception Church in New York, Jul 3, 2019. The New York Times

Before Alvarez’s death, the bill that he had so passionately supported was approved by the committee and sent to the House floor, where it is expected to pass. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said that he would allow a vote on the bill by next month.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, who wore a fire fighter’s jacket Wednesday in support of emergency responders, said that immediately after the funeral she called the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, to urge them to get the bill to McConnell as quickly as possible.

“The least we could do is pass the bill in his honour and in the honour of the many others who have served,” she said in phone interview.

Alvarez’s former fellow officers milled outside the church as the crowd thinned.

“He spoke for those who passed already, those who are sick, those who might get sick,” said Detective Miguel Mendez, who also spent months at the pile. “Lou was our warrior.”

Nearby, a retired officer leaned on a cane, visibly uncomfortable. He spent 81 days at ground zero, and has endured an onslaught of woes since then: nine strokes, and throat and sinus damage.

“I was ready to die,” the retired officer, Thomas Kelly, said. “But then Lou called.”

The two became friends.

“‘Don’t lay in bed,’” Alvarez told him, Kelly recalled.

“ ‘Get up, get out and enjoy the world. You’ve got to go out and live your life. We’ve got to keep fighting for ourselves and for each other.’”

© 2019 New York Times News Service