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The New York Times has a report on the wake and funeral for Moises Ismael Locón Yac, one of two men killed in the gas explosion at 121 Second Ave. on March 26.
In Queens, where Mr. Locón lived in a rented room decorated with images of his adopted city, the Guatemalan Consulate had arranged a funeral at the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which has connections to Guatemalans in Jamaica, as well as the wake in Brooklyn. It had been up to Mr. Locón’s three brothers and his cousin, far from their family in Guatemala, to take care of everything else.
“He was just working,” Mr. Locón’s cousin, Pablo Yac, 23, said during the wake. “I’m crying for him.”
Mr. Locón’s brother Alfredo, 30, stood off to one side, trying to organize things. He was the oldest, the one who had tried to take care of his brothers in New York. Asked if he knew that people had been donating to a fund for the family, created by a woman in the East Village, Alfredo nodded. “We’re thankful for everything that people have done for us,” he said, his voice breaking.
Hugo Ortega was the only one of Locón's Sushi Park co-workers to attend the wake.
“I’m always going to miss him. I love him. He was my best friend,” he said, distraught. “He was a very good person. Everyone loved him very much.”
Previously on EV Grieve:
Remembering East Village blast victim Nicholas Figueroa