LI Family's 'Honor Walk' With Teen Who Died After Crash: Video

SHOREHAM, NY — One year after the death of 18-year-old Melissa Marchese, her family shared the video of her "honor walk" — the final steps they took with her down a long hospital hallway before saying goodbye at the operating room where her organs were donated, saving five lives.

Grief blanketed Long Island last year as word spread that Marchese, a star athlete at Shoreham-Wading River High School, died after a crash in June 2019. Marchese, of Shoreham, was a senior.

"We never posted this video," Marchese's father, Charles, wrote on Facebook last week. "It is Melissa’s 'honor walk.' She managed to survive for five days after her accident so that she could donate organs to five different people, extending each of their lives."

His daughter was hospitalized at Stony Brook University Hospital after the crash, which happened on Route 25A near Miller Avenue and the Shoreham Plaza shopping center. Marchese and two other teens had been on their way to Shoreham-Wading River High school for a ceremony honoring seniors when their car was struck by another driver.

Her father said during an honor walk, "Every available employee at Stony Brook lines the halls to honor the donor."

Tears streamed down the faces of those lining the hallway in the video; a photo of Melissa, as well as a signed softball and stuffed animals, were tucked in around her. At the end of the walk, she was wheeled into the operating room.

"This was the last time we ever saw our daughter," her father said. "She is and will always be our hero."

Melissa was lauded for her academic and athletic achievements. In March 2019, the Shoreham-Wading River High School winter varsity sports teams were feted at a Board of Education meeting, with Marchese honored as an all-league member of the girls basketball scholar-athlete team. She was also recognized as a New York State Scholar Athlete on the all-division girls softball team.

Before her death, she had recently committed to play softball at the University of Hartford.

Friends turned to social media to express their pain and sorrow at her loss. "I have been sitting here for hours trying to think of the right words but there are no words that I can say to make any of this better," one wrote.

"May Melissa rest peacefully in God's hands," another said.

Her family and friends have continued to honor Melissa's life. Recently, her friends put dedication plates on her Girl Scout Gold Project and a yellow rose on home plate at the high school in her memory.

Over the past year, she was honored at her high school, the college she would have attended, in the community — and by the New York Mets, who wore bracelets in August remembering Melissa and her life-saving spirit.

The yellow bracelets had her name on them and blue bracelets were from "LiveOnNY," an organ donor organization.

Melissa, a registered organ donor, gave the gift of life to five people, as well as renewed "quality of life to many others through organ and tissue donation," a Facebook post said. "She became a hero."