Uptown Couple Who Died Days Apart Honored In Coronavirus Memorial

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A longtime Washington Heights couple who died just days apart from the coronavirus are among the New Yorkers whose stories are told in an online memorialabout the pandemic.

Pedro Muniz died at his retirement home in Louisiana on April 8. His wife, Carmen Nereida Muniz, who went by Nereida, died just four days later, their granddaughter told THE CITY.

“Probably, we think, to join him,” her granddaughter, Amanda Calderon, said.

The two first met at a party in Washington Heights one week after Pedro had moved there from Puerto Rico in 1952. Nereida had moved to the neighborhood, also from Puerto Rico, just three years earlier, according to the memorial.

Pedro, who started as a busboy, worked his way up to managing the restaurant at what is nw Hotel Pennsylvania across from Madison Square Garden and later bought a diner. Nereida worked as a seamstress, then a homemaker raising her and Pedro's three daughters, and later as a bank teller. She began to develop Alzheimer's in 2007.

The longtime New York City couple are among the more than 1,000 New Yorkers who lost their lives during the pandemic whose stories are told on THE CITY's memorial. The memorial aims to eventually remember and honor all 22,384 confirmed and probable coronavirus deaths in New York City.

"This is a space to remember and honor every person who died — who they were and what they meant to this city," the memorial reads. "We have a long way to go to remember everyone."

Those who have lost someone to the coronavirus are asked to submit their names to the memorial.

The memorial is a project by THE CITY, Columbia Journalism School’s Stabile Center, Columbia Journalism Investigations and The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York .

If you’ve lost someone due to the coronavirus and would like them memorialized, reach out to THE CITY by calling (646) 494-1095, texting “remember” to 73224 or emailing memorial@thecity.nyc. The full memorial and an online way to submit stories can be found here.