Street renamed for fallen FDNY firefighter from Westbury

The Town of Hempstead remembered Daniel Monahan, who died of at 57 of 9/11-related leukemia, with street sign that bears his name.

News 12 Staff

Jul 10, 2022, 2:57 AM

Updated 900 days ago

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A tribute to a fallen FDNY firefighter from Long Island was unveiled in Westbury Saturday.
The Town of Hempstead remembered Daniel Monahan, who died of at 57 of 9/11-related leukemia, with street sign that bears his name.
Monahan grew up in Westbury and lived on Lydia Lane before he died in 2014.
"It just kind of grabbed me a little bit, you know?" said his wife, Geri Monahan, the first time she saw her husband's name on the street sign.
Earlier in the day, the Town of Hempstead dedicated Lydia Lane, the street where the couple lived on, to the late firefighter.
On September 11, the retired FDNY firefighter ran to ground zero to help in the recovery and was there for weeks.
Monahan's daughter, Meaghan Gray, and her husband asked the town to dedicate the street in his name.
Gray said her father wouldn't have liked all of the attention, but that the day of the dedication to him would have been a good day.
"You get like, 'oh, that's really there.' It's [a] bitter-sweet feeling, of course, I would rather him be here than anything else... It's really nice," Gray said.
Geri Monahan said before her husband died, he was worried that maybe he might be forgotten over time. But now she says thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people, will see his name as they stop at the quiet intersection.
"Maybe they don't know exactly who it was but they're seeing his name, so he never has to be worried about being forgotten," she said.
Geri Monahan said she thinks about her husband every day, but admitted that with the sign up, she'll think about him every time she turns the corner on to their street.