Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Along the Grand Central Parkway, in the South Parking Lot of the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Park, lies a new mural tribute to COVID-19 victims and their heroic health care workers.
Cuban American artist, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, cleared four Home Depot’s of the paint he used to create the 20,000 square foot asphalt art in five days.
The eyes of the portrait are based upon one of the first doctors who died from COVID-19. Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo, a Dominican pediatrician from Washington Heights, was 70 years old and ready to retire when he joined the frontlines in the battle against the coronavirus outbreak.
"He was closer and closer to retiring, and instead of bowing out and taking the easy road, he said, 'No, no, I'm going in,'" Rodriguez-Gerada said. "He wanted to be there for his patients and he lost his life to it. I mean, basically that makes him a hero."
Along the Grand Central Parkway, in the South Parking Lot of the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Park, lies a new mural tribute to COVID-19 victims and their heroic health care workers.
Cuban American artist, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, cleared four Home Depot’s of the paint he used to create the 20,000 square foot asphalt art in five days.
The eyes of the portrait are based upon one of the first doctors who died from COVID-19. Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo, a Dominican pediatrician from Washington Heights, was 70 years old and ready to retire when he joined the frontlines in the battle against the coronavirus outbreak.
"He was closer and closer to retiring, and instead of bowing out and taking the easy road, he said, 'No, no, I'm going in,'" Rodriguez-Gerada said. "He wanted to be there for his patients and he lost his life to it. I mean, basically that makes him a hero."
