A Brooklyn widow continues to mourn the loss of her husband who was killed in combat in Iraq 17 years ago.  

Mecca Nelson says she remembers meeting her husband Mario Nelson as a teenager in 1999. Mario was born in Haiti and immigrated to the United States when he was five.  

“We were together since teenagers, we were able to build so much together,” said Nelson. “He was an amazing man, his parents raised him to be an amazing husband, an amazing father, an amazing provider.” 

Mario joined the National Guard after he graduated high school, and shortly after chose to enlist in the U.S. Army. Nelson says her late husband was a first responder at the World Trade Center in 2001 during 9/11 before he was deployed to Iraq in 2006.  

Sgt. Mario Nelson was brought to the U.S. after being killed in Iraq in 2006. Mecca Nelson says that she was able to find solitude following her soulmate’s death at the Temple of Restoration Church in Brooklyn.  

The sergeant’s legacy has been remembered throughout the years with community commemorations and even a street renaming.  

Mecca Nelson now works with organizations like Tunnels to Towers and even founded Humble Haitian Warrior, an organization that helps fellow families that have lost loved ones to war.