On this Memorial Day weekend, we are remembering a fallen hero from Queens who was killed in Afghanistan just a few months after his 21st birthday. His mother, sat with our Ruschell Boone to share what it was to lose her only child.

The tears no longer flow when she talks about her son, Army Specialist Roberto Hernandez.

Eight years after his death, Paulina Campbell-Richards says she has dealt with the trauma of losing her only child and she is at peace. His death has been harder on the rest of the family.

"I dealt with it and I gave it to the Lord," Campbell-Richards said. "My family have not done what I've done so they hold on and when things come around, this time of the year comes around, they are very hurt." 

Hernandez was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. His Military Police unit was ambushed.

"He was the gunner on top and as the vehicle came over the IED it just blew it apart," his mother said. "He was thrown from the vehicle and they were attacked while they were down.

Hernandez was 21. He died just days before he was supposed to return home. Looking at his pictures Campbell-Richards wonders what his life would have been like today had he survived.

"All he needed was another day or two to be out of there," she said.

Hernandez was born into an immigrant family from Panama and was the eighth to serve in the U.S. military. His mother broke ranks and joined the Air Force instead of the army. She says serving his country was in Hernandez's blood. Since his death, she has spoken out against the war, President Obama's failure to end it and on this Memorial Day weekend, she wants President Trump to acknowledge the sacrifices immigrant families like hers have made.

He passed doing something he loved doing.

Over the last 9 years, she has used his death as motivation to get a bachelor's and now a master's degree in marriage and family therapy. She wants to help other military families dealing with trauma.

"Because of my experience, I feel like I can speak clearly to their needs and understanding of what they are going through," Campbell-Richards said.

For her it is also a way to give back in honor of her son's memory.