An angel ornament on the Christmas tree in Maritza Ramos' home bears a photo of her late husband. It's one of many ways she and her two sons honor and remember Rafael Ramos, after the NYPD officer's vicious murder.

"The holidays are very hard for us as a family,” she says. “Just because time passes doesn't mean the pain goes away."

Rafael Ramos was killed just five days before Christmas in 2014. He and his partner Weinjin Liu were sitting in their patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn when they were killed assassination-style by a gunman with a grudge against cops. Maritza Ramos says she was waiting for him to come home to go Christmas shopping, but got a knock on her door instead with news he was gone.

"It doesn't make sense because two people that never did anything to anyone lost their life for no reason," she says.

Joe Biden, who was vice president at the time, attended Ramos' funeral, where the police commissioner announced the two slain officers were being posthumously promoted to detective.

"When an assassin’s bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the entire nation," Biden said.

On the first anniversary of the murders, Maritza Ramos created a foundation in her husband's name, not just to honor his legacy, but to improve police-community relations. Each September, the foundation gives out backpacks to students at a grade school two blocks from the murder scene. And every December, it provides toys to school children. At each event, the items are distributed by uniformed officers with the goal of forging a positive relationship with the community they serve.

"[We] hang out with them. Maybe have a conversation or two. And just see them for the humans that they are rather than the uniform," said Jose Falero, the vice president of the Detective Rafael Ramos Foundation.

"For me, it's so important for the community to see that there are good police officers. There's people that are there because they want to do good for the community," Maritza Ramos says.

The Ramos Foundation holds fundraisers featuring performances by the NYPD's jazz and salsa bands. One is scheduled for this Friday night.

Maritza Ramos says they serve as distractions to help her get through the holidays while raising money so the Rafael Ramos Foundation can continue its important work, now five years after his death. For information, go to www.detectiverafaelramos.org.