Emily Toro is a regular volunteer at Fort Hamilton, helping families with a loved one who is serving, or is about to serve, overseas.

The Bronx woman knows what they are going through; her son, Isaac Cortes, shipped off to Iraq in 2007.

But he did not come home.

"It was horrible. I just wanted to die. I didn't want to leave my house," Toro said. "I stood home waiting for phone calls that I knew weren't going to come."

Cortes had been in Iraq about two months, deployed south of Baghdad, when his convoy was sent to investigate a plume of smoke.

It was a trap: The Humvee he was driving detonated a hidden explosive device. The bomb killed Cortes and his gunner.

"First reaction: I hung up the phone. It's all I did. I hung up the phone and I just started to scream," she said.

After months of mourning her son, a father who also lost his son in combat reached out to Toro.

"This Gold Star dad, Mo Fletcher, he says, 'Emily, you have what it takes, I think you're ready to go out there and, you know, stop mourning Isaac and do for others," she said.

Toro began volunteering as a way to help keep Isaac's memory alive, assisting The United War Veterans Council, Hope For The Warriors, and other organizations.

She focuses on supporting military families, including those who have lost a son or daughter.

"I do this because I — my son paid the ultimate sacrifice. I paid the ultimate sacrifice. Knowing Isaac, he would tell me, 'Mom, go on.' So where he left off the torch, I picked up," Toro said.

She says that by volunteering, she feels her son is still at her side.

"A day does not go by that I don't think about Isaac. In my moment, in my quiet time, yeah, I cry about him," she said. "But then I look at his pictures, I look at the stuff I've done for him, the things I've accomplished in his name, and that's what keeps me going."

In the Bronx, Unionport Road and the post office in Parkchester, have been co-named in his honor.

"Memorial Day was beaches and barbecues for me. It wasn't until I lost Isaac that I knew the true meaning of what Memorial Day was," Toro said. "He knew what he was doing, and he knew that he was going to pay with his life, and he was willing to do that."