The Newark Police Department is making sure that a late woman who always admired them will be remembered.

Newark resident Marilyn Rodriguez lost her battle with brain cancer last month. She was 43 years old.

Rodriguez had an affinity for horses and always admired the Newark Police Mounted Units as they rode by her home.

“She would always stand close to the sidewalk hoping that maybe one would come closer by, hoping to touch one. But she never got the opportunity,” says her sister Kenia Guzman.

It was Rodriguez’s dying wish to one day get to meet the horse who rode by her home. But sadly she never had the opportunity.

But the Newark Police Department did not want Rodriguez’s admiration and devotion to the department to be forgotten. The department presented Rodriguez’s family with a plaque featuring a horseshoe from the very horse she longed to meet.

The plaque reads, “Newark Police Mounted United salutes the memory of Marilyn Rodriguez.”

“Commander was actually the horse that would go by Marilyn’s house every day,” says Commanding Lt. Christopher Gialanella. “This was the horse she would look for to wave to and that brought her such joy."

Guzman says that the plaque is a fitting tribute to her sister.

“She’s my hero. She’s a true warrior. Grown men wouldn’t be able to do that,” she says.

The Rodriguez family was also presented with a Newark police patch in her honor.