New York and Long Island will lose a strong advocate with the retirement of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy next year.

After a gunman took her husband from her and injured her son, she turned her personal tragedy into a courageous mission to make America a safer place. She advocated in Congress for children’s health insurance, special education and better gun background checks and took time to join me in an effort to educate others on childhood obesity.

I wish her all the best, pray for her good health, and thank her deeply for more than two decades of dedicated service to Long Island, to New York state and to our country.