Aid for Funeral and Home Loss Recovery from house fire

This past Friday, my dad tragically died in a house fire outside Washington DC. The fire started in his basement, where he worked from home. My dad went blind 15 years ago from Glaucoma, so being blind he could not see to escape from the fire. The fire fighters could not get to him in time because of the severe nature of the fire and he horrifically did not make it.

Despite my brother and I having somewhat of a challenging upbringing, my dad had good intentions and loved us very much. My dad was a civil rights activist and lawyer that fought his entire life for people that were discriminated against based on their race, orientation, gender, and disabilities. He argued in the Supreme Court, he was top of his class at Stanford law school, and in his lifetime, won several class action lawsuits against the FBI and CIA. He had an incredible career founded in advocating for underprivileged, underserved, and disadvantaged populations. After my dad went blind, he did not let his disability stop him from advancing his career. He turned his disability into a strength and decided he would use it to become an activist for accessibility rights for the blind. He spoke at the Pentagon frequently regarding disability rights and worked closely with Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind. He is THE reason, the metro system in DC is accessible for the blind—and he worked tirelessly to do so. Just a couple weeks before his passing, he won his last and final class action lawsuit fighting for female FBI agents that were discriminated against based on their gender, during their employment. He won. He won for the people he cared about; and he couldn’t care less about the pride or self benefits in doing so.

He was brilliant, had a complete photographic memory, so much he could read a book and remember the exact page a sentence was on. He was so intelligent that he joked his social skills might have lacked as a result. He was nerdy, awkward, stayed true to himself, kind, humble, gentle, and cared about the things that mattered.

He instilled in us the love of nature, science, and protection of the environment from a young age. After he went blind, he could identify almost any bird based on just listening to their call. The last time I saw him, I asked him for some "life advice". I asked, if you could give me any words of wisdom what would they be. He simple stated, "do what makes you happy". He was so proud of my brother and I that we were doing exactly that. He supported our life decisions to the fullest extent. He was so proud of us, as we were of him. We talked every week and what made him most happy was hearing us speak about our lives.

I will always love you dad. I will always be proud of you.

My dad's partner, Joyce, was not home at the time although very much affected. She was an incredible partner to him that deeply cared for his well being. She is patient, intelligent, and spent every day of the past 7 years by his side. Not only did she lose a partner of 7 years, she lost her home to this fire. This is devastating and tragic on so many levels. My brother, Jed, and I are working together to navigate this traumatic experience. We are experiencing a great burden of financial challenges with funeral costs and navigating the loss of my Dad and his partner's home and next steps. We’ve hesitantly created a Go Fund Me, to provide an outlet for anyone that feels inclined to help in whatever way possible or share to spread the word. We so greatly appreciate everyone’s support thus far.

**anything extra we recieve will be donated to Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind in his honor**

https://davidshafferlaw.com/

(Above is a link to my dads website if you’re interested in knowing a bit more about his work)