Remembering Douglas Tornese

Jenna Tornese is organizing this fundraiser.

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On December 19, 2017 my father and I were headed to the Arizona Coyotes vs. Florida Panthers hockey game. We were heading on the 202W HOV lane getting onto the I10W when we came to a complete stop in traffic. Within minutes of being stopped in traffic my father and I, in our car, got rear ended by a white pickup truck. It felt as though this white pick up truck hit us in traffic going full speed. Our car hit the car in traffic in front of us causing a multi vehicle accident. At this point, our car was smashed completely in half. I looked next to me and saw my father was non responsive. I saw what would be a child’s worst nightmare…I tried to do CPR, nothing worked. I was okay. I used my phone to call 911 and they got there quickly. We got taken to the hospital where trauma tried everything to save him. On December 19, my father, Douglas Albert Tornese, died of blunt force head trauma in Maricopa Integrated Health System.

I am asking for help. My father was retired and was living an amazing life on his retirement money (his pension). My parents are divorced so once he passed the money situation became very difficult. Most of my father’s money is either tied up in retirement accounts (401K, IRA, etc.) and cannot be withdrawn by me (the beneficiary) without being heavily taxed. My college account only has enough money to get me through college, which my father would want me to do. His social security and pension incomes are untouchable until a lot of paperwork goes through and when they can be touched, my mother and I need to use them to pay bills as we are only getting a percentage of what he was getting. He did not have life insurance. He did not have a will. We are working on selling his property but we are not sure when it will be able to sell as the property does not allow mortgages to be taken out. We are running out of funds to help us pay for the expenses for services such as cremation, memorial services, his plot at George Washington Memorial Park in New Jersey, traveling expenses for my me to fly to New Jersey to handle all of this, legal services, etc.

We are asking for friends, family, acquaintances, anybody to help us be able to respect and memorialize my father in the best way possible. We will be extremely grateful and thankful for any and all help.

I apologize if this sounds a bit unprofessional or is not written correctly. Right now, I still am trying to wrap my head around the situation and it feels awful that funds are getting in the way of us trying to memorialize and pay respect to my father, an amazing and loving human, my best friend, a smart business man, a caring family man, and a truly wonderful person.

I thank you all so much for everyone’s love and support.

Love,
Jenna Tornese
(Daughter of Douglas)