Support Brian's Final Farewell

Hey everyone.

On May 7th, a few days before Mother’s Day, my brother Brian passed away unexpectedly at the age of 54 at home. Brian had a long battle with his health and chronic and painful medical conditions that caused him to become disabled at the age of 39 (now 15 years ago), and unable to work anymore.

Due to his health issues and numerous surgeries, Brian needed assistance for everyday things that most people don’t, which my mother and I helped with. That is until my mother had a massive stroke 3 years ago leaving her unable to speak clearly and wheelchair-bound. Her stroke has caused her to need 24-hour care at home and made her unable to care for herself.

For the last 3-years, I’ve been fully responsible for my mom financially, physically medically, and emotionally while trying to do the same for my brother, Brian. It’s been a lot to juggle as just one person and both their caregivers (#Ineedavacation but beaches on Youtube and a heat lamp will have to do for now). Due to Brian’s health conditions, he was unable to get affordable life insurance - no one should have to choose between eating each month or paying for life insurance.

So now, since Brian has passed away I’m left with paying the entire funeral expense alone and planning the funeral in addition to caring for my mom and having to clear out his possessions from his apartment by myself. The funeral homes are astronomical in Long Island, charging between $6,000 and $10,000.

My mom deserves to have a proper service for her son, especially for Mother’s Day (and the fact she’s lost her two sisters, our dog and cat, and now my brother all within the last year) and Brian deserves a proper send-off surrounded by his family and friends and stories of love and laughter.

And I definitely can’t do it by myself - I’m only human and life has been lifing pretty damn hard these last few years. Instead of flowers or cards, if you can donate anything it would be greatly appreciated, and if you can’t, if you can share this campaign it would be greatly appreciated.

Due to the date of Brian’s passing, we have a short time frame for funeral services with an open casket (before the body does its thing) as seeing my brother again will help bring a bit of closure to my mom. I’m hoping to raise funds as quickly as possible to arrange the services for the coming week. A breakdown of cost is below:

2-hour open casket visitation, followed by a private cremation includes:

$2500 - 2-hour open casket visitation utilizing staff services and supervision of the facility

$600 - Local transportation from the place of death to the funeral facility

$1600 - Embalming for open casket visitation including dressing, casketing, and cosmetology

$400 - Basic Transportation to the Crematory (No family attending)

$821 - Standard Crematory Fee + extra cost for plus size people

$75 - Securing and Filing of the Death Certificate and other authorizations

Additional charges such as prayer cards, video and photo tributes, food, an urn, reception space, and other expenses will be covered by me.