Support My Brother Brian's Family in Their Time of Need

UPDATE: Sadly Brian passed away before I was able to get to NY to say goodbye. I want to continue to ask for support for Brian’s family as they navigate forward without their husband and father and have a mountain of medical bills and end of life arrangements in front of them.

Brian’s wife Billi Jo share this on Facebook:

Hi Friends, Brian passed away at 7am on 9/4/2024 peacefully in my arms. He was an amazing husband and father. We celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary on 9/7/2024, four days after his ALS diagnosis. You all made Brian so happy helping us out with the huge financial burden placed on us.

I am Brian's brother Mike and his family needs us. I am currently racing back to New York to try and see Brian before he passes. Brian was diagnosed with ALS just a few months ago, and his health has rapidly declined. This past week, he was hospitalized because he was having trouble breathing on his own. Things quickly got dire, and he is currently being cared for by hospice for end-of-life care and doped up on morphine. I'm in shock.

Brian and I, growing up, were like two peas in a pod. We did EVERYTHING together. We always had each other. He protected me in an unfortunate abusive environment. Then our siblings, Chad, Craig, Jesse, and sister Jodie came along. We were so glad to finally have a sister. Brian was smitten with her, as she was with him.

Brian and I drifted apart for a few years after our youngest brother passed away from addiction. Life happens. Over the last year or so, Brian and I reconnected, have been in contact constantly, and got to learn about each other's families. This past July, I got to visit him in person. We laughed a lot, shared stories of growing up, bonded over common trauma, and looked into each other's eyes and shared beautiful moments of love that words cannot describe.

We just started rebuilding our relationship when he told me that he had been diagnosed with ALS. I thought that we had years left. Sadly, we weren't given that luxury.

In high school, we couldn't have been any different. He was the jock, and I was the weird kid-punk rocker with bleach blonde hair. But we respected each other. And even when he wasn't present, he would be protecting me. Kids would try to bully me in high school because I was "different." But even when he wasn't present, his friends would step in and say, "Hey! That's Brian's younger brother. Cut it out!" It shows the kind of character Brian had by the friends he had.

Our biological parents are both still alive. Our mom Joy is going to outlive us all. Brian and I got our wicked sense of humor from her. We also learned resilience from her.

In high school, Brian would save up his allowance or money he made from odd jobs, and on the weekend, he would buy a sheet pizza from Pudgies! That's an upstate NY thing. So it was no surprise to me that Brian went on to work at and own pizza shops. To my surprise, though, this past summer while hanging out, Brian showed me the pizza tattoo he has on his right arm!

After spending time with Brian this past summer, there is no doubt in my mind that his biggest accomplishment, his biggest achievement, the thing that he was most proud of is his family: wife Billi Jo, son Josh, and daughter Barbara. They were his entire world. I want to thank them for loving and taking such good care of my big brother.

We cannot tell the future, but things are looking grim. I'm still holding on to hope that I will get to see him before it's too late.

Brian's family has a mountain of medical bills piling up, and realistically, funeral and memorial costs in the near future.

All funds here will go directly to Brian's wife to ease that financial burden of all this so they can concentrate on healing.

I will update this page with any and all new info.