Honoring Dwayne Graham: Support for Jess

Dwayne and Jess are one of the kindest, most generous couples you could ever meet and they are loved by so many families that have been lucky enough to get to know them. Dwayne and Jess have been together for fifteen years and were best friends, lovers, advocates for each other and they were inseparable. As a meat Salesman, Dwayne always had delicious food in his company van. When they found out their neighbour (Single Mom of two kids) was having to go to the food bank, they supplied meat (out of pocket) to help out the family. Recently, when they saw a Kijiji add for a nearby Calgary resident who had been a victim of a home invasion and had all their food stolen, Jess and Dwayne replied to the add and donated food to the family to help them get by until their next payday.

These are the kind of people Jess & Dwayne are. They give so much and never ask for anything in return.

On September 13th, 2024, Dwayne had a sudden and massive heart attack while at home with Jess. Even though his heart stopped twice before getting admitted to the ICU, he was brought back to life on two occasions with the use of a defibrillator. He was a fighter. With a poor prognosis for survival beyond the next 24 hours, Jess held onto hope and Dwayne battled hard, but had a lot of damage to his heart that the doctors were unable to repair. At 8:45am on September 17th, Dwayne left this world with loved ones by his side and went to a place where we know he will quickly earn his wings and be an angel to all those who need him.

Dwayne leaves behind many friends and family members who loved him dearly. But the person who needs help from all of us now is his partner, Jess. Jess is an epileptic who has suffered from seizures for most of her life and they have been getting progressively worse this year. She relied heavily on the income Dwayne brought in from his sales job to pay for life’s essentials (Food, Rent, Utilities Transportation, etc.).

Jess runs a small house cleaning business to earn extra money, but due to her medical condition, she was dependent on the transportation that Dwayne provided. For the foreseeable future, she will have no income at all. Jess is a resilient and strong human being, but the road ahead will be filled with a lot of struggles. Emotionally, physically and financially. Luckily, she has many devoted friends and family to help provide emotional support and assist as best we can to manage her epilepsy, which will be a test considering her seizures are often triggered by stress.

The purpose of this GoFundMe campaign to get Jess the help she needs with the financial struggle she will endure and to ensure she does not have to worry about the stress of keeping a roof over her head, food on the table and epilepsy medicine in the cupboard. The monetary target of this campaign is based on what we think she will need over the next 12 months to stay afloat, while she makes the effort to move on with her life and gets a plan in place for the long term.

We will always remember Dwayne for his unwavering kindness and generosity. Now, it's our chance to show Jess the same love and support.

Every donation, share, and prayer counts. Let's come together to support Jess in her time of need.

We will all miss our friend Dwayne and as the children of his friends who loved him dearly called him, “Uncle Dwayne”. RIP