D’Angelo Martez Joyce Funeral and Burial Fund

Funeral Location: 3451 14th St, NW WASHINGTON, DC 20010

Echelon at Bacon Funeral Home

Funeral Date: Monday 11, 2024

Wake Time: 10 am

Funeral Time: 11 am

♥PLEASE SHARE THIS SO IT CAN REACH MY BROTHER’S CONTACTS THAT I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO♥

Hello everyone, I am Jackie Smalls, D’Angelo Joyce’s sister. I regret to inform everyone that my brother took his life February 7, 2024. It has taken me some time to make this for a few different reasons.

1. I believed once I searched his home I would find something that showed he had life insurance. Which I did not find.

2. I believed that because he was previously in the Air Force, Veteran Affairs could be able to help financially fully or partially. Yet because I do not have a DD214 form I can not receive any funds or burial assistance from them.

3. This is just hard to explain to people that I do and do not know that I need help. In life, sometimes you have to get out of your own way and let those that love you and care help.

So that’s why I’m here asking for help. I know everyone may not be able to help monetarily and that is okay because outside of paying for the funeral and burial services my mother Brigette, his son Levi and I still need help in other areas.

My mother is grieving terribly because this is not her first son she has lost. My oldest brother Ronald Haynes was killed in 1999 due to gun violence. My mother has never learned how to healthily grieve my oldest brother. To her time is irrelevant and it was as if it happened yesterday. She can’t look at grave yards, she can’t say words like death, cemetery, casket…etc and she doesn’t even say my oldest brother’s name very much even though she still grieves him so heavily. Not to mention she is currently without a job and battling other hardships. I really need for anyone with any type of grief and job (remote admin) resources to PLEASE send them my way.

My nephew Levi is an amazingly smart little 8 year old. He does great in school and his mom tries to keep him in so many activities like swimming, going to plays and after school programs like Step Up. I want to keep him as this bright intelligent boy that even turns into intelligent young man. In doing so I already found him a Super Mario chess set that I plan on teaching him how to play (I will need to learn as well lol but hopefully we can learn together). Im happy that I found that particular set because that’s how me and my brother used to bond when we were little, by playing video games and Super Mario was one of the games I liked a lot and my brother taught me the best. When I would come around and hang out with my brother and my nephew we would spend time playing with the Nintendo Switch, playing different Mario games together. I noticed the same way my brother taught me to be the best was the same way he taught my nephew. That’s now why Mario is one of my nephew’s favorite characters and videos games. Not to mention the little guy is pretty good too (I won’t say how many times he has beat me lol). With the money I receive I want to be able to also start a trust fund for Levi. I want him to get older and not have any student loan debt or even have to financially worry about what school can he afford to go to. I assume he will be very smart and have plenty of scholarships but even if not I would love to be able to take that weight off his shoulders when that day comes. One thing I know for sure is my brother appreciated learning new things and getting an education. My brother went to military school, joined the Air Force, went to preaching school, became a minister, went to school for IT, has his bachelor’s and master’s degree and EVEN as of late was studying to become a lawyer. So any funds not used towards my brother’s funeral will be put towards starting my nephew’s trust fund.

For myself my mental is out of wack. I’m trying my best to be at peace with what my brother has done. The reason why is because he recently lost his dad Harold Joyce (this past October) to dementia and being the care taker for someone who has raised you majority of your life is hard. I too lost my dad Theodore Smalls when I was just a teenager. When I lost my dad I wanted to take my life into my own hands just like my brother did his. Basically what I’m trying to say is I get and understand why my brother did what he did . Right now I’m fighting a very deep and dark depression and this is not something that I want to push me over the edge. I need encouragement, love, therapy and any resources to get me out of this dark space.

Last but not least my Family and I need prays. Everyone who can or cannot help please just say a pray for us and even my brother’s friends and loved ones too. The other hard part about this gofundme is my brother deactivated his Facebook. There are so many people I haven’t informed of his passing. I would truly like to say sorry from the bottom of my heart if this gofundme reaches you and this is the way you find out about my brother’s passing. I am open to speaking to anyone who knows my brother and is able and willing to attend his services. With this being my first time ever planning a funeral by myself (I appreciate the family and small amount of friends of mine that I had the courage to tell, that have been supporting me through this) I did let this process go on a lot longer than what maybe considered a “normal” timeframe. With that being said the date is softly set for Friday March 8, 2024. I’m using the term “softly set” because I’m still struggling trying to financially finalize things.

If you made it this far I want to say thank you for reading, thank you for caring and please if nothing else thank you for sharing. I truly pray that this reaches the people that my brother knows, that I have no contact information for.