Help Dion's family honor his memory

Dion DuBose Giacchina, born September 12, 1997, passed away on December 29, 2022, with his mother, Tanya, his stepfather, Langston, and other family members and close friends by his side. Dion grew up a little bit outside of Washington, D.C., in Sterling, Virginia, and lived for the past few years in Charleston, West Virginia.

Dion never met a stranger, and he lent his always-open heart, passion for life, and his shoulder to anyone who needed hope, compassion, or just someone kind to talk to when times were tough. He knew his own struggles with childhood trauma and addiction over many years, but was able to find his own path to recovery over the past several years through community programs, with the help of Chip, his sponsor, his family, and his friends that became a part of his heart in Charleston.

We do recover, and Dion knew and felt the peace that comes from recovery, fought hard to carve his own path for healing, and worked to share his story and his joy in recovery with others so that they might find their own way to hope, or better build their own foundations for their own future — just as Dion had worked so hard to do with the loving support of so many friends and family. Dion was excited to see his family for the holidays, to visit Hawaiʻi again in January, and to continue building his future and pursuing his dreams, and to build closer relationships with his half brothers and sisters.

On Christmas day, though, he lost sight of that hope for a fleeting moment, a moment that has taken him from this earth.

The only salve for the unimaginable pain his family has felt every day since that day is his beautiful smile, iridescent eyes, the countless joyful memories that his gregarious, often goofy nature helped create with his family and friends over so many years, and the force now to bring Dion's light — which remains bright with everyone who has ever felt his love and loved him in return — and to tell his story.

If sharing the path of Dion's incredible, tragically short life can help even one other soul find a stronger footing for the foundations of their own recovery, then his light will live on through them and the recoveries they then help strengthen, too.

Any contribution, of any amount, that you are able to share will go entirely to help Dion's family cover his final arrangements, which are being made with the Adams-Green Funeral Home in Herndon, Virginia. Because of Dion's many family and friends in Virginia, Florida, West Virginia, and even further afar, his family plans to have a celebration of his life that will allow as many of Dion's loved ones to be able to attend as possible. We will share the details of that memorial here, on Dion's Facebook, and at diongiacchina.org once his family are able to finalize those plans, far enough in advance to allow for travel arrangements for those that aren't close to Virginia.

Many of his possessions have already been donated to support the recovery programs in Charleston that Dion came to care so much about. Dion's family will ensure that contributions in excess of those required for his final arrangements will go directly to help support these programs that came to be so close to Dion's heart. His family also hopes to eventually establish a scholarship program in his name to support those pursuing studies in the field of addiction recovery, counseling, and social work.

This may be too hard to read for those that are still struggling to make sense of this, but Dion's family believes knowing the heartbreakingly incredible impact Dion continues to have in this world might also help some heal, and so they wanted to share this poignant but profound part of Dion's story:

Although Dion did not wake up again after he relapsed on Christmas day, his family honored his wishes and allowed the hope that permeated almost every corner of his life to live on, with his heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys saving five other lives since December 29, 2022.

If you were lucky enough to have the chance to love Dion, know his love, experience his goofiness, feel one or many of his gregarious hugs, or be a part of his life and have him be a part of yours in any way, you know that he is still with you, not just in your memories, but in your heart, in your hopes, and in the grace that his family prays you'll be able to find to heal and help share Dion's story so that others can know what an incredible son, friend, cousin, nephew — what an incredible young man we have all been infinitely blessed to know and love.

Love doesn't discriminate

Between the sinners and the saints

It takes and it takes and it takes

And we keep loving anyway

We laugh and we cry and we break

And we make our mistakes

Death doesn't discriminate

Between the sinners and the saints

It takes and it takes and it takes

And we keep living anyway

We rise and we fall and we break

And we make our mistakes

And if there's a reason I'm still alive

When everyone who loves me has died

I'm willing to wait for it

I am the one thing in life I can control

Wait for it, wait for it

I am inimitable

I am an original

Life doesn't discriminate

Between the sinners and the saints

It takes and it takes and it takes

(And we keep living anyway)

We rise (and we fall)

We fall (and we break)

(And we make our mistakes)

And if there's a reason I'm still alive

When so many have died

Then I'm willing to

Wait for it

With the certainty that We Do Recover and that you are the one thing in life you can control, inimitable, an original — just like Dion, with all of the love and strength they can share with you so that you may find healing,

—Dion's family.

(A note from Justen, who is organizing this fundraiser for Dion's family: I came to know Dion over the past several years, and when I learned his family were having to shoulder all of the costs of his final arrangements alone, I asked if it would be alright if I helped them create this fundraiser, which they reluctantly agreed to after I told them how much I know it would mean to Dion's friends and even other family members to be able to contribute and help in at least some small way, if they were able to do so. If there's anything anyone would like for me to include here, or if I made any mistakes in any of the details, please feel free to reach out to me and I'll take care of fixing whatever it might be right away.)