Funeral for Neil Robert Schaffer
Donation protected
Will you help this man?
His name is Neil Schaffer.
He has lived on Skid Row in Los Angeles for more than 20 years.
He’s a good man, with a good heart.
He’s a survivor.
Now he’s living with stomach cancer that has spread to his lungs and his lymph glands. It’s too late for treatment – his doctors give him a few months to live. He recently left California Hospital in downtown Los Angeles and is receiving hospice care in his small, one-room apartment from Los Angeles Hospice.
He has no family. And no financial assets.
I want to raise $1500 to cover his final expenses and pay his meager funeral costs.
Here’s why I think Neil deserves your help:
Seventeen years ago, I was 20years old, homeless and desperate. I met Neil on the streets of Los Angeles. He opened his heart to me and let me stay at his place. He put a roof over my head, and shared his food with me. He asked nothing in return. Thanks to Neil, I was safe from the elements and from the dangers of the streets of Skid Row.
Everything he did, he did out of the goodness of his heart. I'm forever grateful to him, I have been able to do and accomplish things I never thought I could. Because he belives in me..
Over time, Neil became a friend. Then he became like family. Over the years, as a foster kid, I came to look at him as the Dad I never had.
Seventeen years later, Neil is fighting a losing battle with cancer. I want to give back to him by inviting friends who know Neil – as well as people who have never met him, but who are touched by his story – to give him a sense of peace in his final days by contributing to his final expenses and the cost of his funeral services.
Will you make a gift to Neil of $10, $25 or $50? Perhaps you can do more. Every penny donated will be used 100% to cover Neil’s final expenses, and will help ease his concerns during this time.
One final thought:
Years ago, long before technology, the bells of the village churches would ring when someone died, alerting villagers to ask each other who had passed. But writer John Donne believed that we are all part of one human family, and that when one person dies, a part of us is lost, too.
He wrote:
“No person is an island, entire of itself. Every person’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, ask not for whom the bell tolls:
It tolls for thee.”
Whether you know Neil Schaffer, or not, he’s a valuable part of our extended human family, and each of us has this opportunity to surround him with love... to put his heart and mind at peace... and to make his final days ones filled with dignity and respect.
Will you make a donation to Neil Schaffer this week?
Eriq Moreno
P.S. Any gift you can make will move us closer to our goal. No gift is too small - even $1 will help.
His name is Neil Schaffer.
He has lived on Skid Row in Los Angeles for more than 20 years.
He’s a good man, with a good heart.
He’s a survivor.
Now he’s living with stomach cancer that has spread to his lungs and his lymph glands. It’s too late for treatment – his doctors give him a few months to live. He recently left California Hospital in downtown Los Angeles and is receiving hospice care in his small, one-room apartment from Los Angeles Hospice.
He has no family. And no financial assets.
I want to raise $1500 to cover his final expenses and pay his meager funeral costs.
Here’s why I think Neil deserves your help:
Seventeen years ago, I was 20years old, homeless and desperate. I met Neil on the streets of Los Angeles. He opened his heart to me and let me stay at his place. He put a roof over my head, and shared his food with me. He asked nothing in return. Thanks to Neil, I was safe from the elements and from the dangers of the streets of Skid Row.
Everything he did, he did out of the goodness of his heart. I'm forever grateful to him, I have been able to do and accomplish things I never thought I could. Because he belives in me..
Over time, Neil became a friend. Then he became like family. Over the years, as a foster kid, I came to look at him as the Dad I never had.
Seventeen years later, Neil is fighting a losing battle with cancer. I want to give back to him by inviting friends who know Neil – as well as people who have never met him, but who are touched by his story – to give him a sense of peace in his final days by contributing to his final expenses and the cost of his funeral services.
Will you make a gift to Neil of $10, $25 or $50? Perhaps you can do more. Every penny donated will be used 100% to cover Neil’s final expenses, and will help ease his concerns during this time.
One final thought:
Years ago, long before technology, the bells of the village churches would ring when someone died, alerting villagers to ask each other who had passed. But writer John Donne believed that we are all part of one human family, and that when one person dies, a part of us is lost, too.
He wrote:
“No person is an island, entire of itself. Every person’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, ask not for whom the bell tolls:
It tolls for thee.”
Whether you know Neil Schaffer, or not, he’s a valuable part of our extended human family, and each of us has this opportunity to surround him with love... to put his heart and mind at peace... and to make his final days ones filled with dignity and respect.
Will you make a donation to Neil Schaffer this week?
Eriq Moreno
P.S. Any gift you can make will move us closer to our goal. No gift is too small - even $1 will help.
Organizer
Eriq Moreno
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
