Help Jeramie Passage’s family

Dear Friends and Community,

I am reaching out to ask for your support during this incredibly difficult time. My dear friends, Kristina Perkin, her partner Corey Coombs and their family recently lost their beloved son, Jeramie Passage, 25 years old, due to asthma complications. This tragedy has left them heartbroken and facing unexpected funeral expenses, while they were already managing the extra costs of raising a child with disabilities.

Jeramie was a talented artist, a hard worker, and an avid hockey player. Leadership came naturally to him and he volunteered as a junior hockey coach and referee. He was the oldest of many cousins, whom he loved and cared for deeply. The loss of his infectious smile and irrepressible sense of humor will forever leave a hole in the hearts of his family.

Please help with this GoFundMe appeal. Any contribution, no matter how small, will mean the world to Kristina’s family and will help honor Jeramie’s memory.

Donations received will go directly to Kristina and Corey to cover funeral expenses, medical expenses, and help get them through the next month. Any money received beyond what’s needed will be donated to the Asthma Society of Canada.

If you don’t know this beautiful family, let me tell you why they are so important to me.

I’ll start at the beginning. It was 2021 and I was going through the most painful and difficult time of my life, and every day was a struggle to keep going.

College classes had returned in person after Covid shutdowns. An instructor was glowing about some girl named “Kristina” and how amazing and creative her group project from the previous semester was, and how she set a new standard for projects.

I was already impressed before I met her.

And this was without knowing that Kristina was attending college while working, and caring for her four kids, driving a 45 min commute each way to school. Persevering in her studies, despite struggling with short-term memory loss from a traumatic brain injury that happened during a car crash that killed her fiance.

It floored me when Kristina said that was her second fiance to die in a car accident. Three kids, two late fiances, 2 car crashes, one of which landed her in a coma for weeks while she was pregnant with her 3rd child and left her with permanent injuries. All before she turned 25.

She never gives up. Not the two times she lost her children’s fathers. Not when she struggled through recovery from her injuries. Not when her youngest child was diagnosed with developmental disabilities. And definitely not before graduating from college with a double major in supply chain and accounting.

Kristina is someone I aspire to be like. She’s my inspiration to keep going on the days when everything seems impossible.

Kristina keeps living life to its fullest. She found love again with her partner Corey when Jeramie was 10 years old. Corey is the calm to Kristina’s energy, his quiet steadiness bringing stability to the family. Wonderful and loving to both his birth and stepkids, he has been their dad and best friend for over 14 years.

Family and community are Kristina’s and Corey’s highest priorities.

I tease Kristina about the 200,000km on her vehicle that came from driving her kids and tell her she could have used that money to pay down her mortgage.

She tells me her kids are more important than whether she has money in her bank account.

I think she wins that one.

So when Kristina called me at 5:31am on a Friday, I knew before I answered it was bad.

It wasn’t just bad, it was the worst news possible.

Kristina was sobbing, she told me her son Jeramie was gone. The doctors had spent an hour and a half trying to revive him. I couldn’t help but cry with her, knowing nothing in that moment could take her pain away.

Jeramie was the kid who made Kristina a mom, her first, her oldest, a kid she loved and worried over and sacrificed for. Kristina would talk about Jeramie all the time. His struggles were her struggles. When he was happy, she was happy, and when he was in pain Kristina was in agony.

He was a hardworking young man, taking pride in his work in construction. Young and full of life, he had a carefree, loving nature, always kind and playful with his younger cousins. His smile could light up a room and he had the gift of making people smile and laugh.

Jeramie had a kind and selfless heart. He was the type of person who volunteered before he was asked. Who would give you the shirt off his back in a snowstorm without complaining. He would give everything and ask for nothing in return, just like his mom.

His death from asthma at only 25 years old has left a hole in the family that can never be filled. Their family gatherings are now empty of the laughter and love he shared. The younger cousins who adored him will never again hear his voice or play with him.

As a mom, my worst fear has always been, what if something happened to my kid? How would I get through it? Would anyone help?

Kristina, Corey, and their family face an unimaginable struggle. I want to help them. I want their lives to have a little more love and light; and to be a little less unfair.

Let’s let Kristina, Corey, and her family know they’re cared about, that we as their friends and community are behind them, just as they always have been there to support their family, friends, and community.

If we can cover the funeral costs for Jeramie, Kristina’s family won’t need to take on more debt. If we can raise even more, Kristina and Corey can take time off to grieve and heal together with their 3 living children.

The goal of $15,000 will cover several expenses. Not only for the funeral services to honour Jeramie, but really help with living expenses for the next month while Kristina and Corey take time to grieve and settle Jeramie’s affairs. We expect the funeral and related costs to be around $10,000, with another $5,000 for living expenses so the family can take time off. Donations received will go directly to Kristina and Corey, with any money beyond what’s needed donated to the Asthma Society of Canada.

Please share this campaign and help us reach as many people as possible. Thank you so much for your generosity and support.