Help Tommy Le with his Medical Bills

Hello,

On October 2, 2022 in Tustin, CA, a drunk driver who was driving the wrong way in a single lane carpool flyover directly hit my vehicle head on. The accident took the life of my girlfriend, Reinne Lim (22), and left me in critical condition for the next two weeks.

My name is Tommy Le (22), and I am seeking help in raising funds to help pay off my medical bills from this tragic accident.

Medical bills have begun to take a hold of my life. I underwent a few surgeries, 1 for my femur which I fractured in 3 different places, and 2 for my abdomen / intestines, on top of several other injuries while simultaneously dealing with the loss of Reinne. I was in the ICU for about 8 days, 3 of which I was in a medically induced coma, unable to move. For the last three months, I have fought hard to get my life back, dealing with pain every day and am still processing this loss and how it has affected my life. This loss will never be explainable but I only hope to get justice for Reinne, her family, and my life.

Prior to the accident, I was working as a freelance photographer and barista, but I haven’t been able to work due to my injuries and doctor’s orders. I was told that going back to work in my current state would only stunt my recovery, and that I would be considered a liability.

https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2022-10-05/man-charged-with-dui-in-fatal-wrong-way-crash-on-5-freeway-sunday

https://newsantaana.com/man-charged-with-manslaughter-and-dui-after-fatal-wrong-way-collision-on-the-5-freeway-in-tustin/

I was hesitant to start a GoFundMe immediately after the accident. I wanted to give our families time to grieve such a traumatizing loss, and I also wanted to wait until we received the medical bills from the hospital. I only hope that those that read this can sympathize with our story.

I am specifically asking for this amount to aid me with medical bills, court and lawyer fees. With my current medical bills, I have received close to $100,000 in counting, not including the loss of income from not being able to work.

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me through this tough time. To those that donate, God Bless you and please keep Reinne in your prayers.

Please take a minute to take in the media I left below. For those that read and view it, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Reinne lived such an amazing life. A young, bright, and spirited young girl who impacted so many lives and was tragically taken away from us. Below you will see my eulogy, a piece that speaks volumes about the loss I faced. You will also see a few pictures as well as a video I made celebrating her life.

Eulogy:

I know nothing has made sense leading up to this point. The sudden stillness and silence I’ve felt in the last few weeks have left me speechless but here I am, attempting something I never thought I would be doing at this point in my life. Recently, everyone has apologized on my behalf for my loss yet I haven’t known how to properly respond to that statement without questioning its validity.

We all lost her. As unreal as it feels, everyone in this room sits in that same silence and stillness that has engulfed my heart. I recently read somewhere that grief is simply unexpressed love. Grief isn’t supposed to be something we actively try to avoid or try to overcome, but something I ask each individual in this room to do is embrace it alongside me. If this statement about grief proves as true as it reads then we should all hope to feel some degree of grief for the loss of someone as special as her.

You know, when I first woke up in the hospital six days later, not realizing the extent of my injuries, that grief swelled over me and I froze to maintain my composure. Everyone told me to focus on my physical health, that I had sustained so much damage but I couldn’t depart from the damage that my heart was dealing with. I wanted to say I was sorry hundreds of times because as beautiful yet terrible and dark as it sounds, I battled with the thought of wishing it was me and not her. I didn’t know what to say to your parents, how could I ever apologize for something I almost felt like was my responsibility and it felt selfish to be thankful for my life — those thoughts still lie in a place where I am unsure how to tread — but right now, I want to formally apologize to you both, tita and tito, and I can only ask for your forgiveness. I know your family has asked me to not blame myself, to not practice guilt and I am learning to do so with each day that passes but this eulogy, I hope, will speak volumes about the way I feel about your daughter.

I struggled to put words on this page for days, wondering if I could ever say enough, the right thing, or too much but this is so much harder than I could have ever imagined — but this is for you Reinne. This is all for you. This is more than a eulogy, this is more than thoughts on a page, this piece of writing is titled —

Like the Water

Like the sunglasses you always wore indoors

Like the Jacquemus bags you carried

Like the Reformation dresses that graced your body

Like the Aritzia girl you were born to be

Like the iconic pose of you covering your face with your manicured nails and stacks of rings

And most importantly

Like the water, the way you used to introduce yourself.

Reinne, you were a girl that needed no introduction yet you did so anyways.

For those of you who do not know, Reinne was everything and more to me. I could sit here and pretend to know how to describe what that means but I’d break out into a flood of tears — yet that is exactly it, like those tears we’ve shed, it is a gesture from Reinne reminding us about water so that's what I am going to talk about.

I am no scientist or hydrologist and I only understand as much about water as the rest of you but I do know this: Water is all around us, a driving force of all nature. Human civilizations have led people to settle close to it. All people, everywhere and every day, need it. Water is not meant to stop us but it flows through us each and everyday. It goes where it wants to go and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient so we must remind ourselves to be patient alongside it. Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions. She lies within the water now, within the serene brutality of the ocean as the tides crash along the shores of our hearts. Her life now ripples through the millions she graced with her life. I now realize what she meant when she introduced herself with “like the water”. She brought communities together without even realizing it and as we all gather here to remember her, it truly attests to everything she built. You know, I want to understand why the tide is so low right now but Reinne you taught all of us what it means to be like the water. You flowed so beautifully through life and I am so happy to be a part of the water you left us. You were older, wiser, and hotter than ever. A silly, fun, and tantalizing girl that flowed through life's ebb and flow. A girl that had a mission to live, laugh, and love. You washed over me when my physical health was so low and shallow and these last few weeks have felt nothing short of a drought without you here and every moment I wanted to give up, you reminded me not to. You’ve redefined to me what water can do and reminded me to be like the water and for that I am eternally grateful.

Love stories often know no timeline. Whether it is short-lived or a lifetime, ours is unlike the rest, ours will never die alongside you yet it will be something I cherish and protect for the rest of my life. The few seconds before the accident as the lights rushed towards us, I remember upholding everything I ever promised myself, to protect you above all else. My arms wrapped around you bracing for impact, knowing you were sleeping so peacefully, not knowing it would be the last time I ever got to hold you. The impact will forever be a fragment of time that replays over and over again in my mind. I know that I must come to terms with the reality of a future without you. Everyday since the accident, you’ve been with me and I can finally accept the ache of missing you. I promise to live a life you are proud of, to push myself to become the person you knew I could be, to experience the world for you. As much as it pains me, I know all of this will happen without you by my side.

Our love story knows no bounds and as I recover, I think about you everyday. You once told me to promise to carry on with my life if you ever left and I could’ve never imagined having to do so so soon but I never took you quite seriously yet here I stand. This is me promising you that I will, as hard as it may be, you will always have a place in my heart. The memories that fall before me are like raindrops of a distant past. This is me behind the coffee bar, laying my eyes on you for the first time to take your order not realizing that you would change my life. This is our first trip to New York together, sharing a hotdog on the steps of The Met and in that very moment, I knew I fell so deeply in love with you. This is me accepting that you turned me down for months before we started dating but that fight was completely worth it because it meant giving you enough time to heal from your past. This is all of our friends celebrating your birthday last year, when I surprised you and impulsively invited your parents without ever meeting them because I wanted it to be special to you. This is you begging me two months into dating to get a dog, sending me an unhealthy amount of Craigslist posts each day until I caved and now Morris will be a reminder of you everyday. This is our first Coachella together, I was working and you came to support me and played barista all weekend and it was the most fun with you as my barback. This was our trip to Cancun to celebrate my birthday, oh how you treated me like no one else has and I will never forget those moments of bliss we shared. This is the life we talked about living together, we were so ready to pursue our dreams, to move to New York to live out our youth and return home and build a coffee shop of our dreams — and Reinne I want you to know that through this journey of healing and recovery, I am going to pursue that dream for us once I am back on my feet and I know you will be with me. This is the hundreds of memories I could stand here and share but I don’t think I’d ever stop. This is me learning about acceptance. This is me promising you that I will live my life to the fullest. This is me waking up every morning and tackling life without you, the dreams we promised to live out together, and so much more. This is me understanding that it is okay to hurt and have my heart beat for you. This is me understanding that it is okay to miss something that was once so familiar. This is me allowing myself enough grace to heal. This is me understanding how incredible yet painful this all really is - that for a moment in time, in a world of billions, two strangers were in the right place, at the right time, and something transpired between them. This is my heart swelling with the thought - that at one point in time, we were the lucky ones. At one point in time, we beat the odds.

At this point in time, I would like to remind everyone that although these odds seem against us, remember why we all gather here today. To celebrate the life of an angel, who was so unapologetically herself and resonated with such vigor — she once walked before us but now watches over each and every one of us — and with that comes the downpour of emotions that we all must cope with for a while yet I express my deepest and endless gratitude to have shared a chapter of my life with her and so should you.

Reinne, you were so fearless, an unstoppable wave of love and kindness and I’ll never forget the lessons you taught me. Your impact was truly something beautiful.

I know that each individual has shared in the pool of emotions that lie beneath us as we gather here today. That the entirety of this occasion is a topic that is so difficult to grasp. Some are suffering more than others, some knew her for years while others knew her for days, but that is not to mock or compare the numbing pain we all are feeling wrestling with. Reinne would want all of us to remain like the water.

You rest peacefully in the bodies of water that lie all around us and I promise I’ll visit you soon.

I love you so much.