Help with Funeral Expenses for Justin’s brother, Santiago

Late last night on a rural road near Chapala, Jalisco in Mexico, my adopted grandson’s brother had a motorcycle accident and didn’t survive. As you can imagine, all hell has broken lose in their family and I need to try to help.

The story: I moved to Ajijic on Lake Chapala in the spring of 2017. Shortly thereafter, I met a young man, a waiter in a restaurant, and he was so adorable, I asked if he was adoptable. He whipped around and said, yes! Turns out he was orphaned at age 10, he had no parents and no grandmothers still alive. He had a grandfather, several aunts and two older brothers.

Justin Vargas and I set about getting to know one another and it went fast, we hit it off immediately. We spent time talking, went on drives and I met all of his people. He was 19 at the time but had already been through so much and yet he seemed younger. I helped pay for his college classes and his English was great so it was easy to really talk.

I met his brother, Santiago, and his family. He had two young daughters who were so cute … they called me abulita, meaning granny. Justin has always called me Grams and I love it. I have no grandchildren of my own and after losing Stephen, Justin and his family have become my own in such a special way over the years. Even after I moved back to the US, we continued to stay close as only those with a heart connection can.

Justin and his people are all service people and they work hard. There is much poverty in Mexico but this family has managed to live fairly well, although far from grand. Any little bit I’ve been able to contribute has been useful.

As you can imagine, funerals are expensive and this unexpected expense will be very hard for them to cover. Some of you know Justin or know of him, to others this is new. I know that Christmas is just past and we’re all scraping the barrel right now but any little bit helps, especially since the peso is about 20 to 1 right now.

If you can help, you can contribute to this fund raiser and I’ll send it to Justin with Remitly. I’d like to send $1000 to him to help with the funeral as soon as possible. I’ll find out more details and post them here, in case anyone wants to follow this story. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer ❤️ Also, I’ll forward any and all messages you have for him. He will take great comfort in knowing that he has such a large crowd of strangers who care about him in his grief.