Hello everyone. My name is Brooklyn and I’m doing this fundraiser on behalf of my ex fiancé & my daughters father Ben.

Ben was a beautiful soul who was kind to everyone he met and someone truly remarkable. He and I had big plans for our lives together and he was so excited to welcome our daughter into the world. Unfortunately upon her birth Ben changed. He started showing signs of real mental illness and couldn’t tell reality from delusion. He developed Schizophrenia Psychosis and went downhill really fast. We tried to help him and get him on medications but he refused to take the medicines that could slow the progression of his disease. Schizophrenia psychosis is a horrible disease that robs you of the person you are and turns you into something else. A once responsible man who loved us more than anything turned into someone that didn’t have a worry in the world and almost burnt our house down to the ground. It was to dangerous for him to be around our baby and to be in the house unsupervised.

In his last action before loosing all of who he was he walked all the way from where he was staying on Mill Plain to our house in St Johns and tried to give me his food stamp card for me to be able to buy extra food for his daughter. And there was no way I would except that. Anytime after that I seen him he was to far gone to even have a conversation with me.

It took me 8yrs to get over the mental trauma I endured watching him deteriorate over those four years.

I had to endure the trauma of loosing such an awesome man and my best friend to his illness and I’ve never been the same since.

I promised him I would take good care of his daughter and I have. She is now 14 and is a very talented artist and extraordinary violinist and gets As and Bs in school. She looks just like him and I think if he could see her now he would laugh at the fact that physically she’s his twin. Just as beautiful as her daddy.

Now on behalf of Ben I ask you this... please help me get her father cremated and be able to have a small funeral for him.

I have never received child support after age 3 from him so I’ve been raising her financially on my own and between my bills and caring for my other children I don’t have extra funds to cover this cost.

I lost Ben once when he got sick. I grieved his loss and now I’m having to bury him all over again. It’s just so overwhelming and any help you can give would be much appreciated by us.

Everyone in Vancouver knew him as someone who wouldn’t take anything from anyone. He suffered in silence and if you ever wanted to help him this is the one chance you can really do something good for him. I am his only family and if I can’t get him cremated than his daughter will never have his remains and they will stay at the medical examiners office on a shelf indefinitely. I hate to think that’s where things end for him. Please reunite Ben with his daughter so she’s can have him with her always.

Thank you for whatever help you can give us to reach our goal. Every dime goes to his cremation and service.