Jae Lee Memorial Family Fund

Jae Lee suddenly passed away on July 13 from a stroke and severe brain hemmorhaging. He was 42 years old and leaves behind his single mother, Lucia Lee.

As we all know, the universe was not very kind to Jae, sometimes it seemed he just couldn’t catch a break starting from his early childhood until his untimely sudden death. After a tumltuous childhood, Jae was diagnosed with manic depression, bipolar and schizephrenia at the age of 18 and has struggled with it since. While he was able to manage his illness with medication, on several occassions, he would suffer from major episodes of mental instability.

Most recently in the winter of 2017, during an unexpected episode, Jae went missing in Baltimore for several weeks and was eventually found incarcerated in Howard County prison on a simple tresspassing charge at a convenience store. Given his mental state, Jae did not meet with a lawyer. As a result, for a charge that would otherwise have been a simple misdemeanor, Jae was held in isolation for over two months and restricted to his cell 23 out of 24 hours due to a backlog of trials in the system. Since being released in February, Jae had been working diligently to recover from his trauma and depression. He spent many hours a day painting, writing, and talking with friends in order to motivate himself as he looked for employment.

Last Monday, Jae complained of severe headaches. On Tuesday evening, after having dinner with his mother, Jae laid down to nap on the couch. When his mother tried to wake him later in the evening to take him to bed, he was unresponsive. She immediately called 911. Upon arriving at the ER, Jae had already suffered major brain damage. Shortly after arriving at the hospital, Jae suffered massive hemmorhaging in his brain which damaged nearly all of his brain tissue and left him completely unresponsive. He passed away early Thursday morning, surrounded by his closest friends and relatives.

Jae leaves behind his mother, Lucia, who is currently on disability and now living alone. Lucia suffers from early signs of Alzheimers and as a result, relied very heavily on Jae for virtually every day to day need ranging from grocery shopping to managing finances. We are working on setting her up with public housing and medical assistance.

We are setting up this GoFundMe campaign to help cover some of the costs of Jae's burial and assist with his mother's living expenses until we can secure her the housing and medical support she needs.

Thank you,
Richard Sim (Cousin)