Javier Eduardo Bernal Hernandez

On August 10, 2018 our family lost our beloved Javier Eduardo Bernal Hernandez.  At age 50 he was the most genuine example of a family man who would do anything in the world to ensure the safety, security, and happiness of his beloved wife and three sons.  He was an incredible father to both me and my two younger brothers.

My father was born in Sinaloa, Mexico to a family of twelve.  Life for him was hard as a kid growing up in extreme poverty in the small town of Dimas.  Not everyone in his family could even afford to buy shoes so they would often have to walk barefoot around town.  In his adolescence my father struggled to find a girl who would date him, much to his disappointment, until the fateful night where he met my mother during a high school dance.  They quickly fell in love and wanted to get married but realized they could not even afford a marriage ceremony due to their life of poverty. My father thought hard about how he would manage to get the funds necessary to begin this next beautiful chapter in his life and eventually came to the conclusion that he would need to immigrate and take the journey "al otro lado" to the United States.

Risking his safety and well-being in order to ensure he could get married to the love of his life, he made his journey to the U.S. and eventually made enough money to be able to afford his marriage ceremony.

After getting married, my parents decided it was time to have their first child. However, a life of hardship and poverty was not the life they intended for my brothers and I to live through so eventually they would both make the decision to leave Mexico and begin their new life in the U.S. This is when my life began and both my parents were able to see me and my brothers go through and graduate high school and eventually college.  My father was incredibly proud to see that his sacrifices and hardships he lived through during his youth were worth fighting through in order to see his sons become the men he wanted them to be.

And so on August 10th, 2018 it came as an utterly horrible shock to our family when he passed away in our home from what we believe was a heart issue.  Javier leaves behind his beloved wife Maria, along with the three prides of his life Francisco, Christopher, and Jonattan.

It was always my father's wish to be buried in his hometown of Dimas in Mexico and we wish to fulfill his promise to him by raising enough money to be able to afford his funeral costs along with the fees to transport his body internationally to Mexico. We intend to host two separate ceremonies for him: one in the U.S. for his siblings who live here and one for his family in Mexico where we will lay him to rest. We intend to raise $20,000 in order to cover the exuberant costs of the funerals as well as ensuring his wife and sons do not struggle financially for the near future.  We hope to receive the funds as soon as possible since we plan to have the first ceremony done on Tuesday the 14th.  I, Francisco Bernal - Javier's oldest son - will be in charge of the funds and final expenses.  From the bottom of our hearts as the Bernal family, we humbly accept any donations you are willing to part with in order to help a wonderful and hardworking man receive the burial he deserves. Thank you!

- Francisco Javier Bernal Aguirre and the Bernal Family