Support Jim's Final Arrangements

Funeral arrangements:

The services will be held on Friday Sept. 20th at Givnish Funeral home in Northeast Philly.

10:00-11:30am - Viewing (we respected dad’s wishes to be cremated but we’ll have lots of great pictures and memories surrounding him)

11:30 Memorial Service

Givnish Funeral Home

10975 Academy Rd.

Philadelphia, PA 19154

WE ARE BLOWN AWAY AT WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN GIVEN!! While we expect nothing from anybody, many final costs have been determined and anything helps at this time. It’s sincerely appreciated.

UPDATE: if you have not seen the update below, I want to pass along that unfortunately, Jim passed away from another heart attack while in the hospital. His body was already under enormous amounts of stress and they were not able to save him this time. You can read the full story below this update.

We are in the process of coordinating bringing him back home and arranging services which may take some extra time as there are many moving pieces.

All funds that have been donated, which again we thank you to no end, will be used to assist in planning his final arrangements. Again, we do not expect anything from anyone at this time but a number of people have reached out on how they can help or assist and will leave this open if wanting to or would like to contribute to the arrangements in lieu of sending flowers, gifts, or anything else.

I will post another update once we have made the final arrangements. Thank you for the outpouring of support for our families.

thank you to no end.

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Greetings friends old, new, and ones I haven’t met just yet but hope to. If you know me, you know that my Dad, Jim, has been by my side and in my corner for as long as I can physically remember. Unfortunately over this past weekend, it was me who needed to be by his side this time.

On August 22nd, while on vacation with his loving wife Candy, Jim suffered a massive heart attack during an excursion while on a small boat that was bringing them back to their cruise ship in St. Thomas. Candy acted quickly calling for help and by some kind of miracle, an RN and EMT were both on board and went to work with CPR and defibrillator within minutes. After a few rounds of shocks, he began to show signs of life as the boat reached the shore. An ambulance met them and rushed to hospital where he was taken care of promptly.

After multiple tests and understanding the extent of the heart attack, he was then airlifted the next day to a hospital in Florida where they specialize in these types of cases. After flying down and meeting with several doctors over the weekend, we have come to the sobering realization that its going to be a very long road to recovery. It’s going to be a long road just to even get to the next set of necessary tests.

In addition to cardiac arrest, he suffered 10 -12 broken ribs from the CPR (necessary), burns from the defibrillator (necessary), pneumonia from fluids getting into his lungs during the whole ordeal, and issues with his kidneys preventing further needed testing on the heart’s surrounding arteries until they can heal and levels come down. Lastly, his short term memory is not the best right now (common after a massive heart attack) and have needed to explain all of the above to him multiple times throughout the day but is slowly improving as the week has gone on.

All this said, his vitals are stable at the moment and we have all the faith that he will make a full recovery in time. However, it will not be as speedy as we would like and that’s why we are here on GoFundMe. He will likely be hospitalized for weeks away from his home in New Jersey down in Florida and while we are fortunate that they have insurance to help with the medical costs, there will still be a great burden they will face as Candy who has truly been amazing in this whole process, will not leave his side and hasn’t for a second since this all began. Currently we have been living out of a hotel for the past week and are exploring options for a longer term rental for her as she will stay with him throughout this process. We also taught her how to use Uber and share her location so she can get back and forth to the hospital safely. (She’s very excited and has 3 requests under her belt + a 5 star rating!)

As you probably know, Florida ain’t cheap. Either are hotels/airbnb’s, Ubers, or even coffee in 2024. I am doing something I haven’t done in a long time…asking for help. I only put a number/goal for this because it said I had to but really, even if we can help raise $20 for her to have 1 days worth of Uber rides covered, that’s 1 day they won’t have to worry about and that’s a win and a blessing.

If you have had the opportunity to meet me and my sister’s father, you would know that he is in the running for being one of the nicest human beings on the planet and pretty much does anything anyone has ever asked of him, expecting zero in return. He’s the best father and “poppi” anyone could ever dream of having and hope that anyone who sees this can help to pitch in to give them a softer landing when this is all said and done. The same also goes for Candy who we also need to make sure is taken care of so she in turn can continue taking care of my Dad since I can’t be there as much as I’d like to be.

We are nowhere near out of the woods yet so even if you are not in a position to help out monetarily, please say a little prayer that he gets through this as I know he would do the same for you if asked. Thank you in advance!

(pictured above is the day he became a grandfather, almost 10 years ago to the day!)