Hello!  Thomas here.  Thanks for taking the time to read and listen to me talk about my biggest hero, Jeff James Orsini, my dad.

Beatles fanatic, comedian, hospitality expert, movie buff, husband, father.  Jeff Orsini was born on June 15th, 1955 in  Californa.  He was one of seven (!!) children to Ray and Eleanor Orsini, with four brothers and two sisters.  He worked in the hospitality sector of different hotels where he met his future wife Cynthia Jensen at the Westlake Plaza hotel in Westlake Village, CA where they worked together.   They eventually were married in 1987 in Westlake Village, CA, and moved to Scottsdale, AZ in 1988.  He traveled a lot for work, continuing in the hospitality world, while his wife Cynthia pursued her Master's Degree in Childhood Development and became a teacher for special needs children, and continues her teaching career to this day!


In March 2019 my dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer.  This obviously was a shock, as my dad was always a healthy guy who never got sick much.  It was difficult to comprehend, as he seemed perfectly healthy and normal at the time.  Time went by as trials of different chemo cocktails were administered.  Things looked positive for a while, then stagnant, as the medication seemed to have run its course.  Different types of chemo were given to dad, but none really seems to stick or make any real difference.  Around Thanksgiving time, dad had lost a ton of weight, strength, and energy.  He spent some time in Thompson Peak Honor Health where his six siblings from California and Colorado flew out to see him one last time.

He was put on Hospice for around two short weeks, and eventually on Friday March 6th, 2020, he had lost his fight with cancer and passed away.

My Dad always said it was in God's hands and that he had a plan for my dad, even at his toughest parts of his journey.  He was never spiteful, questioning, or felt like he was owed anything.  He wouldn't want people to be sad for him, he always wanted others to be comfortable (see: Hospitality expert!).  I miss my dad everyday and its been incredibly tough but I'm so glad he's at rest now.

Since his passing, I have been helping Cindy, my mom, make heads or tails of their finances as best I can, since Jeff took the lead on a lot of the ins and outs of the money and bills.  When a parent dies, a lot of red tape, phone calls, scanning, faxing, emails, documents, notifying, and hair pulling takes place which is tough to keep track of, especially when you're still mourning and your head's in a million different places.  But so far, we've done a pretty great job I'd say.

The difficulty lies in the medical costs.  My dad was insured thankfully at the time of his diagnosis, and through 100% of his journey with cancer.  However, the insurance company is dragging their feet with notions of "preexisting condition," which simply isn't true.  The wonderful people at Thompson Peak Honor Health where Jeff spent a lot of time, and where the majority of our debt lies, have been very understanding, and are working with the insurance company (who they have had issues with in the past) to get to the root of the confusion and get some of this bills paid for rightfully so.

However, our go-to rep at Thompson Peak Honor Health let us know that the debt that will remain in our court when (if) this insurance company pays is still very substantial to the point where I'm not sure it could be taken on by my mom alone, which is obviously causing a lot of stress, coupled with the fact that the COVID-19 epidemic has shut down all Arizona schools for the foreseeable future which definitely affects my mom as a teacher.

So that's where we are.  As it stands thanks to COVID-19  we aren't even able to schedule a proper memorial service for my dad where we can just pack as many Orsinis into a room as possible and all just be together.  It's definitely one of the scarier and more uncertain times in our lives.  And the timing to ask for help probably couldn't be worse, since I'm sure each and everyone of you is effected in some way by what's going on out there.  If you able to spare what you can, or maybe just let us know if Jeff had any affect on your life at one point or another, or maybe even share this post on social media so more eyes can see it, I'd be over the moon appreciative.   If you have any questions, feel free to call or text me at [phone redacted], or email me at [email redacted] Thanks for listening!  Stay safe out there.



I would like to be remembered as a man who had a wonderful time living life, a man who had good friends, fine family – and I don’t think I could ask for anything more than that, actually. – Frank Sinatra