This past weekend, I received a voicemail from a state trooper who was trying to reach me to inform me of a car accident that had occurred early that evening and asked that I call him back, which I did immediately. He informed me that my brother had been involved in an accident and was in the hospital. He stated that my brother had been walking on the I-10 highway headed westbound when he suddenly turned and started to run across the highway, at which time he was hit by a car. The driver, unfortunately, was not able to stop or respond quickly enough to avoid hitting him but did stop and call 911. Paramedics arrived, and he was immediately taken to the Abrazo West Campus hospital, where he was placed on life support due to the severity of his injuries. After arriving at the hospital and speaking with the doctors who worked on him and learning that the trauma to his body and the extent of his brain damage left no realistic chance for him to recover to be able to live life the way he would want to, I made the decision to give it to God, and Mikey passed away a few hours later at 3:13 am on Saturday, January 17, 2026, with me and our dear friend Kim by his side until his heart finally stopped beating.

This loss comes after years of hardship for our family. In 2021, we lost everything. And I mean everything, including my brother's dog Odie, who was not able to make it out of our house, which caught on fire. We also did not have homeowners insurance so we were left to pick up the pieces on our own which seems impossible when you are poor. Then, only 2 short months later, my brother found our mom deceased & because he was panicking & yelling at paramedics telling them to save our mom the police were called & he was arrested just 30 mins after they were called for an unrelated warrant, which resulted in him going to prison again. Due to financial strain and life circumstances at the time, I was not able to hold any type of services to honor our mother, and that guilt is something I have carried with me ever since. I was too ashamed to ask for help then, and I tried to handle everything on my own, which I now regret because she deserved more. A lot of people have encouraged me to start this GoFundMe page in order to be able to help with whatever they may be able to do so that I am able to have him cremated and to have him home with family, not just sitting in a mass grave with strangers.

Anything helps. Even just your prayers for comfort during this hard season of life. Even if all you can do is share this page it would be greatly appreciated. The other thing I ask is to please keep the woman who hit him in your prayers as well. She was innocent in All of this and now has to live with the trauma of what happened her & I feel for her in so many ways.

Thank you all for your support during this time. It means more to me than you can imagine