In memory of Marisa Di Ridolfo

In memory of our beautiful mom,
A best-friend, A sister, A mother to everyone she met. She had a way to make everyone smile. She was one of a kind in this world. No matter what she was going through, her smile stayed on her face and she shined the sun into  an entire room. She was a pure, loving soul who listened to people, who took the time to make you feel good. Everyone she met, left with a piece of her joy. She had a joy to live, a joy to laugh, a joy to simply be Marisa. There are no words to describe how beautiful she was as a person. Everyone who knows her could understand this. She was a rare gem. A positive force, who believed in love, happiness and enlightening every being who came into her path with it. She represented pure strength all while being soft as a dove. This woman, not only our mother, but our inspiration, our life mantra. She was the light that guided you, she was the sun, the stars, she was bright, she was magic. This is her story, A mother of 3 beloved children, Jessica, Jennifer-Rose and John. A extraordinary wife to her loving husband, Philotas for 35 years. She was a stay at home mom for the majority of her life where she cared for all three of us with everything she had. As we grew older she decided to get her first job at Coctco Wholesale. Before doing so she went back to school to get her high-school diploma in her early 40s, because she had the will to succeed in her life. Not only for herself but for her family. Starting at Costco, she was immediately welcomed, she made countless friends, and even members would go just to see her smile. She was at first in merchandise and worked her way as a cashier and for her that was the happiest time of her life. She was an independent woman who worked hard, and did so with such grace. She never complained, she was always so open to the world and willing to help everyone. Costco was her happy place. A place of love and smiles where she radiated her energy to the world, as before only her family would see this beautiful being she was - now the entire world would be able to share that with her too. In 2015 she unexpectedly got the devastating news that she had stage 3 Triple Negative breast cancer. She was scared, but she had an 80% chance to survive. She was a warrior and she did everything to get though it. After doing Chemotherapy for 6 months, 30 days of radiation and a partial mastectomy. She had gone into remission. Overjoyed, and always supported by family and friends. She went straight back to work , with a will to live, to love, to laugh like never before. She was back at what she loved to do, interact with people leaving imprints of her beautiful soul onto everyone she met. Time had passed and she was never feeling 100% but she never would have thought she was sick again. Although she was told she was in remission, she had no idea her cancer was still lingering and was not detected until diagnosed as Metastasized stage 4 Triple Negative Breast cancer in 2018. She was told she could not be cured this time, inevitably she would die from this disease. Despite the overwhelming feeling of not making it this time, she found her will in the darkest of times and said she will fight this again and just maybe she will beat the odds. Every friday she was driven by her eldest daughter Jessica and her younger daughter Jennifer-Rose to her Chemotherapy sessions. She was never alone and even her friends were rooting for her. Every friday, knowing she might not make it, she tried again and again. Chemotherapy was not easy the first time around, this time around it was even harder. As her body was consumed by cancer, she still went for it. 11 months down the road, she not only did chemotherapy once a week but she also did brain radiation. She was constantly under the effects of treatment where she was unable to live how she used to. She slowly started to lose more and more energy, and slowly started to feel sicker. At first treatment worked, but very shortly it was evident that the cancer had come full circle. She never lost hope, she never wanted to believe there was a possibility she would not survive this. She fought until her body had completely let go. She dreamed everyday of living the life she lived before cancer, caring for her children, who were now caring for her, she felt helpless. She envisioned herself working and smiling and being something so precious, simply healthy again. Her life was stripped from her by her cancer. Although her pure soul, her joie de  vivre never left her. Her smile always remained. She had been hospitalized in a terminal dilemma of not going back home ever again. This was the hardest moment she had to face. On January 22nd, 2019, she was completely bed ridden, her organs were failing and there was nothing she could do to reverse this. She was surrounded by her family in the very moment this day, she was induced into a coma. Knowing she would slowly go in her sleep when her body completely gave way. In order to avoid any more suffering she had been going though, she went to sleep. We have been since January 22nd by our mothers bed praying life could have panned out differently for such a beautiful soul. She did not deserve any of this. Although we knew she could finally be free of her pain. Still being in an induced coma, watching her pass, she has shocked every doctor who has walked in her room, seeing her still grasp for air. She is a warrior, a woman of such will even if the universe wanted her to go she is still breathing her last breaths. It can be days from now where she does pass or weeks or knowing how strong she is. There is no understanding as to how she is still breathing with such will, when she should not even be here still. We took this moment after 5 days now of watching our mother, we wanted the world to know who she was. That all this was for something. We her children, know after this will be difficult to fulfill her wishes as we are all young and doing our best with every bit we have to make things flow as she did. She ran the house-hold. Without her, we are afraid to lose all that she has built for us. She truly believed despite the odds, that she would survive, and so a funeral was never arranged, a will was never arranged, and we are left to pick up the pieces of our mothers legacy and do it justice. We her children, her husband, are asking for the community of family and friends to get together to help us raise donations in order to give her a proper funeral as well as help us with many other financial bumps that have come our way being unplanned. We appreciate anything you can give and if you can not, that its ok too. We simply want to hold the castle of life and love she has built together and give her the memorial service she deserves. We want to thank everyone for being a part of Marisa's heart felt journey, the ups and the downs. Simply celebrate her life, celebrate this beautiful woman who does not deserve to pass at 54 years old. She will be an angel amongst us, and we wish to give her and tribute her with all the respect she very well should receive. Thank you to everyone for being a part of her life, you all know who you are, the many beautiful people who got to know her. She has blessed us all with a force, a power of love, of a smile, the simplicity of being an extraordinary human being. Thank you, our deepest most sincere thanks from her beloved family. All donations will be put towards funeral and memorial services, Anything in which surpasses the amount will be donated to the Cancer Cedar Center in which she was treated at. We love you mommy. You will be celebrated, for all the good you have done on this earth.

1. Who you are: My name is Jessica Vastopoulos, 25 years old. I am the eldest daughter of Marisa Di Ridolfo. I also have two younger siblings, Jennifer-Rose Vastopoulos 23 years old and a younger brother John Vastopoulos, 19 years old. 2. Where you're from: I am from Montreal, Quebec Canada. 3. Your relationship to the parties you're raising funds for: I am Marisa Di Ridolfo's eldest daughter and I am the one raising the funds in order to help pay for her funeral since she unfortunately succumbed to her cancer and passed away this past week on January 27th 2019. She was my mom and she was the best mom in the world and deserves a proper funeral, so being her daughter I want to be able to do this and need the funds to do so. Although she was sick for a while we did not expect to plan a funeral, and as mentioned above neither was a will prepared or any of the things we will now have to face financially, and so here I am asking for help. 4. How the funds will be used (be specific as possible)- All funds being donated will go directly to the costs of the funeral; the cremation process the funeral home the Urn, the services associated with the funeral... flowers, food, transport, etc. As well as all legal documents that we need to pay for such as a will done by a notary as mentioned above was never made by my mom.  These are all big expenses and with the money we raise we will pay all of that with. Funerals are very expensive as most people know and we are learning that going through this now. Thankfully with the help we've been getting through the donations of the very good people in this world and through GoFundMe we are less afraid now to be in a real bad financial situation.  If we exceed our goal of 15,000$ we will be donating the remaining funds to the Cedars Cancer Center at the McGill University Hospital (GLEN) where my mom was treated and where there are many others like my mom battling cancer. 5. If you intend to withdraw the money, how do you plan to send the funds to the parties you're raising money for or use the money on their behalf: I plan to withdraw the money to my own account since I have taken on all the responisbilty (alongside my younger siblings) to pay for the cost of our moms funeral. This would be withdrawn by me, Jessica Vastopoulos, on the behalf of my deceased mother, Marisa DiRidolfo. I promise to honor her with the best celebration of life i can give thanks to all the help from all the generous people who have contributed to this campaign. Thank you all so much.