Friends of the Nanaimo man who died in a Jeep crash last week are trying to help raise money for a grieving mother.
Jerry Gaspari died in the single-vehicle accident on McKay Lake Road north of Ladysmith on May 12.
Jessica Akitt, one of the organizers of the online fundraiser, said Gaspari and his girlfriend were taking the backroad for an overnight camping trip when they hit a patch of mud that sent the vehicle off the road. Vancouver Island RCMP said it appeared the Jeep rolled several times.
Gaspari was 20 years old.
“He was a great guy,” Akitt said. “He had so many friends. He was just a complete light in people’s lives. No matter what, if you knew him, he brought joy to your life.”
He loved riding bikes and working on them. He was a “happy go-lucky” guy who liked making people laugh and he tended to make an impression on people he met. His mom said he was a loving son.
Gaspari lived with his mother and paid a lot of the family’s bills. He worked in the floor-cleaning business; his mom is on disability with limited mobility and other medical issues.
“It’s so sad, she doesn’t have anyone left except her son’s close friends,” Akitt said, adding that she hopes the GoFundMe can help with Gaspari’s end-of-life costs as well as his mother’s short-term expenses “to stay at her apartment for a couple months and hopefully not have to get a roommate in right away or uproot her life so soon after the passing of her son. It’s just a devastating time for her and she shouldn’t be making any big life changes right now.”
To view or donate to the GoFundMe, click here.
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