I didn’t know Elias Amaya, a former Stagg student . That didn’t stop me from crying when I got a text message from a friend telling me of his lost battle to cancer Friday, Aug. 29. I have seen my mother bury her child. I know how hard it is. I also know the pain of losing a brother, so my second instinct was to find his sister on Facebook and express my condolences. When I found her page, I saw a link to Amaya’s gofundme site. The family had been asking for donations long before Amaya’s passing. Before, they needed the donations for the fight. Now, they need it for the funeral. I do not know the Amaya family, but that didn’t stop me from donating.

The gut wrenching truth is that if Amaya, no more than 16, had been a fatal victim to violence his burial and funeral expenses could be paid for in full. The San Joaquin County Victim-Witness Program often pays for low income families to say goodbye to their loved ones if they’ve been a victim of violence.

I ask: What about the families of those who were sick? What about the families who are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from medical bills? What about the families that see their loved one through chemo, endless doctors’ visits, PET scans, and radiation and the turn of becoming unrecognizable because of all of these treatments and their chemicals and that asshole disease cancer? What about the families who have rallied together and rooted wholeheartedly and hopelessly for their loved one to win the battle only to hear that they have fallen just short of the finish line and are merely left with having to pay for the day they all dreaded would come? That day is approaching for the Amaya family. The day where they have to bury Elias.

When my mother buried her son, we had no money. It tore her to pieces when she couldn’t afford the proper tombstone in his honor, the one he deserved. I refuse to let that be the same for Amaya’s mother.

Who will pay for someone like Elias Amaya, a low income child who fought hard against a disease that fought just a tad bit harder, to have the burial and funeral he deserves. Neither a big business nor a foundation at this point has stepped up. It is up to us. We ordinary yet powerful, sympathetic people should care enough to give this young man a beautiful ceremony and burial not just for him but for his family. For his sister. For his father. For his mother.

The Amaya family is short a little less that $12k of their goal. No government fund is helping this family say their last goodbye to the fallen Elias. It is up to us to help this family. Donate for him, donate for his family, and donate because we are all the hope they have.

http://www.gofundme.com/e0iojk