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The Park Ridge native had just recently learned that he was at last becoming a grandfather. He'd been out for an early breakfast Wednesday with his daughter, Paula, who’s expecting a boy.
Later that day, a massive heart attack took his life.
“He was so excited to be a grandpa,” wrote his niece, Jennifer Mancinelli. “Finally something happy in Mike’s life - he would soon be getting baby hugs.”
Mancinelli, 62, had worked in the printing industry for 40 years before losing his job in September 2019. Two months later, his daughter, Nikki, died suddenly.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Finding a new job was now impossible. Unemployment ran out,” Jennifer Manicelli wrote. “In November 2020, he lost his brother Robert after a long battle with colon cancer at the age of 61.
“Somehow, with everything going on, Mike managed to stay positive and always just wanted to make us laugh. He was one of a kind.”
Mancinelli launched a GoFundMe campaign to help her late uncle’s family cover funeral costs.
She’s asking whatever you can – even if it’s just the price of a cup of coffee.
There’s deep significance to that request.
The morning before he died, friends on Facebook found a typical Mike Mancinelli MEME:
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