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“Brian didn’t have acquaintances or friends, he only had family. Everyone was family to him and that’s how he lived and loved.”
On Sunday, Aug. 6, Brian Flaherty died of a heart attack in his sleep, according to his wife Lenora and a GoFundMe set up by her sister, Arianna Zee.
Zee said that, though Lenora attempted to revive him with 911 on the phone, it was too late.
Now, as Lenora and the couple’s four-year-old daughter Francesca navigate life without Brian, the Three Village community has banded together to help them out.
At the time of Brian’s passing, the couple was working on renovating their fixer-upper home.
“There’s currently no siding (on their home),” Zee wrote in the fundraiser’s description. “It’s just wrapped in Tyvek, the front windows are nailed shut because they’re inoperable, and a bathroom is completely gutted.”
In addition to funeral expenses, Zee implored the community to donate to the Flaherty family so that they are able to finish these renovations before the winter since many of the tasks left to finish are “simply impossible to complete without him now.”
Over the four days the GoFundMe has been active, friends, family, and strangers alike have more than doubled Zee’s $25,000 goal, raising just over $63,000. Many left kind words along with their donations.
“I defy anyone to put another face to ‘Life of the Party’ other than yours,” friend Daniel Richards wrote.
“I have a thousand memories of you, all of which you are laughing hysterically…until we meet again, old friend.”
In her announcement on Facebook, Lenora shared a story of her and Brian’s first date, where he stopped driving in the middle of a downpour to help someone push their broken-down car to the side of the road.
“[I] remember feeling in that moment, that maybe he took that opportunity to impress me,” she wrote. “But I soon came to realize, that’s just who he is. If he could help someone, he didn’t even think twice about it.”
“He had nothing but gave everything and that’s what I have always loved and adored about him…Rest easy, my love.”
To donate to the GoFundMe, click here.
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