For Matt.
While it is customary for me to share my own stories here, today I come to you with someone else’s story, and for very good reason—so I hope you won’t mind if I briefly deviate from my usual course of action. Because today, this one is for Matt.
Matt DePaolera was my neighbor and my friend. He’s in the center of the photo below, taken from my middle school yearbook.
Matt and I weren’t best friends, or anything like that, but our social circles overlapped, and he lived on my street; we orbited each other throughout our adolescence and always palled around. Though I haven’t seen him in awhile, I remember him as kind, lighthearted, and fun to be around. Any time I attended a party or gathering at his house, he always welcomed me. When I would see him out and about over the years, he was warm and often flashing that signature smile to full squint, just like the young boy in the picture above.
I’m talking to you about Matt today because he is in the fight of his life against Multi-Focal Glioblastoma Brain Cancer. Fighting at his side is his wife, also an old friend of mine, Maria—after we all dispersed from the woods of Kinnelon, they were lucky enough to find their way back to each other, and now share a life together with their two sweet, young kids, Miles and Estella.
This has been an unimaginable stress on all of their lives, in myriad ways, and they are doing everything they can to keep their heads above water—but as many of us know all too well, the medical bills mount quickly. A fundraiser has been organized to gather funds that will aid in Matt’s treatment and support their family in the fight against a relentless cancer. If you are able to share any amount, I know it would mean the world to their family and would make a direct, significant impact. I’m donating today in honor of my friends, Matt and Maria, and their beautiful family, and I hope you might consider doing the same.
Visit their GoFundMe by clicking here.
Thanks for reading, gang. ❤️
Be back soon with regularly scheduled programming.