​On July 2, 2016 our lives changed forever when we lost the patriarch of our family to heart failure. What we experienced during Joe’s treatment felt unbearable, despite the fact that we had resources and support. Over the course of his extended hospital stays, we learned the families fighting alongside us were facing unimaginable additional obstacles. Since the majority of heart failure patients must travel to receive care, we met people sleeping in their cars, families losing their homes, caregivers who felt alone and abandoned and patients ready to give up because they felt like a burden to their family. 

We started the Foundation to keep Joe alive in our hearts and minds, and we’re proud of the way we’ve loved him into a continued existence. But the mission has grown much bigger than that, because we’ve seen what standing in the gap for desperate families can do. Joe was famous for seeing suffering and moving towards it, and it’s part of the reason his generosity outlived him. Please know your generosity can outlive you, too.