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Editorial

Fund created to help a young family

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The Jorge Herrera Salmoran Memorial to help his family has led to an absolutely amazing outpouring by so many, far-far beyond my expectation. I have been overwhelmed by messages of condolence. It is inspiring and humbling. I think it’s the absolute fruition of love from and for fellow humans, camouflaged in grief.
We all lost “a good one” when Jorge passed.
After just a few days and with an initial goal of $5,000, hundreds of individual donations to the “gofundme” campaign have surpassed $42,000 and counting. Additionally some have directly mailed thousands of dollars in checks.
His wife has been provided rent relief, cost-free dental work and many gifts are being sent for her baby. As one generous and kind donor commented: “A very sad and touching situation. Especially with a child on the way. The loss of a husband, father and breadwinner will create much stress in their lives. Our donation is the least we can do.”
I can only guess the reasons for the overwhelming response. It’s genuinely a very sad story – a young and strong man violently losing his life, a young widow with a new baby, his innocent young friends’ first exposure to death and the shock of it, and the realization of old timers like me that we can’t avoid the loss of more loved ones on the horizon –so we give what we can and express our sympathy with tears. It’s likely all these things.
Perhaps it also reveals that most people are truly caring, and can and will share love whether asked or not when pausing to think about others, especially in a time of need.
The world has seemed a dark and angry place these past few years. I have struggled to remain optimistic and hopeful about our future as a society and civilization for that matter. The loss of hope is as bad as I think anything can get.

The loss of Jorge will remain a painful memory for me and many others for a long time if not forever; however, his kindness to so many in his short adult life has clearly inspired friends and family, neighbors and strangers to be kind to others in return. That is a wonderfully beautiful thing.
I am inspired by this and a flicker of hope has been restored in me about the potential goodness of people, and their capacity to do great things for one another. I wish I could thank Jorge for that.
As was once said: “It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars.”
Any contributions made will be gratefully appreciated.
Send to gofundme.com/f/jorge-herrera-memorial-fund.

Larry Peseski, Carversville
Editor’s Note: Jorge Herra Salmoran died in a swimming accident in the Delaware River.


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