CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Rochelle Spieler lost her daughter Patrice Adams in February 2015. For years, she and her husband did not know how to properly honor their daughter.
“I struggled and struggled over the years trying to figure out: 'What can we do in memory of our daughter?' " she said.
She thought of the perfect way after a conversation with a friend.
"I said, ‘I’d like to give back to those people that don’t have, because Patrice always liked to give to people that didn’t have,’” Spieler said.
Earlier this year, the Patrice Adams Foundation was formed after Patrice died unexpectedly, she said. While the foundation does not provide finances towards burial costs, it does provide things such as urns, headstones, memory necklaces, memory quilts, and the occasional monetary donation.
“There are a lot of people that don’t have that cushion to give them a proper burial and final farewell," Spieler said. "So, we decided to do this.”
There are restrictions to who the foundation can help, but it helps people from all over the country. The foundation provided help for a woman in Killeen to travel to her mother’s funeral in Georgia, and helped a woman who lost her 23-year-old daughter in Los Angeles by purchasing an urn. It also is helping to create a quilt with her clothing.
Spieler, her husband, and everyone in the foundation are grateful to be able to provide assistance to families in their times of need.
“I’ve had better days now than I have had in the last five years of her passing," she said. "It’s been awesome knowing that she’s been a part of helping somebody, and putting the ease to laying somebody to rest."
Spieler reached out to KRIS 6 News in hopes of assisting the family of 14-year-old Beatrice Nieto, who was killed in Corpus Christi over the weekend.
Spieler can be reached through the foundation’s email patriceadams0215@gmail.com or on the phone at 417-322-2446.
