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Joseph Muratori said picking out the casket for her "was the hardest part" as he prepares himself for the calling hours and funeral service next week for his mother, Dawn Meade.
"My mother was an angel," Muratori said. "No matter what was happening or what she was going through, my mom never failed to laugh or make other people laugh. ... I know people say this about everyone's mom, but she was so genuine and charismatic."
The wake will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Larson Funeral Home, 2496 North Ave., Bridgeport. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. at St. Margaret's Shrine at 2523 Park Ave., Bridgeport.
"She was just all-around one of the most kindhearted people you would ever come across — with the most beautiful smile," Muratori said of his mother.
Related story: Fairfield Man Seeks Help Burying Mom, Who Was Murdered By Boyfriend In Va.
But "this past weekend, I lost my mother unexpectedly to domestic violence. She was taken from this world tragically and way too soon," Muratori said in a post on a GoFundMe page.
As of late Tuesday, he had raised $17,390 of the $20,000 goal, with donations from 305 people in just two days. The money will cover funeral and other expenses.
Meade, who was born in Norwalk and raised in Fairfield County, was found by a neighbor last Friday morning. Her body was just outside the rear gate of the Blue Ridge Shores Subdivision in Louisa County, Va,.
The Sheriff's Office determined that she was killed in a hit-and-run accident that had occurred at midnight the night before.
Her boyfriend of two years, Gregory P. Veres, 30, called police to report his car had somehow been heavily damaged. After questioning, Veres was charged with second-degree murder in Meade's death and held without bond.
The two had recently moved to Louisa County, Va., from Connecticut.
"Toward the end of her life, Dawn had moved to Virginia to better her life. She began telling me what was happening. I begged my mother to come home," Muratori said. Then she "was killed by her abusive boyfriend."
Now he is working to bring her home for burial.
Muratori said he created the GoFundMe page because "I need help getting my mom back to Connecticut from Virginia where she was murdered, so I can bury her where she belongs — with her family."
Funeral arrangements are difficult enough to plan, he said, "but the financial burden and responsibility that comes along with it only stresses me and my family out more. ... My mom belongs in Connecticut, I need her to come home so I can be close to her once again."
Click here for the GoFundMe page.
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