Eddie Lichetenhahn was a young boy, son of a Philadelphia police officer.  He complained of a headache and went off to school or about his day and ended up dying of a brain aneurysm, devastating the family.

This family did not reach out to Final Farewell for help, as many families did not.  Sometimes it’s a social worker, sometimes it’s a family friend, sometimes it’s a religious person on the behalf of the famiiy that reaches out to Final Farewell. 

In this particular case, Final Farewell had just started. No one knew of the existence of Final Farewell, so I reached out to the family by way of the death notice in the paper and I saw where he was being buried and I went to the local stone monument company across the street from the particular cemetery that Eddie was being buried at and I walked in and I asked, “Did the Lichtenhahn Family happen to come to you?” and he said, “Yes.”  I asked, “DId they decide to purchase their grave stone from you?”  He said, “They came in and looked at some stones but did not make a final decision.” I said, “I would like to donate $500 towards their stone.” and I told the minister what my foundation was about and how I got started, would he accept my $500. That was Michael DeChristoper.  He said, “Wait a minute, let me call Charlie.”  He spoke to Charlie over the phone and Charlie said, “I tell you what I’ll do.  I’ll knock the price of the stone in half and then you walk across the street to Lawnview Cemetery and ask them if they’ll donate the foundation.” So I did and Lawnview Cemetery donated the foundation,which at that time was approximately $500.  And then Mr. DeChristopher cut down the price of their stone in half.  Their stone was $4,500.  The reason that Mr. DeChristopher said that he wouldn’t donate the whole stone is because it’s a family stone.  So he cut it half and accepted the $500 which took the engraving and the stone below $2,000. And that’s how I got involved with the Lichtenhahn family and that’s how Final Farewell got started.