Mandi Gardner was a waitress at the Waffle House
in Concord, North Carolina for 11 years and one of
her regulars was a man named Mike Paradalis,
a veteran who served in the Air Force.

The last time she saw him she locked her keys in her
car and he helped her unlock the car. On April 10 he
had a heart attack and died alone in his van.

For around 14 days nobody claimed his body at the
NorthEast Medical Center and it appeared nobody
wanted to claim the body, except for Mandi.

She told the local news “there’s no memorial, no
headstone, no goodbye, nothing for someone to track
down and find”. So she started a fundraiser to raise
the money needed to claim his body and give him a
decent burial.

People came forward with money and the information
that his funeral might be provided for free…