Meet Denny

Dennis Anthony Kapurelos, Jr.

The love of my life was born on June 7th, 1981 in Chester Pennsylvania.  He was vibrant, full of life, and loved to be the funniest kid in the classroom.  He was fearless!  Denny was an adventurous soul. He loved four wheeling, scuba diving, boating, water skiing and just about anything with an adrenaline rush. Everyone seemed to love Denny. He was kind and compassionate and had a heart like no other. He attended multiple proms in high school and even accompanied a young lady who was not expected to live beyond her high school years. He made her night!  At 18 years old he graduated High school and with the many talents he possessed, the world was his to conquer.

Despite growing up with a rough child hood, Denny always seemed to be optimistic about his future.  At an early age Denny's parents divorced and he to chose to live with his father.  It was only a short while after the divorce that Denny's mother passed away from Pancreatic cancer. One day at age 18 that optimistic spirit was faced with reality when Denny collapsed unexpectedly while carrying a simple gallon of milk. He was rushed to the hospital and doctors discovered a massive tumor in his chest.  Unfortunately, due to his critical condition,  the doctors responded in a way that would cause more damage than good.  They chose radiation without taking a biopsy. At the time It saved his life however it was only buying time. He was transferred to University Penn State. Doctors said he would need to wait for the tumor to grow back so they could figure out what type of aggressive cancer he had.  Denny was then induced into a coma.  

Diagnoses Non HoDgKIn's lymphoma.  

The survival rate at that time was very low.  He endured testing and treatments daily. He had multiple chest tubes, radiation twice a day, chemo, tracheotomy, oxygen, and many more. Although the odds were not good, Denny fought hard during this time.  He would have a long road of recovery ahead of him but that didn't change his attitude and optimism.  

While most 18 year old's are focused on college and careers, Denny was focused on surviving. That didn't seem to get in his way of a career path either.  He moved to Florida where Denny's passion for life led him to chose the field of Nursing. He would always tell me that is was the nurses who saved his life and he wanted to become one too. During his schooling, Denny was involved with NA and worked with his step father in the construction field. His many talents allowed him to learn and become the greatest craftsman I have ever seen. 

THE GOOD YEARS

If you haven't guessed by now, I'm the girl to the left Shawn Hunsberger. I met Denny in 2009 and was instantly intrigued by who he was after dealing with what he had. I couldn't believe that someone who went through what he did had such an amazing attitude. Our attraction led us to fall in love with one another and by the year 2012 he proposed to me. I was the happiest woman alive.  I as well was in school to become a nurse and he and I both wanted to finish school before tying the knot.  We bought our first home together in 2012 and life was wonderful. By 2014 Denny was in RN school and had started his own cabinet shop!  It was his dream to own his own business where he would provide the most up-scaled design for his customers.  All of his customers loved him and loved his work.  He relied solely on referrals and word of mouth for his business.  He was inundated with work because his craftsmanship was so incredible.  That speaks volumes as to truly how good he was.  

Denny loved his toys.  He had a CBR 1000 motorcycle, two jet skies, and finally got his dream car, a Nissan GTR.  

In 2014 Denny and I decided to redo our kitchen and by the end of that project he became ill again. We thought he had pneumonia or some sort of Respiratory infection. Nothing prepared us for what was to come.  

Denny went to his cardiologist and was told that he would need open heart surgery right away because his mitral valve was regurgitating back into his lungs which was causing him difficulties with breathing.  Most of this was caused by the effects of the radiation at age 18. We both were shocked that the radiation would have this much of an impact on his heart by age 32.  Early September of 2014 Denny endured open heart surgery.    

Denny quickly recovered and graduated from nursing school. He continued to work so hard at his successful business.  By May 2015 he required a right throacoetmy with decoration.  July 2016 left lung throacoectomy with decoration.  By all this surgical intervention we were told this would be it. The surgeons’ words were, “by this time next year you will run a marathon”.

BREAKING OUR HEARTS

In September of 2016, a month away from our wedding, Dennis suffered major symptoms of Congestive heart failure.  Our cardiologist informed us that there was nothing we could do, he needs to have both a heart and lung transplant.  From that point on our lives were never the same.  

Despite this horrific news, we still chose to get married. It was the best day of our lives. We danced the night away together with family and friends. It wasn't long after our wedding that we spent most of the year in 2017 doing evaluations at various hospitals. Traveling to North Carolina, Houston Texas then lastly in Orlando FL.

July 21, 2017 Denny was admitted into a Orlando FL hospital where he was accepted for a heart transplant.  We were so happy, grateful, and relieved to hear the news.

 Denny would always say, “I’m willing to die to try”.  Dennis was not made to be a man that was sick. He was so strong, happy, never complained about his situation and always had a smile on his face.  

September 11, 2017 Denny called me and said they have a heart for me.  At first, I was filled with joy, but that joy soon turned into fear.  I drove to Orlando that night to be with my husband and to hold him closely.  The next morning all the nurses along with my mom said a prayer for God's work to be done.  

Dennis walked to the stretcher and said, “let’s do this!”.  

THE FIGHT

That was the last day Denny walked on his own.  After a 10 hour surgery there were many complications as expected. His lungs were extremely fibrotic and he still needed a pair of new lungs.  Our hope was that he would pull through like he always did and he would get new lungs and have a new heart and everything would be okay.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case at all.  

Three long months in CVICU with lots of horrible things to see and witness.  To see a man that you live go through pure torture is the worst thing to live through.  The last month was extremely devastating and I was able to hear Denny’s voice for one last time.  

He said, “I want to give it two more weeks and see if there’s improvements, and that he was sorry and that he loved me”.  

Denny lost a great battle on January 2, 2018 at 5:20pm.  He was surrounded by family and loved ones that cared for him.  Played his favorite song Come together, and few others.  I was lying in bed with him as he took his last breath and his last beat of his heart.  

Dennis Anthony Kapurelos, Jr is the strongest man I will ever know.  

My love and heart will forever be with you Denny❤️

Perfect Teeth

by  Brandon Mulhall  

In January 2018, I drove my 2015 black Honda Civic with my younger sister and grandma as my parents had left for work earlier and said they would meet us at the funeral. Throughout the drive, I wanted to reminisce on happier times during the summer of 2016 when I worked as Denny’s helper. Due to Denny’s heart and lungs not properly functioning, he needed a helper around to fulfill basic needs of his cabinetry business because he got tired very easily. I gladly took the opportunity to help a family friend. I remember one of my first days on the job I was in his shop (which was really a small warehouse) and he taught me how to make a standard rectangular cabinet that would be hung up on the wall. I had to use a wooden rectangular spacer he created that was about three inches wide to connect the three pieces of wood. Denny taught me to trace a vertical line with a pencil outlining the spacer, then follow the line with his Porter-Cable nail gun shooting about five shots from the top to bottom. I was a complete amateur and did not aim the nail gun in the correct angle, which led to the nails shooting right through the wood and being visible on the inside of the cabinet essentially ruining it. Instead of berating me, the six-foot-tall Greek man flashed his pearly white teeth and with a slight giggle said, “This is going to be a fun time.” He stood over my shoulder as I proceeded to mess up several cabinets and cited that I would get better. By my last day of working with him, I was able to build an entire kitchen. Reality struck back as I parked at the Horizon Funeral home in Pompano Beach, Florida. I felt droplets of rain splatter on my face as I began to walk inside with my family.

My family and I were one of the last groups of people to enter the funeral home, so all of the roughly 100 seats were taken when we entered the room where the service would take place. We ended up having to stand off to the side. I did not want to walk up to the casket and see Denny because I did not want that image of him engrained in my mind. He no longer looked like the person that I saw a few months prior in the hospital. The athletic tan man with the lush black hair was instead a bloated grey-haired pale man that was simply unrecognizable. I wanted a better memory. I wanted to greet his wife, Shawn, and tell her how sorry I am, but she was sitting right next to Denny’s cherry red casket carefully running her fingers through his hair while letting out soft whimpers.

As I grew closer to Denny after working with him, I realized he never acted like someone that was slowly dying. He talked about having kids with his wife. He talked about building a second floor to his one-story home. He talked about becoming a nurse. His perseverance and kindness drew me toward someone to look up to. His kindness was showcased when I accidentally drove his box truck through a tree branch that was hanging above the street in a client’s neighborhood while alone. The branch left a hole that was about the size of two basketballs at the top right of the box truck. After a brief phone call explaining what happened, I was extremely worried that he would fire me on the spot when I arrived back at the shop. He slowly walked out of the shop and began chuckling after he asked if I was okay. Instead of making me feel bad about the damage I had done, he called me “Mr. Magoo” and made fun of my driving for the rest of the summer. The 36-year-old Denny was put to rest after complications of a heart transplant. It did not stop raining the day of the funeral. The somber weather fit the mood of the crowd. I will never forget the tall compassionate Greek man with the perfect teeth.