Brotherly Love: Jonathan Bryan Fisher Lives On

A Philadelphia teacher found a new calling: not just helping her students, but helping other people. The reason she started was to remember her son.

Jonathan Bryan Fisher hoped to be a Hollywood stuntman, and in photos he looked ready to take on the world.

"A soulful person. He had a lot of depth to him, and he cared about everybody around him," said his mother Sandi.

But Jonathan had a secret he kept from his mother. He had been bullied as a teen and was slipping into depression. He turned to drugs. He died seven years ago at the age of 23.

Afterward, his mother Sandi found out just how generous Jonathan could be.

"He would go and visit my husband's aunt in a nursing home and he did that for almost year while she was in the nursing home and nobody knew," said Sandi.

So Sandi, a teacher at H.R. Edmunds Elementary in Philly, decided to start the Jonathan Bryan Fisher fund to help others.

She found someone who needed help just a few classrooms away: Lisa O'Neill. Lisa needed some continuing education to keep her certification, but money was tight for the family.

"My mom, as much as they wanted to help, they didn't have it," said Lisa.

So Sandi stepped in and paid the $1200 Lisa needed.

"I don't know what would be happening if, if a year and a half ago she hadn't helped me out. I don't know where I would be," said Lisa.

Sandi has also helped others, such as a girl who needed a computer for school.

"I want people to succeed and then maybe help someone else. Pay it forwardly," said Sandi.

It's a small project; the fund donates a little bit of money once a year. But to Sandi, it's what Jonathan would have done.

"We wanted to keep his name alive, and his memory," she said.

There's no special thing the fund looks for, just a person who could use a hand.

Jonathan Bryan Fisher Fund
232 Tulip Tree Court
Blue Bell Pa 19422

Reported by: By Dave Huddleston