Producer, director, and Tyler Perry steps up to the plate.
In case you missed it, on Thursday, Aug. 4, 15-month-old twin girls Ariel and Alaynah North died after they were reportedly left alone inside their father’s car. The father, Asa North, was arrested the following day and charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of reckless conduct, Chris Dobbs of the Carrollton Police Department told ABC News at the time.
Meanwhile, the girls’ mother, Breal Ellis, was in Atlanta at the time, visiting her sister who had been hospitalized after a serious car crash the day before, reports WSB-TV. “I was with them every day and the one day I left … I just want to tell them I’m sorry,” she told WSB-TV through tears. “They didn’t deserve to die like that or to die, period, but I know they’re in heaven.”
In a effort to give her children a proper burial, Ellis and a family friend set up a GoFundMe page to raise $10K. As of this week, the page had raised more than twice that amount.
But that’s not it. After seeing the story on a local news channel, Perry, 46, reached out to the family (via a WSB reporter) offering to cover the Ellis girls’ funeral costs, the station reports. While it’s unclear whether Ellis has accepted the offer, this is certainly not the first time Perry has stepped up to the plate in a time of need.
In 2012, the movie mogul heard a Channel 2 Action News report about a theft in Decatur, where perps made off with a customized Chrysler minivan. Inside, was a wheelchair, belonging to a 24-year-old woman, Alicia Day, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Seeing as the wheelchair,was her sole transportation to her part-time job as a greeter at Home Depot on Ponce de Leon Avenue, Perry did what any goodhearted humanitarian would — bought her an upgrade — a van priced at nearly $60K.
In July 2015, Perry offered to “take care of everything” for Bobbi Kristina Brown’s funeral, sources told Entertainment Tonight at the time. His intent? To keep “the peace” between the Houstons and the Browns. Following her private funeral, Brown’s body was reportedly transported on Tyler Perry’s private jet to New Jersey where she was buried beside her mother Whitney Houston.
What are your thoughts on Perry’s long line of humanitarian works? Sound off in the comment section below.
