Family of a 34-year-old Rockford man killed Nov. 11 when his wheelchair was hit by a vehicle have established a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral expenses.
Julius Hollis was headed home about 9:35 p.m. when a vehicle hit his wheelchair near the intersection of West State Street and Bayliss Avenue. His death, less than two weeks after his 34th birthday, has devastated his family, said Jessica Hollis, one of his two sisters.
“I’m sorry, it’s just so hard, that’s my only brother,” an emotional Jessica Hollis said during a phone interview Wednesday. “My brother was everything. He was a good person. He was funny. He had a good heart. He would do anything for anybody. That’s why this is really — why this is killing us.”
Julius Hollis and his family including his sisters and mother moved to Rockford from Chicago about six years ago. He was hit by a car when he was 4 and had to re-learn to walk.
In 2018, he had a cancerous brain tumor removed which forced him to use a wheelchair. Although he could walk, his sister explained, the tumor had thrown off his equilibrium. It was safer for him to use the wheelchair.