Sian-Pierre Regis was heartbroken when he found out that his mother had lost her job. He received the bad news in a voicemail and didn’t know what he could do to help his mom out.
Regis’ mother had been working as a housekeeper for as long as he could remember. After thinking of what he could possibly do to help his mom out, he decided that he was going to do something special for her.
Regis decided that after years and years of hard work, it was time for his mom to experience living the life of her dreams. And he wanted to experience it with her.
Regis’ mother is Rebecca Danigelis. She lost her job at 75 years old. She broke the news to her son through a heartbreaking voicemail.
“I just got fired, just want you to know that. Call me. Bye,” was all the voicemail said.
“We were raised above a hotel. I was always very aware of the fact that everything she made went into our mouths,” Regis said, remembering the sacrifices his mother had made for him and his brother when they were young.
Regis remembered that his mother had created a bucket list for herself which consisted of things she wanted to do before she died.
“When she got fired, all these bucket list items took on so much more weight,” Regis said.
So Regis decided to help his mother fulfill the things on her bucket list. He set off with her to do the things she had always wanted to do.
Some of the things on the bucket list included taking hip-hop dancing lessons, milking a cow in Vermont, and visiting her sister’s grave in England. She didn’t get the chance to attend her sister’s funeral because of work and badly wanted to visit her grave.
So Regis took her to England to visit her sister’s grave, and even took her to a hip hop dance class with a dancer from Broadway’s Hamilton.
“There is a spirit within her that I’ve never seen so bright, she’s 75 but I’ve never seen her younger than in these moments,” Regis said about his mother.
Regis and his mom aren’t done with the bucket list yet. Danigelis still wants to experience skydiving. She also wants to run the Boston Marathon. She plans on doing both with her two sons.
She continues to look for a new job in hospitality—which is where she worked her whole life—but admits that she is having a hard time finding an employer who will hire someone her age.
Regis has filmed their adventures from the start, documenting the entire story.
Duty Free Film
“So many people in their day-to-day jobs render that dream impossible, but now through this film, she’s able to tell her story and be in control of this story,” Regis said about the film he is creating while on this journey with his mother.
Regis wants to continue doing things on his mom’s bucket list through what’s left of 2017.
He has even started a Kickstarter campaign to help raise money for the costs of creating his mom’s film, which is called Duty Free.
The mother-son duo will continue to complete the items on Danigelis’ bucket list , while documenting their whole journey on Instagram, Facebook, and of course on film.
