CT man’s dying wish: A gesture from President Trump

First District Councilwoman Bridgette Hoskie, pictured here at the side of her younger brother, Jay W. Barrett at Yale-New Haven Hospital, is trying to eliminate a few items on his bucket list, including a card, email or other gesture of acknowledgment from President Donald J. Trump. Barrett is terminally ill and a huge Trump fan. less First District Councilwoman Bridgette Hoskie, pictured here at the side of her younger brother, Jay W. Barrett at Yale-New Haven Hospital, is trying to eliminate a few items on his bucket list, including a ... more Photo: Bridgette Hoskie / Contributed Photo Photo: Bridgette Hoskie / Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close CT man’s dying wish: A gesture from President Trump 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

WEST HAVEN — First District City Councilwoman Bridgette Hoskie is, “100 percent Democrat,” but she’s on a mission to get people in the community to reach out to President Donald J. Trump on behalf of her younger brother, an avid Trump fan who is dying of cystic fibrosis.

The mission has become quite bipartisan.

Jay W. Barrett, 44, who began home hospice on Sunday, hasn’t been able to attend any of Trump’s rallies or even fulfill his wish of visiting Washington D.C. — his fantasy is to shake Trump’s hand — because he’s so vulnerable to illness, Hoskie said. Another person’s sniffles turn into his pneumonia, she said.

“My brother is very conservative, but politics aside, I think in a family religion and politics are off the table,” she said. “He hasn’t always had it easy and been able to do the things other people do. But yeah, he’s my baby brother — time is chasing us.”

When Barrett took a downturn recently and was treated at Yale New Haven Hospital, Hoskie took to Facebook, discreetly asking friends there to “help in making something on my brother’s bucket list a reality.” She wrote that it was a “secret/surprise” and asked those interested to private message her or make a comment and she’d message them.

Her private message to the willing was, “Please log onto whitehouse.gov and send a request to the president asking him to contact my brother. He loves Trump and it’s on his bucket list. He’s currently in Yale’s ICU so this happening would be amazing. Use your info and my brothers in the message.”

Hoskie said her brother would be thrilled just to get an acknowledgment from Trump that he’s a huge admirer.

She wrote that her brother’s name is Jay W. Barrett, and was so overwhelmed she wrote the wrong email address for him, which is actually Jay.Barrett75@yahoo.com. His Instagram name is Fight_Forward75.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, but Hoskie is concerned that people who already reached out used the email she mistakenly typed.

Hoskie said her brother, in the end stages of his congenital disease, is a Trump supporter “through and through” who believes the president “can do nothing wrong.” Hoskie added that her brother “believes in equality.”

Hoskie said her brother thinks Fox is the only station to watch, that CNN reports whatever the Democrats want. Barrett believes that Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen lied to Congress last week and he doesn’t believe kneeling during the National Anthem is very patriotic. She said he believes in the Trump way of doing business and his plans for helping the economy.

“He’ll say, ‘Trump is my president,’ ” Hoskie said of Barrett. “He loves the fact that Trump speaks his mind.” One of those who met with Barrett in the hospital after the Facebook post was state Rep. Charlie Ferraro, R-117, who was contacted by Democratic Town Committee Chairman Mike Last, who told Ferraro that Barrett had talking with Republicans on his “bucket list,” Ferraro said.

Ferraro, who visited just a few days ago, said he brought a woman in West Haven who has been to 44 Donald Trump rallies and others to visit Barrett in the hospital.

Ferraro said he will try to take Barrett out for coffee now that he’s out of the hospital and in home hospice care with Hoskie.

“I just want to help make his last days as pleasant as I can,” Ferraro said. “Say what you want to say about West Haven, but when the chips are down people come together to help.”

Mayor Nancy Rossi is also trying to help, Hoskie said.

Although Barrett can’t go to events with big crowds, he spreads positives about his president on social media and engages with others.

Barrett is also a huge Giants, Celtics and Mets fan, and wanted to go to the opening of baseball season, but it’s “too risky,” Hoskie said.

Before his recent downturn in health Barrett asked his sister, Hoskie, if she thought they could figure out a way to get him to D.C.

Hoskie said he then asked, “Can you imagine if we got there and saw him,” and they got to shake her hand? Hoskie said her brother’s ultimate wish was to see him, meet him and get a hello.

“He wanted the president to know he’s a supporter,” Hoskie said.

Hoskie said State Rep. Dorinda Borer, D-West Haven, is working on getting an American flag from the state or U.S. Capitol to fulfill her brother’s goal of having it for his funeral.

Editor’s note: An earlier version this story mistakenly had Jay W. Barrett’s first name as “Ray.”