Everyone needs a friend like Brenna Abbinanti, her best friend Dori Sawyer said.
When she died on Friday, it devastated many in the suburban Philadelphia community where she lived.
Abbinanti died at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg following a golf cart accident over the Fourth of July weekend in the Poconos, the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office said. Abbinanti, of Mont Clare in Montgomery County, was pronounced dead at 9:46 p.m. Friday at the hospital in Bethlehem.
The incident occurred about 1 a.m. July 6 in the 6000 Block of Timothy Lake Road in Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County, according to a news release from the coroner’s office.
A GoFundMe was created by Sawyer, who said the surrounding Phoenixville community knew Abbinanti well.
Sawyer said Abbinanti was involved in the community in a plethora of ways, including the Phoenixville Firebird Festival. She was passionate about her involvement with the nonprofit organization Save the Schuylkill, dedicated to keeping the river clean. She was an animal lover, who rescued a pitbull previously uses as a bait dog, Sawyer said.
In addition to her involvement in the community, Abbinanti owned a cleaning business called Your Common Cleaner. After flooding affected Mont Clare in 2021, Sawyer said, Abbinanti was there to help her neighbors clean their homes, often working 15-hour days.
Abbinanti was a “foodie,” Sawyer said, and enjoyed going out, eating at restaurants and meeting new people.
“She was just the best friend anybody could have ever asked for or wanted,” Sawyer said. “She was just somebody you could really be yourself around, was never judgmental or mean.”
When Abbinanti was in the hospital, Sawyer estimates more than 100 people came to see her.
Sawyer said their friend group is diverse, but Abbinanti could relate to anyone. She always cheered on her peers. Sawyer said everyone needs a friend like that.
“I don’t think I’ve stopped crying since I found out what happened,” she said. “She was just a ray of sunshine to everybody.”
An autopsy completed on Monday revealed her cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head, with the manner of death being accidental.
According to the coroner’s office release, Abbinanti was a passenger in the golf cart and fell out.
The incident is currently under investigation by Pennsylvania State Police.
No other information can be released at this time, police said.
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