'Big Ang' Funeral Prayer Card Sold on eBay for $2K; Friend Says He's 'Disgusted'
A prayer card from the funeral of reality television star Angela Raiola was recently posted to eBay with a starting bid of $2,000.
The prayer card honoring "Big Ang" was added to the website over the weekend, with the two-sided card described as being in "excellent condition." It included a photo of the "Mob Wives" star as well as the "After Glow" prayer, the text of which reads, in part: "I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one. I'd like to leave an afterglow of smiles when the day is done."
As of Tuesday, the posting had been removed from eBay, suggesting it had been sold.
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Rich Canci, a resident of Staten Island and self-proclaimed friend of Raiola, shared on Facebook that he notified eBay of the posting to have it removed.
"As a friend I am so disgusted by this, I clicked buy item then cancelled just to get it off the internet! What a disgusting piece of [expletive] this person is," Canci wrote on Tuesday.
Over 200 friends and family, including several "Mob Wives" co-stars, gathered at the Basilica of Regina Pacis in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday to pay their respects to the 55-year-old reality star, who passed away on February 18 after battling lung and brain cancer for years.
Janine Detore, sister to Raiola, spoke at the Monday service, saying Angela was always a star in her eyes long before her "Mob Wives" TV exposure.
"A few days before her death, my sister said she was at peace with dying and she was ready. I said, 'I'm not!' She said, 'Get over it!'" Detore said as she wiped away tears.
"She was a star long before TV. 'Mob Wives' didn't make her a star, she made the show a hit," the sister added.
Us Weekly reports that the funeral was open casket, and "Big Ang" was dressed in a fur coat and surrounded by flowers, just as she "would have wanted it," one attendee said.
Raiola's friend, Vinnie Medugno, added in a statement on Instagram that the reality television star "was surrounded by nothing but love from her immediate family, and closest friends," in her last hours, saying that "[Big Ang] truly went out richer than any monetary value could ever amount to."
"YOU, (Her fans) were some of the most special people in her world, and she loved you immensely," he continued. "In typical Big Ang fashion, we know she would say 'Love you my babies!'"
"You lived by your own mantra. I will love you, cherish you, and hold you in my heart wherever I go, and whatever I do," Medugno added.
Raiola appeared on the VH1 series "Mob Wives" from 2011-2012, and then starred in her own spin-off series "Big Ang," which was later renamed "Miami Monkey."
The 55-year-old reality star is the niece of a crime boss with the Genovese mafia family stationed in New York City, New York. She previously owned the "Drunken Monkey" bar in Staten Island before having her license revoked from the state because she is a convicted felon.
