James P. Adducci

James Paul Adducci was a force to be reckoned with. And for those who took him on, the impact was far more than a gentle ripple effect, it was an emotional wake to be managed with compassion, love, grit & tenacity. How you respond to a man like Jim will teach you how to respond to life’s greatest challenges.

He forced his way into the world on December 20, 1979. His parents were well past the median age of having babies AND his Dad had been ‘fixed’ for 9 years before Jim was conceived. Imagine the emotions, feelings, curiosity and questions that arose once they realized Nancy was having another baby, 10 & 17 years after their first two were born.

And Jim knew this. He felt it. And he had something to prove when he got here. He had a brilliant mind; soaking up details on anything that interested him started when he was caught reading the old leather-bound encyclopedias in the family den at the age of 5. As a little guy, he was inquisitive and silly and sported a huge heart, loving on his hamsters, his friends and family.

As an adolescent, things changed for Jim. Something happened, we really don’t know what…could have been bullying, could have been more than that, what we do know is what Dad said one day “I remember when I ‘lost’ your brother at boy scout camp – I had to go into the woods and find him, dragging him out just to go home.” But here’s the thing, our parents were raised to lift the carpet up and sweep the dust underneath it, not to sift through the dirt and get at the heart of what was going on. They didn’t know how. And that wasn’t their fault.

From that point forward, puberty and pain took over. At 17 Jim fell in love with weightlifting. He found weights were a way for him to work through his pain. He would hyper focus on anything he loved and he loved weights. He loved eating and the science of eating. How the body works. He attended Aquinas High School for two years, graduated from Central High School and continued on to UW-La Crosse where he graduated with a degree in finance. He was so good with numbers, they came easy. He could see things and the possibility of more.

Jim became very black & white with his thinking. Although he had quite the vivid imagination, finding an outlet for his creative mind through writing (the start of) ‘his first novel’ in his early 20s, with sites on it being made into a movie. Research was one of his favorite things. And he would always find a way to spin it in his favor. With that in mind, he never thought twice about making BOLD moves, like contacting a doctor at MIT and asking that he takes Jim’s research on as a semester project to prove its validity. They did. And from this he developed and held a patent at the age of 26. He developed and sold a protein powder based on the combined science and his own experience knowing it to offer better results than standard protein powders on the market. He cared in BIG ways. This was the impact he wanted to have. BIG.

And Jim loved big. He was a master at impersonations, making goofy faces and making people laugh. He loved all things food (way beyond most people’s love of food!), talking about food, sharing food, recommending his favorite restaurants and of course eating all the food; he loved music, trees, flowers, traveling, a good adventure, the ‘finer’ things, weights, fortunes (the cookie kind), writing, golf, the water, his truck, racoons, Arnold Schwarzenegger, his friends, his cats, his puppies and his girlfriend. He was also a creature of habit, starting EVERY day by reading from his favorite book, The Best of Success , since the day it was gifted to him at the age of 18. He deeply admired his paternal grandfather, having written a short biography for a college paper. And he loved his family even though he didn’t really know how to. Or ‘why he was born into a family that wasn’t ‘normal’’… You really couldn’t tell Jim anything. He didn’t want to hear it no matter how much you wanted him to – and often, that resulted in arguments that went on for hours, days, months & years. He would sometimes say “I don’t know why I do that.” Yet, it didn’t change.

So what happened? He was here to prove something. To be seen. To be heard. Emotionally, as the years went on and Jim’s life ‘wasn’t what he had envisioned’, he started to feel the angst that was passed on to him in utero and through the family system. You see, his maternal grandfather died by suicide at 25. Nancy, only 3 at the time, was now without her dad – all she wanted was answers, but her family thought they were ‘protecting her’ by hiding the truth. She never got her answers and became estranged from her family.

As it goes, when an energy is cut off, cut out of the system, it will eventually find it’s way back. That was Jim. He was here to bring that energy back into the family system, to bear witness to the truth. To be seen. To be heard. To heal the ancestral cycles through his own experiences. To break the patterns left behind. But he didn’t know this and although his spiritual being was prepared for this purpose, his human was not. He always said no matter how bad it would get he could never take his own life. Yet he could not get out of his own way to meet the darkness head on. Instead, he decided to meet EVERYONE else head on.

Simply stated his ego took over. He got sucked into the societal overhang of more. His ability to see more & see big became misaligned and overtook his ability to think rationally. This happens when we live in and from fear.

Jim always talked about leaving a legacy; to him, that meant he would be taking care of everyone in the family. And he will. It is NOT one met with money, property and wealth, but it IS one met with truth, wisdom and lasting impact. We are here to carry on. We see you. We hear you. We love you. And we will carry on so that your soul can rest in peace. Next time you are here, it won’t be through forcing your way in, forcing your way through or forcing your way out. We’ve got you. And from the words of your favorite song, we will hold close the idea to ‘…know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.’

Jim left this world, killed instantly in a head on collision with another car on December 2, 2022. God called him home, at 42, because it was time. He leaves behind his badass warrior goddess girlfriend, Kristen aka ‘mama’ & ‘wife’, their two beloved dogs, Hazel & Otto, their sweet cats Igor & Remi; his two older sisters, Mary Shisler and Joanne Adducci; brother-in-law, Mark Shisler; his niece Danielle and two nephews, Adam & Hogan. He is preceded in death by both of his parents, Jim and Nancy Adducci. We know deeply they are ALL at peace now, together. Something they never had here on earth. Please join us at 4 Sisters Wine Bar, La Crosse, WI on January 21 ^st from 1-4pm as we celebrate the newfound peace for these 3 souls, along with the big energy and incredible legacy of deep wisdom Jim leaves behind.

Planting a tree in Jim’s memory or donating to help local animals would be a beautiful expression of sympathy. You will find The Trees Remember link here and the Coulee Region Humane Society link here .

PS – The enormity of what happens when we don’t know how to move through the unattended emotions of generational baggage, ancestral wounds & our own life’s trauma to get at the heart of mental illness is undeniable. We all have something that needs tending to. And we all have free will which allows us to choose how we live our lives. Break the cycles. It is your divine right to find inner peace and personal freedom. You can move through the fear. You can choose differently than those that came before you. Create awareness. Choose love.