Lunisol Guzman a warm, big-hearted woman. As a single mother, she raised 3 children; until the end of his 40s, followed two more.
Then tragedy. Guzman died of COVID-19, and his 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter were orphaned by their mothers.
But they wouldn’t be left alone. Guzman’s adult daughters Katherine, 32, and Jennifer, 28, mobilized to raise the children their mother embraced in middle age.
“It’s a curse because we lost our mother, but overall it’s a blessing,” Katherine said. “We won two little angels. “
They never had a choice but to raise the two cubs themselves.
“These children are our family, ” said Katherine. ” For us, it’s obvious. “
His mother was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New Jersey when he was just over twenty years old. In the 11 years leading up to the pandemic, she drove back and forth from campus to Montclair State University, where a vice president praised her as “diligent and soft- voiced. “
Four years ago, Lunisol, at the age of 46 to become the foster mother of a young boy, followed this boy, Zavion, two years later, and after her biological mother had another child, she also followed this girl, Jazzmyn, to grow up together.
What motivated Lunisol to adopt in his last forty years?Katherine warned that her mother went through a traumatic occasion as a young adult, when a complicated pregnancy ended with emergency surgery that saved her life but not that of the child she was carrying.
“He felt something was missing, ” said Katherine. ” Then, one day, he really followed her: he provided a house for a child in need.
Last year, Lunisol married in Newark, New Jersey. Su husband, Ismael Lugo, a year that the youngest, had two children of his own and has become the stepfather of the five young men of Lunisol, with an era of 30 years between the eldest and the youngest.
It is not an ancient nuclear circle of relatives, but it is a loving circle of relatives, although too soon they had to face a double loss. Ismael died of COVID-19 on April 11 and Lunisol, after six weeks in the hospital, died on May 7.
Katherine and Jennifer had long sought to have children, even if the time was never right. They now temporarily requested joint custody of Zavion and Jazzmyn.
Zavion basically lives with Jennifer and her husband in Newark, and Jazzmyn basically with Katherine and her boyfriend near Elizabeth. It’s a short trip between the houses and the sisters meet so the young men can play together.
Reviewing their mother’s loss would possibly lead Katherine and Jennifer to the point of breaking tears, but their new role in raising their siblings through adoption gives them strength.
“It’s because of them that we’ve stayed together so far,” Katherine said. “We woke up in the morning and it’s Zavion and Jazzmyn, and they’re counting on us. “
Katherine says the two young men have shown recoverability and rarely say, “I miss Mom. “
“We’re not going to leave you, ” said Katherine. ” They’ll know what our mom did for them. “
This article written through David Crary for the Associated Press.