Widower Has Fostered 80 Terminally Ill Children To Show Them Love In Their Final Days

Feb 21, 2023 by apost team

When Mohamed Bzeek moved from his native Libya to the United States as a student in 1978, little did he know how he would come to change the lives of the most vulnerable children in the area and what impact he would have on their lives.

In 1989, he married Dawn, who had been fostering children for years. With her, he began to ease into the life of a foster parent as well, caring for children who had nobody else in life, with some suffering from conditions that offered almost no hope of survival.

In 1991, Bzeek experienced the first death of a foster child.

“This one hurt me so badly when she died,” he said, as per the Los Angeles Times. The child had suffered spinal disorder, wore a full body cast and wasn’t even 1 year old when she passed as the couple was preparing dinner. A few years later, they decided to foster only terminally-ill children. 

When Dawn died in 2015, he carried on fostering the children nobody else would in Azusa, Los Angeles County. By 2017, he had fostered 80 of them and was by their side or holding 11 of them who passed while in his care.

“The key is, you have to love them like your own,” Bzeek said. “I know they are sick. I know they are going to die. I do my best as a human being and leave the rest to God.”

Bzeek also cares for his physically challenged biological son, who was born with brittle bone and dwarfism in 1997. He had attended Citrus College and used an electric wheelchair to get to his classes.

In November 2016, Bzeek was diagnosed with colon cancer and had to undergo surgery alone. However, the experience opened his eyes.

“I felt about the kids who had been sick all their lives ... if I am an adult at 62 years old and I feel this, like I am alone, I am scared, nobody is telling me it will be ok, it will be fine ... this experience humbled me,” he told PBS News.

In 2017, Bzeek was caring for Samantha. She suffered from microcephaly, was deaf and blind, and suffered seizures so regularly that Bzeek would sleep on the couch to be nearer to her at night. His bond with her was showcased in the documentary “Guardian of Angels,” released in 2018. 

“The only way to communicate with her is by touch, and so I hold her. I want her to know that somebody is here for her. Somebody loves her. She is not alone,” he said.

“Her life is not complete suffering. She has moments where she’s enjoying herself and she’s pretty content, and it’s all because of Mohamed,” Dr. Suzanne Roberts, Samantha’s pediatrician, said. 

However, after almost nine years of caring for Samantha, she passed away in 2020.

A GoFundMe page set up to help Bzeek has now blown past its original target of $100,000 and collected more than $840,000 by August 2022. With the funds, Bzeek has installed air-conditioning and a water heater in his home and repaired his van and his son’s wheelchair. Bzeek also intends to renovate his home to make it more wheelchair accessible.

Bzeek has also updated his fostering license, which will enable him to foster more than one child at a time.

On what motivates Bzeek to continue caring for such children, he said:

“I give these kids the best I have to offer in the short time they’re here. They leave here knowing that they were loved.”

apost.com

How inspiring is Mohamed Bzeek’s story? Could you ever devote your life to such a selfless cause as Bzeek? Let us know and pass this on to family and friends who would love to read about Bzeek’s journey.