When seven siblings lost their parents in a 2018 car accident, Pam and Gary Willis of California stepped in to give them a loving home.
The following written content by Susan Young
Life had been harsh for 12-year-old Adelino, who had been caring for his six younger siblings since he was about 6 years old – and things looked even worse after both of his parents were killed in a 2018 car accident involving the entire family.
“When we were with our biological parents, I was just living life day by day, trying to survive, trying to go to school but sometimes staying home to watch my sibling and make them food,” Adelino, who turns 16 on June 21, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I gave up on the thought of me having a future.”
But from the tragedy came hope after the youngsters were adopted by former nurse and now attorney Pam, 50, and Gary Willis, 53, of Menifee, California. The couple, who have been foster parents since 2013, had already raised their own five children, now aged 32 to 20, and were grandparents.
Gary was retiring from the post office after his first retirement as a Navy corpsman and the couple was looking forward to winding down to their retirement years.
Then fate threw a curve.
Adelino Anjos, 43, and Christina Fassett, 31, had both been in foster care as children, and carried on a cycle of poverty, domestic violence and addiction. They moved the family from Henderson, Nevada to Lakeside, California just six months before the accident, but their lives didn’t change.
Adelino and his sister, Ruby, now 13, took over the parent roles. They tried tending to their siblings with little or no food available to them, or any resources.
“There were a lot of times where I stayed at home instead of going to school because our parents ended up just disappearing,” Ruby says.
Ruby recalls how it took “quite a while” for her to adjust to a life with more stability in the Willis home.
“I get to be more of a kid than a parent,” she says.
Right before the accident, after his parents had been evicted from their San Diego East County apartment and were attempting to drive to Texas in a dilapidated car and U-Haul trailer, Adelino says he was thinking, “Man, how am I going to keep this up for another few years?” Read more from People.
