"I'm just 23 but adopting my little sister, 11, after our mum died and our dad has been given just days to live"

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A 23-year-old has adopted her 11-year-old sister after their mum died and her dad was given days to live.  Ezri Hart has taken on care of Braidyn Neefe, 11, after her father Michael, 49, was diagnosed with terminal cancer.   Ezri and Braidyn share the same mother, Erika Neefe, 45, who died last year after a stroke.  Braidyn has now moved in with Ezri and her husband, David, 24, after Michael's conditioned worsened - forcing the 23-year-old to learn to parent overnight.   She was formally adopted by the couple in May.  Ezri, from Vancouver, Washington, US, who manages a freight warehouse, said: “When Michael got the cancer diagnosis, I had pretty big breakdown.   “Part of me was grieving for a life that I had planned for myself.   “I’m only 23, and was living a pretty typical life of a 23-year-old which I was kind of enjoying.  “Now I can’t do anything without also planning to take care of Braidyn.   “My plan B was altered with Michael as we thought he would have a year or two at least to live rather than a couple of weeks.   “I’m trying to create a sense of normalcy for Braidyn so we can have a general life plan ahead.  “She has had a lot of instability. I’m hoping we can get a nice place to live, and figure out how to work through all this."  Erika had a stroke in December 2022 and Ezri says she then refused to take blood pressure medication as it “made her feel funny".  Braidyn’s father, Michael, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma, a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumour, in late 2022.  Erika then had another stroke in February, which led to a serious brain bleed and she died on February 9.  Braidyn moved in with Ezri while Michael also moved to a separate house in Vancouver, WA.  Then, in June, Michael was given a maximum of three months to live, with doctor's predicting he will die in less than three weeks from now.   Having previously been given five years, his deterioration happened after he had an insurance issue when he moved to Vancouver and temporarily lost access to cancer treatment.  Ezri said: “My sister Braidyn was born when I was 12.  "Somehow I knew she was going to live with me at some point.   “Mum had bad mental health problems.  I thought this would be the reason why she would have to give up Braidyn, but it ended up being because she passed away.  "The day she moved in with me was the first time she’d ever been outside of the east of Washington state.    “She came over from eastern Washington state.   “It was the first time she had been near mountains and trees.   “It was a really strange experience.  "I was really sad and yet Braidyn was having all these new life experiences - she was happy in a lot of ways.   Ezri has since started a GoFundMe, which can be donated to here (gofund.me/4bf16b30) to raise funds for Braidyn to be able to spend some precious time with Michael while he is still here and for his memorial.   They are trying to tick-off as many things as possible on Michael’s bucket list.

Transcript

00:00 Hi, my name is Ezri. This here is my little sister and she is about to lose both of her parents in less than six months.

00:08 February of this year, our mother, you can see here, she passed away from a stroke.

00:14 And Brayden had to then move four hours away from the only place she's ever grown up and move in with me.

00:22 And she chose to move in with me because her father, who's in the middle here and was in that first photo,

00:26 a year ago was diagnosed with glioblastoma.

00:30 This last weekend, Michael here had been, he went back to the ER for some pretty serious headaches.

00:37 After an MRI, they discovered a tumor twice the size of the last one and it had metastasized.

00:44 I don't know if I'm saying that right.

00:46 So this little girl, my little girl that I have gotten to spend the last six months with is about to lose both of her parents in six months.

00:57 She is an amazing little girl and losing one parent is hard enough, let alone two and let alone in six months.

01:04 But they have three more weeks together.

01:07 And I really want to give them, you know, the bucket list of their dreams, you know, just help them live the best that they can in the next three weeks.

01:19 So if you're able to donate, if you're able to help out, I don't have the means to just do it all myself.

01:26 So if you're able to help out and give this little girl an amazing last few weeks with her father, there's going to be donation stuff in my bio.

01:34 And yeah, anything that we don't use in the next few weeks will be used for funeral stuff and memorial stuff and supporting Brayden in the next couple of months.

01:44 So thank you. Thank you for at least listening.

01:48 Thank you for asking.

01:50 It's not my father, it's my stepfather, but that is our mother.

01:54 There's the three, me, Brayden and my mom together from a few years ago.

01:58 Here's a photo of me and my mom when I was little.

02:02 Here's tiny baby Brayden with my mom and then baby Brayden with her dad as well.

02:09 And I am all right.

02:12 Thank you for asking.

02:14 There is a lot going on and I'm one of those people that is focused on solving things and fixing things.

02:21 So.

02:24 But don't worry, I'm in therapy.

02:26 She's here, she is going to tell us what she wants to do with daddy the next few weeks.

02:31 I want to go swimming with him and like visiting the beach and like trying Irish food.

02:39 That's something that he wants to do.

02:41 Yeah, we'll join him though.

02:43 Yeah, but most of all I want to have fun with him.

02:47 Yeah, what about Samantha? Does she have anything she wants to do?

02:51 I want to have fun with him too and visit a swimming pool.

02:55 It's a good plan. It's a good plan.

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