Daughter of slain NYPD officer describes 8-year fight for her younger siblings to receive mom's pension

Watch Daughter of slain NYPD officer describes 8-year fight for her younger siblings to receive mom's pension - New York Post on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00So Genesis, take me back to that very traumatic day in July 2017 when you found out what happened

00:07to your mother, what was your reaction, and what were your first thoughts? July 5th, 2017

00:11was the worst day of my life. It was when hell erupted on earth for me and my family.

00:19A part of me died that day. Literally, a part of me was killed. And I remember being 20 years old and

00:32seeing my mom for the first time in the hospital where she was dead and disfigured when I had only

00:40seen her a couple hours earlier, alive and full of love. The pain has never gone away. It hasn't

00:49subsided. In some ways, it's gotten worse because of so many milestones and things that you should

00:55have been here for. There was no real support there immediately for you, especially when it came to

01:00receiving your mother's pension. Talk to me a little bit about the struggle you went through

01:03trying to get that money and what you've gone through. I know it's not finished or resolved,

01:07but how's that journey been? My bill grants survivor death benefits

01:12to the orphan children of fallen first responders who die in the line of duty the same way that

01:20surviving spouses and the surviving parents, if there's no spouse and no children,

01:26receive their deceased heroes death benefits for the rest of their lives. I'm in the same position as

01:32a widow or a widower. And I'm also an orphan child and I'm sort of in this extremely unique role

01:42where the laws that are extremely outdated don't acknowledge roles in families like mine,

01:53but there are organizations that have stepped in to make sure that I was taken care of and that I was

01:59held. How did this charity and others, if at all, kind of help you in that journey and the journey

02:06you've been on since? I remember the first time my first interaction with Answer the Call. I remember,

02:14you know, distinctly how much care and compassion Lauren showed me. The organization, you know,

02:24really prioritizes, you know, to protect orphan children and to support the orphan children who are

02:30the most vulnerable. Their support, the financial support has been absolutely critical. You've

02:36literally done something that almost no one else has ever done at 28 is raise Gen Z's, raise some,

02:42you know, kids that are from 12 to 20. That's a pretty long period of time and you have to go through

02:48the tweens and the teens with your brother and sister. So what is it like as a 20 something yourself

02:53raising teenagers in the 2010s, 2020s? I, you know, was thrusted into this role. You know,

03:02I had to become the mom, a single mom, just like her. I was, you know, of course, like totally unprepared.

03:11I didn't have any money. I sacrificed my twenties. Um, I'm 28 now, um, to raising my brother and

03:21sister. I dedicated my life to them. Um, you know, I like am a mom. I had to become a mom. I am a mom.

03:29They see me as a mother and, you know, thankfully Peter and Delilah now are thriving, um, because of

03:35that. But, you know, I had to shoulder a lot of, um, I shouldered all of the responsibility and the

03:40trauma, um, to also protect them, um, and give them a chance at a normal life, um, in extremely

03:47abnormal, um, circumstances. This really has been like a fight, um, for my life, like a fight to, um,

03:55keep going, a fight to keep my family together. I've been a fighter my whole life. My mom raised me

03:59like that, um, to never give up. Um, you know, she had a true, you know, like New Yorker mentality.

04:06Like you just pick yourself up by your bootstraps and like, you just do it.

04:10So,

04:15yeah.

04:15Yeah.

04:17Yeah.

04:19Yeah.