17-Year-Old Girl Raised Her Younger Siblings After Losing Both Parents in 3 Years
Samantha had to leave school to take care of her sick parents.
The Rodriguez family from Orlando, Florida, was a happy family of eight. But everything changed when their mom, Lisa Smith, passed away from cervical cancer in 2013. After that, their dad, Alexander Rodriguez, promised he would take care of all six kids. Sadly, just three years later, he passed away too—he had lymphoma.
Suddenly, the six siblings were alone. No parents. Just each other. That’s when the oldest sister, Samantha, who was only 17, stepped up and became both a mom and a dad to her younger brothers and sisters.
“I knew what I had to do,” Samantha told CNN. “I learned so much from my mom. I was always helping her, like her little sidekick, so I saw how she raised us. After she passed away, I just wanted to be like her and do what she did for the family.”
Later, when Samantha graduated, all the kids came to see her walk across the stage. “They were so proud of me, and it felt amazing,” she said. “I didn’t grow up around people who finished high school or went to college, so it was hard for me to find my path.”
“But when I thought about how I wanted the kids to finish school and succeed, I knew I had to show them it was possible. I needed to be their example.”