Honoring Hunter's Memory: Wish from a Big Sis

My name is Amber and I am Hunter's big sister. I was 16 years old when he was born, and despite our large age gap, I was the happiest and proudest big sister. We did not have it easy, growing up in motels with unreliable parenting. I myself then became a mom at an early age, leading me to realize very quickly that I did not want to have my child grow up like that as well. Even though I was now a mom, I still tried to be there for everything for Hunter whenever my parents lived near enough.

When Hunter was 5, we found out that he had diabetes. I attended every single appointment with my mom so that I could learn as much as I could about this disease, not only for my own knowledge, but to help my mother, who was starting to have struggles with drugs. Within 2 years, she lost custody of Hunter to the foster system and lost her parental rights completely. Because of this and the skewed system, I also lost my access to him for 11 years. He came back into my life in September 2022 through a Facebook message; literally one of the happiest days of my life!!!

I had about 2 1/2 years with him before I got the call that he had passed away. I am truly devastated and beyond heartbroken. With all this being said, I am also the next of kin for him, leaving me with the heavy burden of not only having to mourn and grieve the loss of my baby brother, but also the financial responsibility of something I never expected could happen. My brother lost his life way too soon, and I have no answers as to why. All I know is he struggled with his diabetes and the foster system failed him. If you could find it in your heart, please, I just want to finally bring my brother home. That's all he ever wanted, was a home.