Support Tatyana's Kids After Their Father's Passing

On July 13th, the father of my sister Tatyana’s beautiful children passed unexpectedly. He was only 53, had served his country for nearly thirty years as a Marine, and appeared to be healthy. The kids adored their father and I know they will mourn this sudden, brutal loss for the rest of their lives.

Death has a long shadow and it affects us in many different ways. One of the most pressing ways in which their father’s death is affecting Tatyana’s kids is that, with his passing, she is losing $3700 of monthly support to pay for the kids’ food, clothing, housing, school supplies, etc. Piling heartbreak upon heartbreak, we found out today that the kids’ father made no provision for his children and left his entire estate to his third wife.

They are great kids. My namesake, Mika, is twenty-two, pursuing a double major in Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UCSD. Brianna, twenty, plays D1 elite women’s rugby at Lindenwood University, where she will get her Bachelor’s in Exercise Science and Master’s in Sport Science and Human Performance. Koko is eighteen, starting this fall at Idaho State University for her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Kai is fourteen and he will be a freshman in high school this fall. They are great kids, wonderful kids, amazing kids and I would do anything for them.

As three of them are eighteen or older, there are a lot of benefit programs they are ineligible for. But if you have kids or you ever were a kid, you know that these are incredibly challenging, expensive ages. We’ve been doing everything we can to pull together as a family to support them but Tatyana has already shouldered $4000 in unexpected travel expenses. Things are incredibly tight right now and we know it’s about to get harder.

My goal for this fundraiser is to raise $11000 - roughly three months of support for these four incredible children. It won’t do anything to resolve the complicated grief they feel right now, but it will afford us a couple of months to sell some old trucks and guitars and recalibrate our budgets so we can best look after them in this incredibly challenging time. We are eternally grateful to anyone who can contribute, and to everyone who can’t contribute but who shares this fundraiser.