Carrying what was left behind.
My name is Chris. I’m a 30-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, husband, father of two young children, and caregiver for my family.
Four years ago, I lost my grandfather to cancer. He was the head of our household and the person our family could always depend on. He cared for my grandmother, who has serious ongoing health conditions, and helped raise my two younger siblings, whom my grandparents legally adopted.
Losing him changed our family in ways I don’t think any of us were prepared for.
After he passed, there was a role in our family that suddenly needed to be filled. My grandmother and younger siblings still needed someone they could rely on, and I knew I had to step up.
Since then, I’ve done my best to be there for them while also building and caring for a family of my own. I’m a husband and a dad to two small children, so most days are a balancing act between being there for my wife and kids and helping care for my grandmother and younger siblings.
Over the years, those responsibilities have only grown. My grandmother’s health requires a lot of care and attention, and her hospital visits have become more frequent. One of my younger siblings has also faced serious health struggles that have resulted in repeated hospital care.
Because my family needs me to be present and available, I’m only able to work part-time. It can be difficult trying to balance work, being a husband and father, and being someone my grandmother and siblings can depend on, but family has always been incredibly important to me.
There are days when it feels like I’m being pulled in every direction, but I remind myself why I’m doing it. These are the people I love, and when my grandfather passed, I made a commitment to myself that I would do everything I could to make sure the family he spent his life caring for would continue to have someone there for them.
The last four years have taught me a lot about responsibility, sacrifice, patience, and what it really means to show up for the people you love.
I don’t have everything figured out. I’m simply doing the best I can each day as a Marine veteran, husband, father, brother, and grandson while trying to carry forward the responsibility my grandfather once carried for our family.
This is just a small part of my story and the reason family means so much to me.
— Chris