After Her Parents Died Of Cancer Almost 3 Years Apart, 20-year-old Samantha Rodriguez Vowed To Keep Her Family Together No Matter What
Already the six siblings have learned more than anyone their ages should have to. In June 2013 their mother, Lisa Smith, died of cervical cancer at the age of 35. Three years later their father, Alexander Rodriguez, 44, died from lymphoma, and the children—then ages 4 to 17—were left wondering what would happen to them. “There was no one in our family who could take all of us in,” says Samantha. And that was when Samantha herself, then 17, stepped up. “I decided that I had to do everything I possibly could to help these kids,” she says. “There was no way that I was going to let us be split up.”
This story is from the July 22, 2019 edition of People.
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This story is from the July 22, 2019 edition of People.
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