A teacher’s act of kindness for her pupil with down syndrome and his mom who was terminally ill, is warming the hearts of people all over the country.
Exaclty four years ago, the special education teacher Kerry Bremer had a heart-to-heart conversation with the mother of the boy, Jean Manning, who herself was a terminally ill single mom.
Bremer was newly acquainted with them as she had just moved to Massachusetts, from Florida, and Jake was her student at the CASE Collaborative School.
“I said, ‘I may be overstepping here and forgive me if I am, but my family and I would like to offer guardianship for Jake if you need a backup plan,’” Bremer, 52, told them.
Manning was deeply moved and had tears in her eyes, when she said yes to her.
Even though she had supportive relatives, no one could take up guardianship for Jake. “She said, I’ll sleep better tonight than I have in a very long time,’” Bremer said. “Her biggest fear was what would happen to Jake after she passed.”
Bremer said “I fell in love with Jake instantly,” and added, “I knew he would a need a home and there was no way I wouldn’t open ours to him.”
Last week, Bremer, became mother of four children as she already has three of her own, after she fulfilled Manning’s dying wish.
14-year-old Jake moved into the Bremer’s home, which was filled with his toys and clothes from countless sleepovers as Bremer and her husband, Dave, and Manning were all working on making the transition as seamless as possible.
“We would take Jake to appointments together and celebrate holidays together. Jean called him ‘our son,’” Bremer revealed. “That must have been so hard for her, to be planning for her death, but she did a beautiful job. She was so courageous.”
Jake calls Dave “Dave the Dad” and considers himself brother to the Bremer’s kids, Kristen, 21, Jonathan, 19, and Kaitlyn, 16.
“It feels weird to be getting this attention,” Bremer said. “We never thought twice about it. I loved this kid so much. He has done more for us than we could ever do for him.”