Guardian angels: the couple adopted and raised 88 children

Everyone deserves a normal life, everyone should have a home. Mike and Camilla Geraldi have always thought so. And this was not just a slogan: the couple devoted their whole life to giving home and parental warmth to those who were deprived of them.

Mike and Camilla met in 1973 at work: both worked at a Miami hospital. She was a nurse, he was a pediatrician. They, like no one else, understood how hard it is for children with special needs.

By the time she met, Camilla had already taken up three children for the upbringing. Two years later, she and Mike decided to get married. But this did not mean that they were going to abandon other people’s children for the sake of their own. Mike said that he also wants to help the refuseniks.

“When Mike proposed to me, I said that I would like to create a home for disabled children. And he replied that he would go with me to my dream, ”Camilla told the TV channel CNN.

Forty years have passed since then. Mike and Camilla took care of 88 orphans from specialized boarding schools during this time. Instead of the walls of orphanages, the children received a home filled with care and warmth, which they never had.

After the couple adopted 18 children, Mike and Camilla decided to create the Achievable Dream Foundation, which helps disabled children and their parents.

Some of the children Geraldi adopted were born disabled, some suffered from serious injuries. And some were terminally ill.

“The children we took to our family were doomed to die,” says Camilla. “But many of them continued to live.”

Over the years, 32 of Mike and Camilla’s children have died. But the other 56 led a fulfilling and happy life. The couple’s eldest son, Darlene, now lives in Florida, he is 32 years old.

We are talking about an adopted son, but Geraldi also has children of his own: Camilla gave birth to two daughters. The eldest, Jacqueline, is already 40 years old, she works as a nurse – she followed in her parents’ footsteps.

Geraldi’s youngest adopted daughter is only eight years old. Her biological mother is a cocaine addict. The baby was born with visual and hearing impairments. And now she is developed beyond her years – at school she will not be praised enough.

Raising such a large family was not easy. In 1992, the couple lost their home: it was demolished by a hurricane. Fortunately, all the children survived. In 2011, the misfortune repeated itself, but for a different reason: the house was struck by lightning, and it burned to the ground along with the property and the car. We rebuilt for the third time, having already left out of harm’s way to another state. They brought in pets again, rebuilt a farm with chickens and sheep – after all, they helped in the economy.

And last year there was a real grief – Mike died of an aggressive form of cancer. He was 73 years old. Until the last, next to him were his wife and a horde of children.

“I didn’t cry. I couldn’t afford it. It would have crippled my children, ”Camilla shared. She still continues to take care of her adopted children, despite her age – the woman is 68 years old. Her house in Georgia is now home to 20 sons and daughters.