By BRITTANY LEWIS
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
The family of a little boy who passed away last year is focusing their attention on other kids, specifically kids who lose a sibling, like two of their other kids did.
Crew Long passed away one year ago. He was only three.
“I noticed in post-partum that he was lethargic and wasn’t really wanting to eat much. At that time, we thought it was probably a feeding issue, and obviously was much more than that,” said his mom, Mandy Long.
Crew ended up having a number of health issues – a feeding tube, epilepsy, chronic lung disease, developmental delays, parts of his brain did not grow, and Long said parts of his brain possibly even shrank.
Long says he could communicate without speaking. She says he would light up when they went for a walk.
His older brothers said he had the best smile and laugh.
After Crew passed away, his parents looked for services of child loss to help his older brothers, but they could not find much.
“We felt very strongly to remember Crew, but also after Crew passed away, looked for things for siblings of child loss and there’s just not anything out there, and I couldn’t believe it,” said Long.
So they created a foundation called Crew’s Crew that will focus on programming, initiatives and projects centered on helping kids who have lost a sibling.
“We feel like we have a mission that we want to help families in loss the purpose, more focused on siblings processing grief as a result of losing a sibling,” said Scott Long, Crew’s dad.
“I know that even if it can put a little bit of a smile on the face of someone that’s you know going through this … I can’t even put into words, you know, what it means to me, and I know Crew’s right behind all of it, too. He’s kind of pushing me along the way of helping, reaching out and helping these families,” said Mandy Long.
To learn more about Crew’s Crew, click here.