Last year, little 1-year-old Eisa Hayat was making a pilgrimage with his family to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. But a devastating car crash killed both his parents, a set of grandparents, and an aunt, all at once. Only the baby survived, but just barely. He was rescued after he'd already been put in a body bag and was on his way to the morgue.
The family's taxi driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into a concrete bridge. Eisa's grandfather covered Eisa's body with his own, but rescuers still assumed the baby couldn't have survived the crash. They sent him off to cold storage in a body bag -- but someone noticed the bag moving. He had revived! Eisa was rushed to the hospital where he soon recovered. But he is an orphan now. Will he be alone? Hardly.
Eisa may have lost his parents, but he's anything but an orphan. His large, extended family has stepped in to raise the boy and shower him with the love his parents would have given him. "We've got to make sure that we're all there to cushion him every time that he falls just like his parents would have," Eisa's great uncle, Shazada Hayat, says. He admits you can never replace a child's parents, but still, "There's no shortage of people stepping in to be his father, there's no shortage of people stepping in to be his mother. Eisa is very important to us, he is the only surviving link to extend his family."
Don't you love that? It's what you would want for your own kids if you were ever to die suddenly: Everyone stepping in to help raise your orphans, showering them with all the love you would have given. It's horrible that Eisa lost his closet family members all at once. His mother was even seven months pregnant with his new sibling. But he miraculously survived, and his family will make sure he survives emotionally, too. What more could you ask for?
Do you know if your extended family would take in your kids if you, your spouse, and your parents all died suddenly?
Image via rabiem22/Flickr