Survivor’s foundation helps families of kids who lost a parent
BIRMINGHAM — Norman Yatooma was away at college in Indiana when he got the call that his father had died.
When he returned home to Michigan, he found out the truth: his father had been murdered in a carjacking in Detroit.
At just 20 years old, Yatooma became head of his household, caring for his bereaved mother and three brothers while trying to fend off creditors and litigants vying for his father’s estate.
“Getting the estate closed and going through that hell looking back on it is a nauseating memory,” Yatooma, 35, recalled.
That fateful news came 14 years ago. Since then, Yatooma has turned his family’s heartache into hope.
To honor his father, Manuel S. Yatooma, Norman in 2003 established Yatooma’s Foundation For The Kids, a Birmingham-based nonprofit that provides grief counseling and financial assistance to families with children who have suddenly lost a parent.
Over the last four years, the foundation has served more than 500 children around southeastern Michigan.
“We’re trying to take events like that and turn them into real triumphs in children’s lives,” said Yatooma, now a father of two and living in Bloomfield Hills.
More than 200 volunteers at the foundation provide legal advice, counseling, financial management and even vocational training to families reeling with such a loss. They work with most families for a 12-month period to ensure they are making a real impact.
And no task is too small, Yatooma said. Volunteers even help with simple errands that can seem overwhelming in the midst of grief, like mowing the lawn, buying groceries or taking children to school.
For families facing their first holidays without a loved one, the foundation selects the neediest for their Extreme Christmas Makeover: dozens of volunteers show up on the doorstep with countless gifts in hand days before Christmas.
Yatooma comes dressed as Santa Claus.
“Fourteen years (later), when they look back at Christmas, it will be impossible to separate that from the memory of a bunch of crazy people dressed up as Santa bringing gifts,” Yatooma said.
Barbara Gilden, 53, of Wyandotte got that surprise last month.
She and husband Spencer are now foster parents to Lillian and Zoie Mulheisen, ages 5 and 10, respectively. The girls lost their father, Christopher Mulheisen, in June when he died of respiratory failure at the age of 33. He was Barbara’s son.
The family received a visit the weekend before Christmas from about 20 volunteers bearing gifts of bedding, clothes, books and even a used car.
“It was just unbelievable,” Gilden said. “I started crying at that point. It was just so overwhelming.”
The family also received vouchers for a trip to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida — all in addition to year-round assistance from the foundation for the family’s grocery bills, home counseling and legal advice on custody proceedings.
“I have to keep myself together,” Gilden said. “For the children, I have to.”
More information on the foundation can be found at www.forthekidsfoundation.org.
You can reach Catherine Jun at (248) 647-7429 or cjun@detnews.com.
