They say love is a universal feeling but not everyone is capable of giving unconditional love. We all love and care for people around us, but with an underlying expectation of getting loved and cared for in return.
But what Mohamed Bzeek, a Libyan-born Muslim living in Los Angeles County, California, is doing is not just the epitome of unconditional love but also the greatest service to humanity.
Mohamed Bzeek takes terminally-ill children into his care and tends to them for as long as they fight for life.
It was in 1989, when Bzeek started caring for foster children with his wife Dawn. The couple opened their home for the kids who were sick and unwanted.
The couple have a son, who was born with brittle bone disease and dwarfism.
Bzeek’s own experience with loneliness made him even more emphatic towards these kids, who end up in hospitals without anyone looking after them. His wife passed away and the 62-year-old was diagnosed with colon cancer. With no immediate family member to care for him, Bzeek had to go see doctors all by himself and got operated a day before his birthday.
It was then when it struck him how these kids with terminal illness, left to die alone, would feel without their parents or family.
He decided to give these kids a dignified life with all the love and warmth they deserve.
He’s the only foster parent in the Unites States who takes care of terminally-ill kids. While talking to the LA Times, he said:
“These kids, it’s a life sentence for them. The key is, you have to love them like your own. I know they are sick. I know they are going to die. I do my best as a human being and leave the rest to God.”
Bzeek has fostered over 80 terminally ill children. Around 10 children breathed their last in his care, some of whom even died in his arms. But he’s ever-resolute to love these dying children for as long as he can.
Watch Mohamed Bzeek’s story here:
We may not be able to do what he’s doing, but one can learn a great deal about humanity from Mohamed Bzeek.