Avion Simon with siblings CJ (left) and Mo.Photo: Michael Nobel Jr.
Before the McAlester High School football Buffaloes, of McAlester, Oklahoma, hit the field for a Dec. 4 playoff game, star left tackle Avion Simon got out his black Sharpie and — just like he’s done every game of the season — wrote “RIP Mom” and “RIP Dad” on his arms and cleats.
“I tell them that I’m playing for them,” Avion, 18, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.
“They were awesome people who would always help others,” says Avion. “You can’t replace them.”
Still, Avion tried to fill in those big shoes in the final weeks of Shanna’s life, raising his siblings while juggling school, football and his former job atMcDonald’s.
“I felt like it was time to step up and provide for Mo and CJ,” he says. “I’m a quiet and prideful person, so I didn’t ask anybody to help. I was exhausted.”
Holding on to hope in his most trying days, Avion visited his mom in the hospital for what would be their last moments together.
“I said, ‘I love you, Mama. I know you can pull through. You’ve always been strong,'” he recalls.
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Shanna Twyman.Twyman family
Despite Shanna’s strength, she died the following day — heartbreaking news Avion received in a phone call from his grandmother Shelia Twyman, 56.
“I wouldn’t know what to do if she wasn’t here,” he says of the matriarch, who now raises his two young siblings with help from Avion.
“I want to give a big, big thanks to McAlester — the whole town of McAlester,” he says. “Ever since that stuff happened, everybody has helped me.”
“I got so many phone calls, texts from everybody who’s helping me,” he adds. “I didn’t know how many people knew my family and knew who I was.”
As of Tuesday, theGoFundMe campaignhas raised more than $15,000 — money that will help Avion deliver on the promise he made to his mom one day before she died: “I’m going to take care of your babies for you.”
“I just love those babies — they deserve the world,” he says of his sister Mo, who “has the prettiest smile,” and brother CJ, whom he affectionally calls a “mama’s boy” — just like Avion was — with a personality that “can put a smile on anybody’s face.”
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Though Avion is focused on being a good role model for his siblings, the adjustments haven’t been easy.
“The biggest challenge is just getting up every day and starting life,” he says.
Still, Avion is setting his sights on playing college football after he graduates from high school next spring, earning a degree in forensic science or business and, in the meantime, mastering his siblings’ favorite meal: their mom’s homemade taco soup.
“You’ve got to keep going,” he says. “That’s what I’m trying to do for Mo and CJ.”
source: people.com
