The following is an amazing Sunday story from Epoch Inspired:
Mr. Sean Desmangles’s son, 18-year-old Niem, was born with a rare blood disorder that caused brain damage, preventing him from developing and leaving him unable to talk or walk. Every three weeks, his father chaperones him to NYU Langone Health for a blood transfusion.
When Niem turned 18, it got difficult for Mr. Desmangles to continue carrying his son up and down the stairs so he created a GoFundMe page to raise money for a stairlift.
“Sometimes you have to swallow your pride when it comes to doing stuff for family,” Mr. Desmangles told The Epoch Times. “I was trying to figure all my friends, send them the links.”
Mr. Desmangles also reached out to Officer Abdelaziz, whom he’d known for more than a decade.
New York City Police Officer Kareem Abdelaziz, 38, and his brother, New York Fire Department Lt. Abdelrahman Abdelaziz, 43, have known 51-year-old Sean Desmangles since he moved to their neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, from St. Lucia in the Caribbean for better medical care for his teen son.
“He was a customer at my dad’s convenience store that we had for nearly four decades,” Officer Abdelaziz said. “He would bring his disabled son in a wheelchair on a daily basis, buy groceries, and hang out on the weekends.”
When Officer Abdelaziz first learned about Niem’s condition, he became very emotional.
“It’s a lifetime condition that he has to live with so it was just more about supporting him and his family from day one,” he said.
So when Mr. Desmangles sent the GoFundMe link to Officer Abdelaziz on a December morning asking for help, he immediately reached out to his brother.
‘I didn’t even get to finish my sentence; my brother absolutely said, ‘We’ll help him out, there’s no question about it,’” the officer said. “I hung up the phone. I got my thoughts together, my emotions together, and I reached out to Sean.’”
To make a long story short the Abdelaziz brothers funded the installation of the stairlift. After the stairlift was installed, Mr. Desmangles was able to show the life-changing apparatus to his son. It “meant a lot” for the Abdelaziz brothers to relieve their friend’s burden ahead of the holiday season.
“In the afternoon my son came and used it for the first time,” Mr. Desmangles said. “My son had the right to smile, and, for me, it was a great help because no more carrying over steps. He is heavy, he is big.”
Kudos to these two brothers. Certainly New York’s finest!
1/28/24