After losing daughter, family creates program to support kids dealing with loss and illness

It’s a side effect of chronic illnesses that’s often overlooked: the isolation families experience.

After losing their daughter, a South Florida family dedicated a program designed to support siblings.

“She was just a kind, happy, positive, fun person, and she had this amazing innate ability to put smiles on people’s faces,” Rabbi Philip Moskowitz described his daughter, Esti.

At 8 years old, as Esti Moskowitz faced her darkest days, she still lit up a room. In 2022, she was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor.

The 3rd grader would pass away a year later. It rocked the Boca Raton family, including her three other siblings.

“I think as a parent, your job is to constantly be in tune to what your child is going through,” Rabbi Moskowitz said. “How could you be supportive to them? And if it can’t be you, then what resources are there out there that can help them and support them?”

That’s where I-Shine came in, an after-school program is a tribute to her legacy. So much attention is paid to the parent or child experiencing the life-threatening illness or loss, but what about the siblings?

Chai Lifeline’s I-Shine program is designed to be a support system for children facing traumatic experiences, whether it’s a sick parent, sibling, or themselves.

“What I-Shine does, it takes those siblings, and it just showers them with this unconditional love,” Rabbi Moskowitz said. “It brings them one or two days a week to a program where they’re matched up with a high school mentor, and the goal is just to have fun.”

Mentors like 17-year-old Zachary Mamrout say volunteering is just as healing for them.

“I didn’t know I was good at making kids smile. You know what I mean? Like, I’m just a normal kid, and then I’ve done this, and I’ve seen that these kids and the impact that they’ve had on me, and the same, contrary, the impact I’ve had on them,” Mamrout said.

There are weekly after-school programs in Boca Raton, Miami Beach and Hollywood where the kids can play games alongside their mentor, eat dinner, do homework, and take their minds away from the heaviness that life can bring.

“There’s a waitlist for high school students to be able to get in and to volunteer for this program, because everyone wants to be a part of it,” Rabbi Moskowitz said.

Because while we can’t control circumstances, we can control how we show up for each other and share love and positivity, just as Rabbi Moskowitz says his daughter would.

“I think Esti would be enormously proud of this program, that her name is attached to the values which I think she lived by,” he said.

If you’d like to learn more about volunteering, signing up, or donating, you can visit the I-Shine program at chailifeline.org/ishine.