Since 1974, Marlene Tromczynski has taken 150 children, mainly teens, into her home. The first child, Lori Busch, now 54, was 14 when she fled her abusive home and was placed with Tromczynski.
“I was nervous coming into this family with someone that I didn’t know, but I felt very loved and cared for right away,” recalls Busch. “I welcomed the different things in the house, like sitting down for dinner and using silverware. My first night, Marlene tucked me into bed and gave me a quilt to sleep with. She said ‘I love you’ and meant it. I wasn’t used to all of that.”
Tromczynski and her husband had never planned to start fostering teens, but after a great experience hosting a foreign exchange student they became open to the idea of caring for a child more permanently.
“We decided we’d like to help someone and they, in turn, would help our family be rounded out. We felt like having another girl in our house of two boys and one girl would help even out the score for our daughter.”
But five years after taking in Busch, Tromczynski’s husband died suddenly of a heart attack and her devastated family had to start to rebuild.
“Instead of going out and trying to find a new mate, I invested myself into the kids and the community,” says Tromczynski, “So many people lose their children when their spouse dies, but I needed them and they needed me.”
What resulted was nearly 40 years of fostering children, as many as six at a time living…
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What a beautiful story, beautiful family, and beautiful woman!
Marlene Tromczynski has been giving herself away for 40 years. What an inspiration and life of LOVE.
ENJOY!
Story credit: NBC news
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