- ♪MTV ♪
♪♪
- You do need to slow down a little bit.
- I feel like I'm living the life that I'm happy with living.
- But as long as we're your parents, we have this.
Remember that. - Okay, Dad.
- We got this in the mail.
No death certificate record found
in the name of Billy O'Toole. This is crazy.
How do you not have a death certificate on file?
- All right, so I got the death certificate.
-Oh, you did? - Yeah.
As far as the cause of death, it says,
"Immediate cause pending further studies."
- The reason why we came here last minute is 'cause
the government used my dad to get to Jackie and Allie.
So now he's working to reopen that case.
- You betrayed your family, yes.
Yes, everybody will know that.
(phone line trilling)
- My mom is missing.
I'm worried, and I have no idea where she is.
- Hello?
Where are you?
- My dad's medication intake is becoming too much.
And we already had that one slip-up.
- I need for you to take care of yourself,
because this kid right here, you're his (bleep) everything.
I need you to be okay for him. - One day at a time, G.
- We need (bleep) help, seriously, with this.
- ♪ One day I'm gonna die ♪
♪ I'll take you all with me ♪
♪♪
- So everything's good? - Yeah, everything's good.
- I miss you!
- (grunting)
- What happened?
- (grunting) - Come here!
What happened?
Why you holding your face?
- I just hit the pole with my eye.
- What do you mean you hit the pole with your eye?
The pole don't move, only you do.
- I was running and I-- - Come here.
- He was racing with some kid and he fell and hit the pole.
- You're like a goofball.
Me bein' like a kid that's been through some (bleep)
in the street and I've been through a lot,
and this, this, and that, I remember telling God
that one night like, God, I said, I'm gonna live
and I'm gonna get my lift straight
for not only me but for my siblings
like my little brother and sister.
I love them to death.
I would give literally anything to go back to like this age,
like (bleep) running around at the park and (bleep).
- Right? Not having to worry about (bleep).
- Yeah. - Christian!
Look! I am king!
- But how's he doing anyway, your father?
- He's good. Same (bleep).
Now they gotta do a radiation.
You know, we don't want him to get too caught up on this medication.
He feels confident. He's thinking like,
he wants to do the right thing and he wants to be good
and be straight and (bleep), you know?
But you can only help somebody...
(both) So much.
- Between (bleep) him, how he was before jail,
comes home, all this (bleep) goin' on,
I can't wait to just wrap all this (bleep) up.
Can't wait till he starts working, does his own thing.
- Right. - I just can't keep (bleep) with him.
- You can't, Chris. I told you.
I'm glad you see it for yourself.
I'm glad you see that.
- I'm definitely thankful for my mom.
She got two other kids to worry about,
but my mother's definitely stepping up
and playing a big part in all this.
She helps a lot, you know, 'cause she knows my dad.
You know, she calls him up, checks on him,
makes sure he's okay, make sure I'm okay.
I tell her more (bleep). You know, we're close.
You know, closer than we ever been.
- Chris, you have a whole life you have to live.
- I know. - It's your father.
Granted, you wanna be there for him, I get it.
But, Chris, you got the (bleep) world by your balls.
♪♪
- I spoke to Xavier on the phone, finally.
And, um, he's still in the same predicament.
- What is he-- he's in the hole?
- He's still in the hole.
He's still "waiting for a transfer."
Yet he hasn't gotten in trouble for anything.
If he's in there, number one,
it's not looking good for us trying to file a motion
to be able to get him home.
- Right, of course. He's sitting in the SHU.
- Xavier right now is in the SHU,
which is the special housing unit.
He has limited communication to myself,
to his family, to his lawyer.
His case for some reason, is just--
we just keep hittin' a brick wall.
And not just in the courts,
but also what he's going through in the prison system.
- So let's say he gets out of the SHU,
because the attorney's now gonna fight for him
to get out of the SHU.
What's important in other documents
that you highlight that I could look out for
that is important for his case?
- When he's saying there's 200-and-something cases,
like I feel like I have to find something.
- I'm ready to do some searching.
- You have to find the exact case.
Order granting compassionate release,
default Johnson.
- Hold on now.
Right here. United States vs Johnson.
Download your PDF.
- United States vs Johnson.
- This was originally sentenced for covered defense
and is therefore eligible for relief
under section 404 of the First Step Act.
I'm reading into other cases that had the same charges
and were released.
When I see things like this,
it makes me wanna fight harder.
- And here's where he's saying, in the Johnson case,
when it went to the courts of appeal,
The courts of appeal ruled in his favor.
- Right, 'cause the Johnson case, the guy got out.
- Yes. The bottom line here is,
the Johnson case is a covered offense.
- Now you could forward both of these over to my aunt Jo
and tell her to use this in your defense,
where he stayed at.
I mean I could point out things in this case already
that-- that could be used in Xavier's defense.
♪♪
- We make enough? - We have enough for four?
- Yeah. - This is heartbreaking
to my children that Billy's not here
for the birth of his grandchildren.
Billy's not here for birthdays, for holidays.
He has another generation that he brought into this world.
Me and him together, we brought our children in,
and now our children are bringing children in.
And whatever happened that night, he's not here for that,
and that's-- that's terrible.
- What's it like growing up without siblings?
Compared to like-- like being here, crazy, right?
So many personalities. - Never imagined.
- There's always something goin' on.
- What I've learned from coming from a big family
is that you fight hard but you love harder.
You know what I'm saying? Me and Taylor,
we could have a brawl. The next day, you know,
we're hugging and we're loving each other.
I'm sorry.
- Aww.
- Never hold a grudge. - No.
- You can never hold a grudge. - No.
- You'll die with holding that grudge
and you'll never be able to forgive yourself
for even holding it. - Right.
Life can change for the worst in a minute.
You don't know. - Be grateful.
- Be grateful for right now. You know, we've been through
a lot, but you know what? We got through it
because we had each other. - After Daddy passed away,
if we sat there and just dwelled on it every single day,
we'd be sittin' here today like, oh, look how much time passes.
How much time did I waste?
- Listen, the private investigator
wasn't willing to help us with what happened with Daddy that night.
- Right.
- The year that my dad passed, I kinda healed myself,
So I had mixed emotions about a private investigator
because I really didn't wanna relive the situation,
but the private investigator didn't really go anywhere,
he didn't really help us,
and we still don't have solid evidence.
It's definitely, um, a little hard.
- We still have to wait for the medical examiner report,
see what that says.
We'll get to the bottom. We'll get to bottom of it.
- I wish it was a bad dream, I really do.
- It's not a dream, it's reality, it happened.
You know, but we have every right to know
what happened that night.
Meanwhile the death certificate says "immediate cause
pending further studies."
We don't know what happened that night yet.
We know that things aren't true.
- You know who Allie Persico is.
- You believe he should be out?
- I'm actually gonna go see Xavier at the end of the month.
- He was in solitary confinement.
I think it really took a mental and emotional toll on him.
-He's definitely not in Moscow.
He's here and he's gonna stay here.
- I don't feel good.
- What's that?
- The actual autopsy report.
- Wait, what'd it say, cause of death?
- No way. - What'd I say?
♪♪
- How was your trip? You're finally back.
- Yeah. It was very good.
Very good. - You feel more relaxed now?
- Yes, because, you know, after I meet with Seva...
- Mm-hmm. - ...and talk with your father,
I was so upset.
You betrayed your family, Boris.
- So I need just get away.
- Yeah, but how do you just drop everything and go?
I don't understand.
- Because I was in depression after talking to your father.
You understand? - Yeah.
- You know I was always strong, right?
And now I feel like, you know,
I have no energy no more.
When I talk to him, I feel like he's sucking my blood.
- He's been sucking your blood for a very long time.
I don't understand why-- what took you so long to realize that.
We need to go to Moscow with the divorce papers,
you sit down, we'll talk to him, and that's it.
- Okay, because it can go like this no more.
- At this point, from the conversation
that my mom had with Boris, it looks like
we're gonna have to go to Russia to-- to sign the divorce papers
because we don't even know when he's gonna come down to New York.
Both parties need to be there to sign the divorce papers.
That's why I think it's better off for us
to just fly down to him.
- Right, absolutely.
I always wanted you become good friends.
Like father and son. - I understand.
But I don't need him for anything.
- I tell the truth, he not deserve son like you.
- Yeah, that's why you need to listen to me.
- And you need to listen to me.
- Mm-hmm. - He wants to be alone.
He don't wanna have a family.
He have the best family and he lost it.
He lost his family.
- Maybe one day he'll understand and realize that.
- Yeah. - So, please, no more surprises.
Can't just leave last minute.
I'll work with you so we can plan this trip
and go to Russia and just get everything done.
- And start new life without him.
- That too. - Okay.
- Today, I'm mainly here just to, you know, for support.
Like both of y'all.
I wanna make sure that you both have the room
to really say what you need to say.
Hello again, Dana. - Hi.
- Hello, beautiful. - Oh, this is so crazy.
- I know. - No, it's not.
It's not crazy. - A little bit. Hi.
- Mmm.
Thank you for coming.
- A little shaky. Hi.
- Don't be shaky. Come on, take your coat off.
Please.
- Wait. Thanks.
- Sit, baby girl. Sit, baby girl.
- I'm a little still shocked, so I don't--
- Look, you're safe here. You know that.
I'm your brother.
- Yeah.
- I am so sorry I stood away for so long.
- Well... hindsight, right?
- Yeah, I let silly fears keep me away.
- So what was the reason to come to New York?
- Um, I needed to come see my lawyer.
Um, let me-- I-- Not to--
- I gave her a little background--
- Yeah, but not-- not to--
I don't want to bypass what we're talking about.
You know who Allie Persico is.
Well, his lawyer reached out to me.
He wanted to know if I would be able
to help them possibly get a retrial.
- Knowing what you know about him, aside from Daddy,
do you believe he should be out?
- I'm gonna say yes.
- And you would help facilitate that?
- Just try to advocate a little bit.
- Look, I'm all for people not being in prison and being free,
but considering the circumstances,
I just don't know why energy would be put towards that,
especially considering that we live in New York.
So that's not exactly an
exciting thing to hear on our end.
- I know.
- And to that point, you left a woman and a child
to defend themselves completely right off the bat, exposed.
And that risk, my mom dealt with a lot.
- I know. - When my brother Billy
went into Witness Protection,
he was not there to help us, to make sure we were okay.
It felt like we were just abandoned.
Me and my mom were in a lot of dangerous situations
at that point, so to forgive what happened,
I don't even know if that's necessarily possible.
To think that I had to digest a brutal murder
at nine years old, and then people coming after us,
it being on the news and somewhat try to lead
a normal life and hide that at the same time, like,
the fact that this is all coming out now
would've been nice to hear it previous.
I doubt anything would happen
because we hold our own, we're fine.
But if anything did,
that would potentially weigh heavy on you, wouldn't it?
Yeah, so... a point to consider.
- I want you guys to be left alone.
- We are right now. (chuckles)
Currently. - I am going nowhere now.
I will be here.
- There's a lot of emotions happening right now.
So I mean I will be able to speak more,
you know, as time goes on, but I do appreciate
the fact that we're able to even talk and sit down.
This has been really crazy.
- Thank you for coming. - Yeah.
Okay.
It's crazy even saying good-bye to all of us.
- It's more like "see you later."
I'll be back. - Yeah, okay.
I'm trying to not leave with anger.
I still have a lot of it inside.
Thank you for reaching out.
I'm always open to someone acknowledging what they did,
and I appreciate that, 'cause it takes a lot
to be able to say it regardless, but I am wary as well.
- ♪ Don't stop ♪
♪ Running ♪
♪♪
- Hey! - Hi.
- Good seeing you. - Nice to see you.
So I wanted to give you some updates
about Xavier's case... - Okay.
- ...and where we are. You know, last time we spoke,
he was in solitary confinement. - Yes.
It was three months... - That is a horrific amount
of time to be in solitary confinement.
- Right. - And I think it really took
a mental and emotional toll on him.
Picture yourself in a small closet
with no windows, with only a door,
and it's all metal and all concrete.
You have no pillow, no blanket, no mattress,
no heat that you control.
And you have no idea when you're going to get out.
So that really motivates me to make sure
that Xavier's life isn't spent as a fossil.
- Thank God. I mean, you definitely,
you know, were there throughout the whole lockdown,
and now he's out. - Yeah.
- Thank you for fighting for that.
- Yeah, you know, it was a fight to get that done.
- Yes. - But we're not--
we're not giving up. I was like, no, you know?
I need to be able to talk to him.
- Like seeing that there are other cases
that are coming out with the same charges
that he has have been released from prison.
Where do we go from here? - If he were standing
in front of a judge today, the likelihood that he would
receive a life sentence is very slim.
So we talked about some new bills that are
winding their way through Congress.
- Right. - Particularly the one
that would eliminate the disparity
or the difference between crack and powder sentences.
- Right.
- Xavier's life sentence is based upon
this unscientific idea
that crack is more serious than powder.
But you can't make crack without powder, right?
And the first response was putting people in prison
for a very long time, having unfair crack laws
that disproportionately affect Black and brown people.
And so how we got here is from a failed and flawed
public health response to a real problem.
- I'm actually gonna go see Xavier at the end of the month.
For me, it's important to go, because I think visits
and just keeping him motivated and stuff...
- Yeah, yeah, no.
You're nourishing him in ways that honestly
will keep him motivated to still fight.
I am firmly committed to making sure
that he does not die in prison,
and that's the energy I'm moving with.
♪♪
(phone buzzing)
- Hello?
- What's up? What's goin' on?
- So what happened today?
Today was his last one, right? His last radiation.
- That's what they said?
God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.
I didn't know I was this strong 'cause it just keeps happening.
So for right now, news like that is definitely good.
I'd rather hear that than anything else.
But there could always still be something going on.
This doesn't mean it's over. Listen.
I'm gonna feel better when they get a few more visits in
and they definitely confirm him that he's 100% cancer-free.
- So he's good? So he's saying he's looking good, right?
And you know what, too, I don't want to get my hopes up on--
I mean that cancer-free thing, to hear that,
that's a weight off everybody's shoulders.
- That's right.
Right, I love you, Pop. Thank you.
Tell him to call me later.
- I will. I love you, bye.
- It's good (bleep).
♪♪
- Wish he could see Jovie. Jovie, hey.
Jovans. Where are we?
We're coming to see Grandpa?
We're coming to see cr-- crazy Grandpa?
- I mean it's still, like, so surreal.
- Look at 'em flying over us. (geese honking)
These are the signs that I love.
I-- this is what keeps me going,
because anytime I bring up his name,
he's always giving me signs he's right around.
But... I know the baby's cold and you're cold.
I wanna take a minute for myself just to, you know,
say a little prayer and just talk to him one-on-one.
- Okay.
- Oh, God.
Crazy, Dad. Really is.
(sniffles)
You were my go-to guy, the man I looked up to.
I wish you were right here next to me,
still guiding me the way you used to
and giving me the advice that I need.
You know I love you. - And I love you.
- And I'm happy that I'm-- that--
that I could spend the rest of my life
with my father on good terms,
'cause that's how I plan on doing it.
- And I hope so, Joseph.
- You know, you were able to understand and relate to me,
and you're in my prayers and thoughts every single night.
I hope you're resting in peace. I really do.
If something did happen that night,
I know you're rolling in your grave right beneath me.
And that's why me, Matt, and Taylor
are taking the steps to see what really went down that night.
So you can finally rest in peace.
(woman) What would you say you miss most about him?
- Um...
I'd probably say, uh...
(clears throat)
Probably just his goofy self, you know?
He was just mad funny.
Sorry.
♪♪
I would just miss, uh, you know, his hugs, his advice.
Just him being here.
♪♪
(geese honking)
♪♪
(siren wailing)
♪♪
(Bills) All right, well, at the airport.
(Billy Jr.) Guys, I thought, all in all, we had a great trip.
(Bills) It's been a good time.
- We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish.
Um...
like I said, the lawyer stuff we needed to be handled,
that was handled.
Um, seeing family, which was imperative.
- So happy we got to meet her. - We made it happen.
Yeah, rather than dreading coming to New York,
now at least I feel that now I'm looking forward to coming back.
And you know, me catching up with Dana,
you catching up with Dana, it was seamless.
For me, that's kinda great.
(Layla) Going to New York made me a stronger person.
I feel like my grandpa's life really did affect
my dad's, obviously, which made a huge impact
on everybody else's in our family,
especially with Dana.
The way my dad explains to me,
she went through hell and back after that.
How can I really say anything if I don't know
what she went through too?
♪♪
(phone ringing)
- Seva calling.
Hi, Seva.
I talked to him like a couple days ago.
He's here and he's gonna stay here
for like maybe a couple months.
He's definitely not in Moscow. - When did he come?
-I don't know, maybe a week?
- Every time I would ask, people would say,
"Oh, he's not coming, he's not coming,
he's not coming," and now he came.
You know what I mean, Seva? - I can't comment, Eli.
I can't, sorry.
- Well, Seva, are you gonna go see him?
- Uh, yeah, I-I could see him.
I don't know when.
We were planning on meeting this week.
- Maybe we can, you know, somewhere you meet with him
and I come. You understand?
You're not-- it's gonna be like somewhere you sitting,
and I wanna come, you know?
Like you don't tell him. -No, no, no, don't.
Count me out, please,
because that he will consider it as a trap.
- I see. -And he will start hate me
for the rest of his life. I don't want an enemy.
- I understand, I understand.
- Okay, guys, that's all I wanted to tell you.
And so... I gotta go.
- Okay, okay, Seva. - Bye, Seva.
- Bye, bye. - I can't believe he's here.
- Okay, I'm so upset right now.
So I mean-- you know, it's like a shock for me
that he's here.
- So now you have to meet with him.
- Yeah, so I need to see him and talk with him about divorce.
We'll see what he will say
before we're gonna go to the lawyer.
- Okay. - Now my heart is like,
if you hear, my God, it's beating like this.
It's like I'm nervous, I'm telling you.
Boom-boom-boom.
It's like I don't feel good now.
- Having him here, it's... it's...
I think it's a burden on everyone.
My mom is stressed out.
Um, I'm a little stressed out.
And I'm sure, you know, there's other authorities
that are watching, making sure that hopefully
he'll make another stupid move.
I think there's always someone watching him.
I know where he's gonna be.
He's gonna be in the park
or he's gonna be on the boardwalk.
So we can catch him there. - Yeah, okay.
I hope he will willing to talk.
- Yeah. - I'm already nervous.
You see? - Everything's gonna be fine.
- Okay.
♪♪
(Karen) When's the last time that you've been
in a prison in a bit? - Ten years.
I'm gonna have like, PTSD walking in.
It's been forever, it's been probably since...
who was the last person I visited?
My dad? - Grandpa.
- Now that I've seen how long it's been
that my mom's fighting for Xavier's freedom,
I've been able to build my own relationship with Xavier.
(Karen) And it's important for me
that Karina sees the human being
behind just the paperwork,
behind the phone call.
You're actually able to look him in the eyes
and have that interaction, people deserve that.
♪♪
(GPS system) Starting route to Bennettsville
Federal Correctional Institution.
- I honestly never thought at this particular time
we wouldn't have answers, you know?
It's like, sometimes I feel like
we're just not going anywhere,
we're just stuck in the same position
just spinning our wheels.
I truly hope that this is the beginning
of the end of his sentence.
It's just how do we get that vehicle into the court
to make the judge see what we see
that he deserves a second chance at life?
♪♪
Let's go, girl.
You ready? - Yeah.
(foghorn blowing)
♪♪
- Let me see your belly.
- That's a big belly. - Mm-mm-mmm!
- Tater-tutus! - Big belly, right?
- Woo hoo hoo!
That's a boy right there.
Matty!
- Hey, Matt.
- Look at that belly.
- I know, we were just talking about it.
- Brought mail. This came.
- What's that? - Medical examiner thing.
Daddy's report.
The actual autopsy report.
- Daddy's autopsy report? - Yeah.
Should we open it? - Go ahead.
What was it the last time? - That was a death certificate.
- What was the paper the PI read?
- That was a police report.
(Taylor) We never got the autopsy report?
- No, this like, says everything that was in his system.
- No way. - I don't know how to read any of this,
I don't know what any of this is gonna mean.
♪♪
- What does i-- what does it say?
- So, we got here...
- Wait, was it? - Cause of death?
Hanging, suicide.
- What'd I say?
What'd I say? I said it from the beginning.
There's nothing saying there was drugs that did it.
It was brought to my attention that he overdosed.
I knew that that wasn't the way it was.
But because the police said it was an overdose,
the kids and me said, okay, it was an overdose,
but we weren't satisfied with that,
we knew that there was more to it.
Now the autopsy confirmed
that Billy's passing was due to hanging.
- There's so many different stories at this point.
- So many different sto-- - Between the cops,
private investigator, and now this,
there's so many different stories.
(Matt) I was expecting it to say overdose,
'cause that's what we were told the whole time.
Even the PI told us he overdosed,
he didn't feel nothing.
- I called the detective who was assigned to the case,
he knew exactly the case, it was deemed an overdose.
There'd be nothing in that report
that's gonna say something majorly different.
At the end of the day,
the cause of the death is the cause of death.
(Matt) Meanwhile, the death certificate,
it was empty, which was very strange to us.
Then we get the ME report,
and it says suicide hanging.
So what exactly went on?
- I didn't think hanging because
he would've broke the beam, and his feet hit the floor.
- Too big to be hanging himself from there.
- Where was he found? - Sitting right here.
- On the bucket. - So he was sitting,
leaning forward with this tied around his neck.
And I thought it was weird, that wire doesn't tie.
You can't tie it. - Right.
(Jess) For Billy to try and take
his own life using cable wire,
it cannot be tied into a knot and stay into a knot.
It's just so heavy and thick, it just opens up on its own.
What'd, he hopped up there...
- All in the dark. - All in the dark, right.
I keep forgetting in the pitch black.
(Jess) He was able to go into a completely dark room,
tie a cable wire into a knot, make it so it could,
I guess however he supposedly hung himself,
doesn't make sense to me whatsoever.
- He was completely naked and one sock on.
Now, come on, if Daddy's gonna do that,
he's gonna not let me, you or Matthew come in the house
and find him naked. - Find him that way, no.
- It just doesn't make sense. - Absolutely not.
- I feel sorry for Daddy, though.
He's not really resting in peace
that we're still talking on this, you know?
- Going on two years now.
There's no peace, there's no nothing right now.
- It's a mystery, it really is.
(Jess) I don't think the kids will ever find peace
unless they find out something to make this make sense,
'cause right now it makes no sense.
To any of us, we have no idea
what the hell happened that night.
Nothing that was told to us makes sense.
- Crazy, crazy, crazy. - Crazy.
♪♪
- Nice you here.
(Eli) For my future, I don't wanna look
towards my past and seeing all the negativity and drama
and problems that my father caused for us as a family.
So I wanna learn from all the mistakes
to make sure those mistakes don't happen.
And to enjoy... life. - Life.
(Angela) If he gonna give me the divorce quietly
and he will not gonna talk about his family bad,
everything gonna be good.
But if something happens differently,
it's gonna be a bomb.
Boris.
(man chuckling)
(all speaking Russian)
♪♪
I'm the boss now.
We change position now,
so I'm taking over.
That's it.
♪♪
(Billy Jr.) When the plane landed in New York,
I felt 20 years younger.
And it takes you back to your childhood.
You think about it, it's like, wow.
(deep breath) I do miss it.
I'm excited to see where our lives are going.
I just wanna make sure that we have that front row seat
to watch our kids.
(Nahla) I didn't think our life
would be the way it is.
It took a while for me to get to a place
where I can slow down.
I learned so much in the last two years,
you know, stages of life, people go through,
and things happen and you change.
- It's exciting to finally not feel like
we're surviving, but we're really all able
to take the steps we need to start living.
I was worried about losing control of my life,
and I feel a lot more confident
that I'm able to handle myself now,
knowing that I have like, six people that I can call upon
at any given time and know that they're gonna be there.
- Even though this case is stressful,
I feel like it made a lot of positive impact on my family.
It's easier to laugh, it's easier to just talk
and be ourselves and not have to worry, I guess,
about what anyone has to say because we have each other.
♪♪
- We got rice balls, come on.
Sandwiches, all these right here.
- Ah!
- You're spilling it on the chips!
- That's all right.
Nobody likes chips anyway.
- I am happy that Christian
has a relationship with his mother.
Regardless of what she did in the past,
that's over and done with and he needs his mom.
Whatever we could do, get the family together,
we'll do it for him.
- Anybody that's gonna take him off my hands for a minute...
- You're an (bleep).
- I love this right now, literally love this right now.
- I know, you're in your element right now.
- Mm-hmm. - I know you are.
That's the way it should be.
(Gina) Listen, I've given my son
a lot to prove myself that I am here,
and he is opening more, he's calling me more,
and I love it, I love it.
- Right here, like this,
boom, boom, and then you swing through.
Lemme see. Ooh!
(door opens)
- You know, my kids being around him more,
and then Charles being able to be around here,
and then Big Christian, like,
it made me happy 'cause that's all I ever wanted.
- Charles, you did that?
(laughter)
- How you gonna lose?
(overlapping chatter)
(Christian) I love my family more than
anything in the world.
Other than my father being sick,
I'm always optimistic,
I know that he's gonna get better
he's strong as an ox, he's a fighter,
he's gonna beat that.
Sometimes the bad catches up with you
and you have your little panic attacks,
but there's always good there too.
- The LaRoccas. - The LaRoccas now.
(overlapping chatter)
♪♪
(Karina) Visiting Xavier, it brought back
memories to me when I would visit my father,
and I never really understood, but now looking back,
it's like, to be there with him and...
and to have a conversation meant a lot.
(Karen) He wants to come home and live with his kids
and make up for lost time, it's just like
the simple things that sometimes you talk about
that you take for granted.
It could be just walking on a beach,
feeling sand under your feet.
We'll talk about crazy things
like going grocery shopping, it's the simplest thing.
He just wants to be human again
and come home and have a life.
♪♪
- There's only one Karina. Right, Karina?
- Exactly. - And she got your house robbed.
- Yes! - No, I didn't get your house robbed.
- No matter what my family has been through,
one thing I could say is we never left each other.
We could still get together and laugh now, and smile,
and bond, and be able to have that love.
(Karen) We're still so connected, we're one.
It's something that I can say I'm blessed to have.
- Happy birthday. - Thank you.
You know, that word "love", it's four letters.
It's a big word.
We have respect for one another,
if somebody got in trouble, we were there.
And that's what I found with my family.
We have children,
we have grandchildren.
My life was full of love.
♪♪
- I wouldn't wanna be part of any other family
besides the one I'm in right now.
I love you guys.
I love Joe, cheers to us.
- Cheers, cheers, cheers.
- I love my family.
(baby cooing)
(Jess) Me and the kids, you know,
we're walking this path together,
we're doing it together, and if we all just
come together and we respect each other,
we'll be all right at the end of the day.
- I'm so thankful to have you guys.
Even now when like, just a newcoming mom,
like, I really don't even know, I tell them all the time,
what I would do without you.
- That's my job.
- A lot of chaos has went on in my life,
and there were times where it was nonstop.
So I think for my life and the life I'm building,
I just want calm.
- We've been through a lot.
As a family, we've been through a lot
and it made us better people.
After my dad passed,
I kinda developed a wall with my emotions
and the situation.
I'm happy that I keep trying to figure it out.
But at the same time, it's draining to
my mental state to keep living it
over and over again and not getting anywhere.
♪♪
(muttering)
- Good? - Yep.
- You know, I see my kids having kids and having family.
- Hey. - I love them to death,
I really hope that they're going in the right direction.
All I want for my kids is to truly have a happy life.
♪♪