Special Report

ON THE COVER

A new family portrait,

clockwise from top:

Evan Fischer, 13; Skyler

Tarnas, 14; Susie Tarnas;

Emily Fischer, 11; pet,

Sunshine; Dylan Tarnas, 10;

and Christopher Tarnas.

O

Family next door
provides loving home
for orphaned
brother and sister.

tt

Keri Guten Cohen

Story Development Editor

F

or Nancy and Rob Fischer, life was good. Their children, Evan and Emily,
were happy and thriving. They loved their secure, secluded neighbor-
hood bordering Pleasant Lake in West Bloomfield, where their next-door
neighbors were more like family. And they had each other.
Then, tragedy struck five years ago when Nancy was diagnosed with Ewing's
sarcoma, a cancer typically seen in children. After a year of suffering, she died at
age 45, leaving Rob a grieving single father with two young children.
Guardian Angels on page A16
And then they were three.

April 9 • 2009

A15