Grandfather dies
amid battle for boy

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

There will be no happy ending for Morris Brasovankin, the 89-year-old grandfather who, with his wife Mildred, 86, tried desperately last year to navigate the legal process and bring their 5-year-old grandson back to their Oxford Circle home.
Brasovankin died on Friday, his passing attributed to medical complications that followed an aneurysm.
The couple, married for 56 years, had been caring for grandson Steven Brasovankin, the child of their son, when the city Department of Human Services responded to a court directive and removed the boy from their care in June.
The Brasovankins had been called to take care of the child four months earlier, in February 2007, after his father, Steven Brasovankin, had taken him to a hospital because of a cold. Brasovankin supposedly requested that his young son be admitted for treatment and then acted erratically when medical personnel refused to do so because the boy’s condition failed to warrant it.
The boy’s mother has floated in and out of young Steven’s life. With his father unable to take care of him, DHS entered the picture when Morris and Mildred willingly became caregivers for their grandson.
After the grandparents assumed his care, an ensuing court hearing in March concluded with a judge declaring the youngster a dependent of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and instructing DHS to find placement for him within 90 days.
On June 6, one week before a scheduled emergency hearing to decide the boy’s future, DHS staff took Steven from his grade school without any notice to the Brasovankins and placed him in foster care.
Despite their ages, the couple’s attorney, Marc Collazzo, had told the court all along that Morris and Mildred were the most stable influence on their grandson’s life.
The little boy had brought activity and a sense of purpose to the elderly couple.
"I love that little boy so much," Morris Brasovankin said during a July interview. "He loves us and we love him. He’s no problem at all."
The couple had tried to work through the system to bring Steven to their Oxford Circle home ever since, to no avail. Instead, they were granted weekly one-hour visits with the boy in his foster-care setting.
Mildred Brasovankin said she could see the toll the case was taking on her husband. He’d lost a lot of sleep over the situation and wasn’t eating right.
During their ongoing efforts to bring Steven home, Morris and Mildred were vocal about their displeasure with the court’s rulings and delays.
"It burns you up, makes you miserable. It’s not fair and square," he told the Times last summer. "They’re doing things their way, and I don’t know how to stop it. We miss that little boy. He wants to be with us."
Brasovankin said it also broke his heart when, during the weekly visits, Steven would ask if his "pop-pop was going to take him home in his car."
While Morris Brasovankin was never able to fulfill his grandson’s request, the dedicated grandfather gave the boy a wonderful gift, said Collazzo, who has represented the Brasovankins throughout the court case.
"It’s a shame. He gave his grandson the greatest gift, whether he knows it or not," the attorney said. "Someday he’ll be able to see this and know how much his grandfather loved him and fought for him."
The Brasovankins’ fight to care for their grandson drew national media attention, including an appearance on Good Morning America.
"It certainly got much bigger than anybody envisioned. Morris fought until his dying breath," Collazzo said.
The way the Brasovankins saw it, they weren’t the only grandparents battling to be the caregivers of a grandchild.
"We want to make it so that other grandparents who are willing and able to do it can do it," Mildred Brasovankin said during a July interview with the Times.
In the United States, according to the 2000 Census, nearly 4.5 million children were in their grandparents’ care — a 30 percent increase from 1990.
In 2005, 21,400 Philadelphia grandparents were identified as raising their grandchildren.
According to Collazzo, nothing has changed with the case since the Sept. 11 hearing when the Brasovankins had hoped they’d finally get to bring Steven home to Oxford Circle.
Family Court Judge Ann Butchart’s gag order remains in place, preventing participants from discussing the case, and Steven is still in foster care.
Collazzo was sure that Mildred Brasovankin would find someone to drive her to see Steven on those weekly visits. ••
In addition to his wife Mildred, son Steven and grandson Steven, Morris Brasovankin is survived by his children Allen Hirsh, Elliott Hirsh and Janet Wilson, and three other grandchildren.
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com