Submitted photo
From left to right, the Siennick family includes Lucciana, 3, Graciella, 15, Marquise, 11, Valentina, 4, Vianney, grandmother and caregiver, Ydnic, 1, and Dominique, 12. In this photo, the family is shown at home with a check created from community outreach.

BURNHAM — Unfathomable tragedy. Six children left motherless in an act of senseless violence. An extended family left to pick up what is left, not knowing what small, unexpected reminder of what is gone will bring all that sorrow rushing back in an instant or how to explain to young children why they don’t get to have their mother when most other kids do.

Many who mean well might say they understand what this family is going through, but they don’t. They can’t. No one who hasn’t experienced it, who hasn’t lived through it every day can.

But for Vianney Siennick and Julio Valencia-Velez, this is reality. This is every day. And it’s understandably taken its toll — emotionally, psychologically and physically.

“My mom called me and let me know what had just happened early in the morning … and it was hard for me to believe what happened,” said Valencia-Velez, who is attending medical school in Washington, D.C. and is uncle to his late sister’s six kids about the fateful day. “A surreal moment kind of overcomes you and you just don’t really know how to move forward in that moment.”

Valencia-Velez said the gravity of what happened didn’t really set in until after he met his mother and the six children in Harrisburg where the kids were interviewed by police specialists about what they had witnessed that day.

“It really hit me and my mom in that moment because the kids had to relive that moment to tell their story, to tell what just happened,” he said. “You’re a human being, a decent human being and it’s heartbreaking and I can’t imagine having to tell that story about my own mother. So I can’t imagine what the kids not only went through what they did in her last moments, how scared they were, but then had to retell that story, all still unknowing — they’re very scared, they’re kids, they’re hopeful, they didn’t know that she had already died. So, that was the first battle that we had to fight.”

Once the kids were released to the custody of their grandmother, the task of meeting their basic needs became a reality.

“My mom lives in a home,” Valencia-Velez said. “It’s an older home. We’ve been there most of my childhood, ever since I was 7, 8 years old — I’m 31 now. It’s always been a nice little home for us. It was enough for us for three or four kids growing up, my siblings and I, and now it was battered and beaten over the years while we were living there as kids and such and things get banged up, toilets get clogged, normal things that happen, wear and tear of a house that normally happens in one lifetime. My mom had to bring six new kids into this environment.

“They always visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas and everything works out and it’s because they’re visiting their grandmother’s house for these couple hours, but now it’s six new people living in this very confined place. Don’t get me wrong, we are very fortunate to have a home for everyone to fill in and to stay and keep the family together, but it’s not easy. That was the second little battle that came up was ‘where is everybody going to sleep?’ ‘where is everybody going to stay?’ ‘are there enough blankets?’ ‘are there enough pillows?’ ‘what’s for dinner?’ … That was the next little battle and having to tell the kids what happened again. Having to tell them that their mom is dead was just very disheartening, very just rough. It’s almost — I can’t find the correct words to explain kind of the emotion we all felt in those moments, not even 24 hours from that moment. Not even 24 hours had passed and we had lived just two full lifetimes of emotions and pain.”

The family has dealt with loss and the omnipresent question of “What’s next?” ever since. For it was in January, a tragedy that made headlines, both in this newspaper and in news outlets elsewhere, tore a hole in this family that will never be repaired.

Early one morning in their home in Mifflin Borough in Juniata County, Cindy Siennick-Valencia was in bed with her then-boyfriend and her 6-month-old child when, for reasons that may never be known for sure, police say her then-boyfriend started repeatedly stabbing her without warning, fatally wounding her and stealing a 33-year-old mother from her six children forever.

The man charged with her murder, whose name won’t be mentioned here, is in jail awaiting trial.

In the aftermath of what happened, local people did what people in this area are known for — they showed their generosity.

And while every little bit helps, and the family is quick to thank everyone for even the smallest of gestures, the truth is the family is struggling to just meet the basic needs of six children on a daily basis — from diapers to shelter to even making necessary household repairs.

“A couple families that were very close to us right away came out and reached out and just brought over some food, pizza, things like that to get us through those very first few 48, 72 hours,” Valencia-Velez said. “Just kind of let us, almost help us through those quick moments where the kids are one thing, making sure they eat, making sure they have a place to sleep, making sure they feel safe after what just happened.”

Valencia-Velez said he didn’t know where to turn next but had to return to school, leaving his mother alone to care for the kids. He wasn’t sure what to do until sitting in a coffee shop it dawned on him to try to use the power of the internet. He set up a Go Fund Me page to help raise money for the never-ending expenses of this new family of a grandmother, an uncle and six kids. And it worked.

“I tried to speak from the heart real quick thinking there are a lot of people out there that understand that travesties and tragedies happen and just incomprehensible things … bad things happen to good people and I decided to write this article for the Go Fund Me explaining who my sister was, what had happened,” Valencia-Velez said. “I tried to make it very colorful because I think it’s very important to understand the severity, the gravity of what happened with the situation — the importance of addressing issues like domestic violence. It ended up being very successful. I was originally thinking of a goal of $3,000 to try and help ease this change and I couldn’t believe the outreach and the outpour of people in the community that decided to respond to it, whether it was my classmates from my medical school to some professors, some doctors there and all of the outreach from the local community. It was overwhelming and it gave us hope that we could survive this storm.”

Make no mistake, it’s not from a lack of effort. Just speaking to Vianney Siennick, it’s easy to see how frustrated she is because she knows what her grandchildren need, but isn’t always able to give it to them — and that goes for more than just material things.

“The three older kids know what happened,” she said. “The three little ones, they’re too young to understand. They’re going through counseling and therapy.

“The little ones, they want to see mom, you know? They think that mom is at home and she can’t get out of the house and she can’t come and get them because she’s trapped in the house. They have memories of what happened that night. The older ones, they saw their mom covered in blood and the little ones say ‘my mommy’s hands are red, that’s why she cannot open the door because her hands are red.’ So, little things like that, you know, are in their memories.”

She’s also a generous person by nature as she has previously volunteered her own time in the community with Habitat for Humanity as well as being a longtime Rotarian.

“Vianney, who is the grandmother of these six children, is a Rotarian, so my connection is with Rotary,” said family friend Jim Zubler. “Rotary sees a need to assist the family, to assist this fellow Rotarian. We were able to raise some funds and put them toward the car fund initially and now we’re focusing in on the Siennick fund which is to assist with the construction of a house at this point.”

A new house, one with enough room for everyone, is the next goal of a group of local people who have banded together to help remove some of the burden from Siennick and her family.

The home, which will be built on donated land in Burnham Borough, is planned for groundbreaking in the spring provided enough money can be raised to at least begin digging the foundation and constructing the basement.

But that’s far from a guarantee. The project is estimated to cost around $120,000 and at least $35,000 to $45,000 will be needed to get the project off the ground in the spring.

“This lady needs to have a house that has no debt,” said Jeff Bell with Habitat for Humanity. “In order for her to function and have money to spend on her children, what money she has, she’s gonna need everything. She needs no house payment.

“We’re here with this person who has a need and we have all these people that come together that are in the room, plus more that are not in the room, that reached out to say ‘hey, I’d like to help.’ They’re all just here reaching out because we’re all human beings and we’re trying to make our community a better community and help somebody. That’s why we’re here — to give someone an upper hand that’s been dealt a short hand.”

Fundraising events are being organized by Jennifer Feathers, which include sales of various items and a donation account at a local bank.

“We are looking to continue to raise fundraising money over the course of COVID, whether we have to be outside selling hoagies in the freezing cold or not, but we are looking to do that,” she said. “We are looking to sell Texas Roadhouse items over the Christmas holidays and to deliver them for Christmas gifts as well for those who purchased them.

“We do have an account set up through (Juniata Valley Bank) that if anyone wanted to donate, you could just walk into the JVB and tell them you’re looking to donate money to the Siennick fund and they can go there and do that. We do take PayPal and Venmo, or should be taking Venmo soon, but we are taking PayPal. Everything is under the Siennick fund.”

The Siennick family has also received a vehicle through donations already gathered by several organizations and spearheaded by Sue Knepp at Miller’s Plumbing and Heating.

“Whenever I heard about this — my secretary was good friends with Cindy — and she drove her vehicle and said how poorly it was, the shape it was in. So, I thought it would be a good idea to start a fundraiser for a vehicle,” she said. “So, we raised $12,110 and they were able to purchase a vehicle. I would like to thank everyone that supported the Siennick children car fund, whether you advertised, volunteered, or gave a monetary donation, it was very much appreciated. We live in a great community, that is always willing to help.”

“This family has, not just needs for a house, they have needs that far go more than a house,” Bell added. “As Sue, she reached out and tried to get them transportation, but there’s like babysitting, just the needs of raising these children that we’re trying to help them with. Everybody has a purpose here. We’re all trying.”

Others like Mike and Josie Souders have helped more with some of the day-to-day needs in addition to hosting benefit baseball tournaments to raise money.

“Since the beginning, we have taken care of clothes and food as much as we possibly can,” Josie Souders said. “Especially with the little ones who are growing constantly, we’re constantly buying food and clothes for them to make sure they are up to date with clothing, jackets, hats, just about anything we can possibly do.”

Even with all the help, it will be tough. The family knows it will never be the same as it was before. But the generosity of the area gives them hope.

“We didn’t have time to let a lot of these emotions really impact us and let us hurt,” Valencia-Velez said. “It just — there’s been no moment to just sit down and cry, no moment to just sit down and let it hurt and miss my sister and (let my mother) miss her daughter and let the anger out and let everything out because there’s six new little kids that need to be taken care of and need to be safe and need to be loved and there’s too many things that need to be done for us to take care of. We’ve been struggling, but we’ve been putting one foot in front of the other climbing this mountain. Hopefully we get to the top here soon.”

Anyone who wishes to donate to the Siennick fund can visit any branch of the Juniata Valley Bank.