The first school morning without Cheryl Stark, a wife of 34 years and mother to nine children, started like most of the others.
Will Stark roused himself from sleep at 4 a.m. and eased into a routine that he and his wife, Cheryl, had perfected over 20 years. With help from his three oldest daughters, Stark bathed, dressed and fed his six adopted special-needs children, ages 12 to 19. Then they hustled the kids into his rickety blue GMC passenger van and were off for the day.
For the Stark family, mornings won't get easier anytime soon. But they got some assistance Monday when Q100's "The Bert Show" handed over more than $200,000 in donations, a washer and dryer and a new 12-passenger van in a show of support following Cheryl Stark's unexpected death last month.
"As much as it's a blessing," Stark said Monday, "I wish I could go into a room, curl up and not come out for a week or two."
Will and Cheryl Stark first came to the attention of "The Bert Show" in 2009, when their family was selected from dozens of others to go on an all-expense-paid trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando. "Bert's Big Adventure," a charity founded by Q100's Bert Weiss and his wife, Stacey, annually takes chronically or terminally ill children and their families to Disney World.
The Stark family -- with six children -- was the largest ever chosen for the trip.
Weiss and other show staffers renewed their relationship with the family three weeks ago when Will Stark sent them an email informing them of his wife's death. Cheryl Stark suffered a fatal stroke July 21 while on vacation with Will in Tennessee. She was 52.
"I would explain more but I can’t stop crying," Will wrote in the email.
Cheryl's death left Will as the sole caretaker for the children, who suffer from ailments ranging from cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and nonverbal mental retardation. The couple, which already had three biological daughters, started adopting the children nearly 20 years ago.
Jennifer Patton, one of the three biological Stark daughters, said her parents started off providing foster care but eventually discovered that it was too difficult to let the children go.
"They couldn't do it anymore," Patton said. "We would fall in love with them. They became part of our family."
Four of the children -- Melody, 19; Natalie, 18; and Johnathon and Amber, both 17 -- attend Peachtree Ridge High School. Twelve-year-olds Jacob and Katie go to Hull Middle and Jackson Elementary, respectively.
Caring for them all was a lot of work for two parents, let alone one.
To that end, Will's biological daughters have made arrangements to maintain the children's daily routine. Jennifer and her husband, Neil, recently moved back into the family home, and Heather Stark and Jessica Hanley plan to chip in where they can.
"No one can replace my mom," Heather Stark said. "Things will ultimately be different. But we're going to keep it as consistent as we can."
And Will, who lost his job about a year and a half ago, is still looking for something that would allow him flexibility to care for the children. But in the meantime, Will and his daughters were appreciative of the overwhelming show of support.
"I still feel undeserving," he said. "There's a lot of families out there who have more problems than we do."
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