Luke Bryan reflects on raising late sister’s 3 kids alongside his own: meet his nieces and nephew
People at times are struggling with a lot of adversity in their personal lives but will put on a brave front for the public.
Country singer Luke Bryan has dealt with his fair share of grief but how he deals with it all, is very inspiring.
In 2007, Luke Bryan received devastating news. His sister Kelly had passed away while she had been at home with her son.
The cause of her death could not be determined even by experts.
“They never determined what happened [to Kelly]. The autopsies, the coroner, no one could figure it out,” Luke said in an interview with People magazine in 2013 about the tragedy.
That is when her husband Ben stepped in and raised his three children. son Til and daughters Kris and Jordan, on his own.
But in 2014, the family went through another major heartbreak as they lost Ben in an accident.
At that time, Til was 16 years old while his sisters were college-aged. When the tragedy struck Luke Bryan and his wife Caroline, immediately sprung into action.
The couple, who met while living in Georgia, took the three children as their own.
”We never thought twice about it,” Caroline said in an interview in 2017.
The couple moved 16-year-old Til to their home in Nashville.
In the year 2000, when Luke himself was a teenager, he lost his brother Chris in a car accident. And seven years later, his sister Kelly died as well which must have been a devastating blow to the country singer.
Perhaps, the pain of losing both his siblings is what fuels Luke’s music to be so soulful. The singer started his career soon after in Nashville and then married his wife, who was his college sweetheart.
Back then, he was a senior at Georgia Southern University and Caroline was a freshman.
“We hung out as friends first, and he never made a move on me. I kissed him first! He was always so scared of making a girl feel uncomfortable. He wouldn’t cross a line,” Caroline told People in 2014.
The couple, who dated on and off for several years before marrying in 2006, has now been together for over 11 years.
They have two boys of their own, 11-year-old Thomas Boyer, aka “Bo,” and 8-year-old Tatum Christopher.
And in 2014, the family grew bigger when Luke and Caroline took in their nephew and two nieces. The couple has talked about how it wasn’t even a question for them.
“We never thought twice about it. You know, it was never something that he and I had to sit down and talk about. ‘Should we take this on?’ We just did that,” she said in an interview.
It was an adjustment for everyone involved as Til came to live with the family in Nashville.
“I woke up one day and I’m raising a teen,” Luke previously said in an interview. “And it’s a challenge because my main thing with Til is just properly giving the right amount of advice and realizing you’re talking to someone who is becoming an adult.”
He has shared that striking the right balance with Til had been hard. “I have to be that parent role where if he does something, he needs to get in trouble, but I want to be a friend to him too,” he shared.
“We’re buddies now, though, kinda,” Luke told ABC. “Until he makes me… That’s when I get onto him, I’m like, ‘All right, you’re making me be an adult; don’t make me be an adult!’” the country singer went on.
Even though the circumstances that led to their blended family were born in heartbreak, they are grateful to have one another.
“You don’t want to sound like you love having them so much that you’re glad it’s the situation, but we’re honored to be doing what we feel was the right thing,” the singer clarified.
He shares that his sons now have a big brother figure to look up to in his nephew Til. And they bond with one another beautifully. They play board games together and also go fishing together. Luke also featured all three boys in his video for the song “What Makes You Country.”
Even with all the positives, Luke shared that sometimes the tragedy of it all gets to him and his family and they get upset about why they have had to go through so much heartbreak. But one must carry on.
“We feel like if we just stay positive through this, maybe we’ll be a positive inspiration for people that had these things happen to ’em,” Luke said in an interview. “You just have to plow on and play the hand that’s dealt.”
Luke Bryan farm
Today, the Bryan family and his biological children live on a huge farm in Nashville. The 10,000 square-foot estate, located in rural Williamson County, includes a 1,800 square-foot guesthouse, and a 7,000 square-foot party barn. In total, the two houses have six bedrooms, a media room, a living room, a kitchen, and four bathrooms and outside the porch, there is a catfish pond.
According to Countryfancast, Luke named the farm ”Red Bird Farm” after Luke’s sister and Chris. While building the farm, the country star and his wife wanted their home to look like the Blackberry Farm in East Tennessee. It is designed by Chad James, who once said:
”One day, we were out there and Luke said, ‘Have you ever been to Blackberry Farm? If you can make this farm look like Blackberry Farm, I’ll be the happiest man on this planet,’” James recalled.
Source: Youtube/Countryfancast
It is truly commendable how Luke Bryan and his family have been resilient through the rough hands life has dealt them. It shows their integrity and strength of character.
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