St. John Bosco Steps In for Swan Twins

At 17, with no parents, little money and no guarantee of success, Chris and Troy Swan were thrust into adulthood this past summer.

“It’s time to step up to the plate and try to be a man,” Troy said.

The twins graduated from Bellflower St. John Bosco in May, five days after the death of their grandfather, Azzie Mitchell, who had raised them since they were 3-year-olds.

Chris helped St. John Bosco win the Southern Section Division II-AA boys’ basketball championship as a starting guard. Troy was a basketball manager and ran track.

Chris left for boot camp at the Air Force Academy prep school in Colorado Springs, Colo., on July 16. Troy enrolled at Cerritos College. With them went the best wishes, dreams and hopes of classmates and strangers who learned of their story.

Their grandfather had taken them in, moved to Watts and taught them right from wrong. They didn’t have a car, computer, cell phone or cable TV but never complained.

They cried when their grandfather died, knowing how much he had wanted to attend their high school graduation. He had devoted his life to preparing them to become adults, only no one knew they’d be tested so quickly.

“You can say he prepared us to be on our own,” Troy said. “When we knew he was gone, Chris and I said we can’t bring him back. The first thing that popped in our heads was we have to take care of ourselves. All he was telling us our whole life was we have to stick together.”

The St. John Bosco community pulled together to support the boys, though they never sought help. The Swan fund was created to help pay for their college education. By late June, donations from $5 to $1,000 had come in, with the total reaching $11,262. People donated money not out of pity or sorrow but as a tribute to the grandfather and with the conviction the brothers had come too far to fail.

“Your grandfather was more than a grandfather. He was the ultimate role model for all grandfathers,” wrote one contributor.

“I have grandsons that I pray turn out as well as you boys,” wrote another.

James D. Brown, who played on UCLA’s 1954 national championship football team, said he donated $1,000 because he remembers, after the death of his father, his high school tuition was paid for by an alumnus of Loyola High, and that helped change his life.

“The point is that with any change in life, good or bad, comes opportunity,” Brown said.

Troy was overwhelmed that people he didn’t know wanted to offer support. “It is a real family,” he said of the St. John Bosco community, paying tribute to the way the school helps students after they leave. “I don’t think they just picked us. They’d help anybody.”

Troy needed somewhere to live, so assistant basketball coach Al Buck and his wife gave him a room. “I’m not going to turn a kid away,” Buck said.

His wife drives Troy to school in the morning, but Troy is hoping to get a part-time job so he can find a place himself and not keep imposing on the Bucks.

Chris struggled in the early days of boot camp, having to wake up at 5 a.m. and learn the military way of life. He was feeling homesick, but not anymore.

“It was just a harsh realization what I was getting into,” he said. “I was used to being a civilian in Los Angeles, then went into being a military man.”

He has blossomed into one of the top candidates for the Air Force Academy, compiling a 3.5 grade-point average, and is expected to be starting for the prep school basketball team.

“He’s really a natural leader,” said Maj. Nathaniel Dean Christian, the prep school basketball coach and athletic director.

The brothers still communicate, mostly by e-mails. Chris is expected to return to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving. Troy insists Chris is never going to fly in the Air Force.

“Chris is no pilot,” he said. “He won’t even get on a roller coaster.”

The two continue to follow the philosophy instilled in them by their grandfather.

“Just keep going -- don’t stop,” Troy said. “We just tell each other to be strong.”

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.