They gather together, a family still

A pumpkin pie beckoned from a nearby table, and the aroma of roasting turkey would soon fill the apartment.

But, when 13-year-old Santiago Villegas was asked Thursday what he was most thankful for, his answer had little to do with the coming feast.

“Family,” the boy said without hesitation. “Families have to stick together.”

Thanksgiving found Santiago and his five brothers and sisters together in a cozy Silver Lake apartment, which was miracle enough for all of them.

Since their mother died of liver cancer in July, the six Villegas siblings had faced the possibility of being scattered among foster homes, spending Thanksgiving in strangers’ houses, away from one another.

But then the oldest daughter, Angela, who is barely 19, did something that few teenagers have to contemplate but that fulfilled her dying mother’s last wish.

Angela petitioned the court to become the legal guardian of her five siblings, including 7-year-old Fernando, who has Down syndrome, and the court granted her request earlier this month.

And so Thanksgiving was a bittersweet day for the resilient young people, who gratefully accepted an invitation for a traditional turkey dinner at their aunt’s apartment.

“I’m thankful for being with my family, with my brothers,” Angela said before she sat down to dinner. “It seemed like I had no chance of keeping them. A 19-year-old. Five children including one with Down. What were the chances of me showing up in court and getting legal custody?”

Angela described her struggles and triumphs as her siblings sat on chairs and on the floor of her aunt’s living room. The children include Alejandra, 5; Lucio, 8; Jesus, 14; and Santiago.

One of Angela’s biggest challenges is Fernando, a sweet child whose curiosity and energy had him confiscating and wearing a Times photographer’s camera and reporter’s press pass minutes after he hugged the visitors in welcome.

“It can be stressful,” Angela allowed. “He is very, very active, as you can see.”

Those who know the petite teenager say she has risen to the challenge.

“I am very proud of her,” her aunt said.

But Angela acknowledged that it might not have been possible to keep the family together without the help of others.

A month ago, she was not certain she would ever be able to return to college classes, and her friends worried about the children growing up on a gang-infested street in the Rampart area.

Then the community stepped in. People who heard of her plight on Telemundo or in The Times donated clothes, food and money.

Someone found the Villegas siblings a nice apartment in an area of Silver Lake that is near her aunt and on a street where residents are not afraid to walk at night.

“It’s a lot safer,” said the bushy-haired Santiago as he sat near his older sister.

And the Dream Center church group in Echo Park stepped in, offering to provide day care for Angela’s siblings. With the new home closer to her aunt, who will pitch in to help, Angela can return to classes at Cal State L.A. after the Christmas break.

“I’m happy. I am. But at the same time I think, ‘My mom had to die for us to get all this help,’ ” she said. “It’s weird how life sometimes functions. It takes away from you to get something back. It’s like, she had to die in order for us to move to a better place.”

In the months after her mother’s death, Angela also received help from her congregation at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church on Normandie Avenue. Members helped pay for the funeral.

The family gets government assistance as well, including subsidized housing and food stamps.

Jesus has had to work part time for a gardening service to help make ends meet.

As the family sat down to dinner this year, Angela missed her mother’s own take on the Thanksgiving meal, which included sopas and other Latin American delicacies.

But most of all, she confessed, she missed her mother’s presence -- her warm hugs, her maternal advice, the comforting thought that someone older and wiser was there to take care of her and her family.

“It’s a mixture of feelings,” Angela said, with her siblings seated around her. “I’m sad because she is not here, of course. But then I am happy because I’m here. We are here.”

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com