WORCESTER >> Ask Corey Blue about his childhood memories, and all he can recall is living in the streets.
Born Melchor De la Rosa, Jr., Blue was abandoned by his birth father, a lover of motorcycles, who then moved to another part of the country. It is believed his birth mother is dead. And the young man has no memories of her.
Blue’s life consisted of trying to stay alive while looking after his three sisters in the streets of San Fernando, Pampanga in the Philippines. It is believed there was a fourth sister, but that, like most personal information about Blue, cannot be confirmed.
There were no meals, unless Blue stole or begged for enough money to buy food, or rummaged successfully through enough garbage to locate something edible.
And while nourishment was in short supply, danger was everywhere.
Hunger was a constant worry, but no more than the men who would think nothing of grabbing an unaccompanied child, force him to drink beer or whiskey and then laugh as the child stumbled helplessly around on the sidewalk.
Worse, there were those who would not think twice about murdering the wild children of the streets, then selling their internal organs on the black market.
These were Blue’s everyday realities.
Then came a day when Blue and his sisters were rounded up and placed in a local orphanage by adults who were concerned about their well being.
With that came a three- or four-year addition to the young man’s age, as it has been found that older children stand a better chance of being adopted than the younger.
And while Blue and his sisters were out of danger from life in the streets, there were still concerns.
Older children were not above bullying the young.
One such bully indoctrinated Blue into the orphanage by hitting him in the head with a rock, a wound that produced a large scar on his forehead that Blue still bears.
One by one, the children in the de la Rosa family were placed in homes.
Blue’s three sisters were all adopted.
It took some time, but Corey was finally adopted by the Blue family from the Lansdale area.
“We all ended up in different families,” Blue said. “(The orphanage) was better than living in the streets. We had food and we had shelter, but I didn’t really like it there.
“I know I would have been dead by now if I hadn’t gone to the orphanage, but it was still dangerous. There were bullies who would try and beat you up every day. “When I was living in the street, I had to worry about finding food and finding shelter. It was just about trying to survive every day.”
Ironically, before being placed in the orphanage, Blue saw his father one more time.
Digging in a garbage can, Blue was approached by his father, who berated him for embarrassing the family by rummaging in trash.
When his adoption went through in late 2009, Blue found himself traveling to the United States, which he was shocked to discover was covered by a large white cloud, or something most people would call snow.
“In my country it was either raining or hot, or both,” Blue said.
His life with the Blue family was better than his live-by-the-minute existence in the Philippines. But the young man was still not satisfied.
The woman who gave him his name had a difficult time physically tending to his needs. His brand-new “brother” was not much help, either.
It appeared Blue was headed for another unsatisfying chapter in his very dark life.
Branded a behavioral problem, Blue was not adjusting well to his new environment.
But as it happened, his life was about to take a major turn for the better.
Joanna Morabito, the wife of well-known area bread maker Mike Morabito and the Vice-President of Morabito Baking Company, was brought in to tutor Blue, and in time found he was a young man that needed more than just tutoring. He needed a family.
“He was a nice young man, a happy kid, very upbeat. But he had no ideas of boundaries,” Morabito said. “He would just go. You’d turn around and he was gone. He was pretty wild, and still is.”
But through the trying times, a connection had been made. Morabito knew of Blue’s dissatisfaction with his adopted family, and approached Mrs. Blue about the possibility of the Morabito family taking a more permanent role in his life.
After some time, Mrs. Blue relented, and Mike and Joanna Morabito became Blue’s legal guardians. Their hope is to soon make him their son.
They immediately went about trying to make the young man’s life better.
That meant giving him a sense of family. But even such mundane things as taking Blue in public meant knowing it was absolutely necessary to know his location at all times.
“We’d take him somewhere, we’d turn around and he was gone,” Morabito said with a laugh. “We took him to a Villanova basketball game and he disappeared, and we found him dancing with the Villanova dance team.
“He loves to dance.”
There was also the process of trying to establish Blue’s age, which was obviously incorrect.
“You could tell the age we were told was totally wrong,” Morabito said. “We took him to a dentist and a doctor to help establish his age.”
He was placed in Methacton High School as a 17-year old junior when, in fact, he was actually a 13-year old still possessing his baby teeth.
Mike Morabito also saw the athleticism Blue possessed and steered him towards sports. Baseball was one, although Blue’s sense of ownership was questionable.
“We got him brand-new glasses for baseball,” Morabito said, “and he gave them away.”
But ultimately it was wrestling that grabbed the young man — and wouldn’t let go.
“I got a call from Mike telling me he thought this kid could be a good wrestler,” recalled Warriors head wrestling coach A.J. Maida. “I get calls like that all the time, fathers and uncles telling me how good their kids are.
“I told him, like I tell all of them, bring him in for practice. Most times, when I tell somebody that their kid never shows up. But Corey was there.”
And he hasn’t left. In fact, with a winning record heading into the postseason, Blue could, providing he receives the extra years of eligibility the Morabitos have petitioned for, wind up being around for a couple more years.
In the meantime, Blue is enjoying his life as a wrestler.
“Wrestling is fun,” he said, “whether you’re getting beat up or beating up somebody else.”
He’s also enjoying being a member of the Morabito clan.
He recently was given a legal birthday (August 28) and he and his three new brothers are extremely close, especially Anthony Morabito, now a pitcher at Georgetown University.
“Corey said that when he made the varsity in wrestling it was the same happiness he felt on the street when he found money,” Morabito said. “It’s been wonderful. Now he knows what it’s like to have a dad.
“It was an uphill struggle, but I feel he was always meant to be in this family.”
As for Blue, hopefully soon to be a legal member of the Morabito family, it’s finally time to smile.
“I’ve always called (Mike and Joanna) Mama Toro and Papa Toro,” he said. “I’m hoping one day to call them Mom and Pops.”
