The Hardest Video I’ve Ever Had To Make 💔

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]I've been away for a while and I want to start this video by thanking you for checking on me, for being concerned, and for supporting me.

[00:00:10]It really means a lot. And so, because of that, I believe that I owe you an explanation as to why I've been gone for so long. My brother fell sick about a month or so ago and he went to the hospital for being extremely tired and exhausted.

[00:00:29]Basically, he was feeling really weak.

[00:00:31]When he went to the hospital, he was told to take rest, to take leave, and he will feel better eventually. And he went back home. My family took good care of him. They basically helped nurse him back to feeling better. But, all of a sudden after a few weeks, he suddenly got worse and he was admitted in hospital. He battled for about a week and unfortunately, he didn't make it. My baby brother, Amanueal Zelalem, died at the age of 24. He developed acute liver disease.

[00:01:07]The doctors tried their best to keep him alive. He was cleared of almost everything. All the usual suspects that cause liver disease were ruled out.

[00:01:16]Sometimes, despite our best efforts, God has other plans.

[00:01:20]We submit to his will. When I heard that he fell sick I traveled back home and the day I got home was the day that he passed.

[00:01:34]As you can imagine we are all broken.

[00:01:40]This is not this is not how we imagined our year to go.

[00:01:52]One minute, we're all trying to figure out life. Amanueal doing that better than the rest of us.

[00:01:57]Next minute he's gone. Life comes at you fast. We buried him the next day as it is customary in the Orthodox Christian Church.

[00:02:06]And we mourn for the next 40 days. And I want to say a little bit about my young brother.

[00:02:14]Amanu was an excellent young man.

[00:02:16]Caring, loving, intelligent.

[00:02:20]I always joked with him that he is the brains of the house and it is true. He was very smart and intelligent. He was doing his masters in law. He loved the law. He has degrees in law. He graduated last year actually.

[00:02:37]He was doing economics as well which was graduating this year. He was an avid reader. He reads a lot. He reads a lot and he also writes. We found out that he has actually finished writing a book which eventually we will publish God willing for him.

[00:02:58]He was a great brother, a great son, a great friend as I've heard from his friends.

[00:03:06]>> [snorts] >> He was great with kids. He was the best uncle actually. He was a bit strange too. The kind of strange that labeled on introspective people. He was a thinker.

[00:03:19]A thinker that was not shy to share his ideas and his beliefs. He walked his own path. Conversations with him made you think, made you question. He was a man with a plan. I always admired how he planned everything. He has plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D.

[00:03:41]He's always prepared. He knew where he was going. He knew where he was headed.

[00:03:46]Even though he was much younger than me, I looked up to him for many reasons.

[00:03:54]He used his time effectively. He didn't like to waste time, which I admired so much about him.

[00:04:00]He wants to do something, he's going to do it and with such passion.

[00:04:06]And he was charismatic. He was funny.

[00:04:09]Like very funny. His comebacks are out of this world. It's it it's hard to keep up with him. I usually end up waving the white flag because I don't know how to keep up with his wittiness, with his fast remarks and humor. He was truly a special person, not only because he's my brother.

[00:04:30]Of course, I love him because he's my brother and I see all the good things in him.

[00:04:36]But I heard it from others as well how he is consistent. This is an example of a message I received from his friend.

[00:04:52]He is honest.

[00:04:54]He believed in human rights.

[00:04:56]Hence why he enrolled in law, graduated in law, and taking his masters to further develop his knowledge. He was also working at a law firm in Addis.

[00:05:11]He really really wanted to be better. He was a hard worker, for sure. He was always showing us how to honor that fire he put inside each and every one of us.

[00:05:22]I would like to thank some people.

[00:05:24]First, to my family who did everything in their power to support him, to help him feel better, to nurse him back to health.

[00:05:34]You did your absolute best, and I hope you know that.

[00:05:39]Thank you so much for doing your best. To the doctors, to the nurses that took care of him. To the family members that visited him at the hospital, to the friends, to those that prayed for him and stood with us during this difficult time, to those that have been showing up to help us get through this tough time.

[00:06:02]Thank you.

[00:06:09]>> [singing] [singing] [singing] >> I would like to honor his memory by making a few episodes content that shows you or touches on the things that he cared about, standing up for people, for marginalized people, law, love, excellence, and so on and so forth. So, if you see the initial of his name in some of my videos, just know that it is in memory of my brother, Amanueal Zalalam. To be honest with you, this is the hardest video I've ever had to make.

[00:07:09]This is a hard time for me and my family and those that loved him, that cared for him, his friends, his colleagues.

[00:07:18]It's a hard season, but this is life, I understand.

[00:07:23]And as Christians, we believe in the afterlife.

[00:07:28]So, I want to say, and this is from my family, from mom, dad, Kidous, and I, I want to say to Amanueal, we love you so much. We care about you so much. You're always going to be in our hearts until we meet again in heaven.

[00:07:51]Rest in peace in eternal peace.

[00:07:54]I love you.

[00:07:56]>> [snorts] >> I didn't want to end this video without it having some kind of information that can help others. So, I wanted to add this at the end for my audience in case it might help even one person. While we've been on this journey learning about liver, the liver function because of what my brother was going through, I was able to learn a lot a lot of things that I didn't know before and I thought it would be helpful for people in case you don't know much about it.

[00:08:45]Even though Amanu's case is different and he was cleared of all the things the main things that causes liver failure.

[00:08:54]All the things he was cleared until the end. Uh they were not able to find the things that you would usually expect uh for it to be a cause of that. He didn't have it, but I thought it's important to share this in case someone needs to hear this. Try your best to exercise regularly to maintain a healthy weight because obesity can cause fatty liver disease. Another cause for liver disease is alcohol consumption. If you need to drink, drink in moderation.

[00:09:25]Two drinks a day maximum is what is recommended. Another thing that we need to be careful about is abuse of over-the-counter painkillers. In some cases, this can cause liver damage. And always do your yearly checkup, track your health whenever you feel off, whenever you feel like you're not yourself, seek medical help. Be in tune with your body. As I said earlier, Amanu was cleared and all those diseases that you can mention, the fat, the hep B, A, C, the alcohol, nothing. He was cleared, it was ruled out. Even though in Amanu's case, all these things were ruled out and he didn't have any of these causes and they were still trying to figure out what the problem is. I thought it was really important for me to talk about this for those of us that are still here and might want to know what can cause a liver failure. Anyways, fam, thank you for watching this video. I'll see you on the next one.

[00:10:30]Bye.