Meet the kokum who's raising 14 grandchildren without batting an eye

It's dinner time at Faye Robinson's, and the food and love are flowing.

More than a dozen kids of all ages weave in and around the table alongside the adults.

"Kookoo, what about me?" little voices call out, as Robinson calmly ladles out food and cake.

It's a fairly typical night for this 50-year-old grandmother, who is helping to raise 14 grandchildren in her Saskatoon home.

"The love is different, totally different from when you're raising your own kids," she said, picking up one child after another, cuddling the smallest ones in turns as they squeeze past her.

"The love is deeper — a deeper love."

Over the past 14 years, Robinson and her husband Calvin have taken in more and more of their grandkids. Her five children have struggled with addictions, with two having died.

Her oldest son Patrick was shot to death last year in Regina, while his common-law wife, pregnant at eight months, had died of an overdose just the day before. Robinson's youngest son Kelvin Jr. died after heart complications from drug use last year.

"It was very traumatizing for us all," she said.

Robinson and her husband had no hesitation about what would happen to their sons' children.

"We both looked at one another and we both said the same thing. It looks like we're going to be raising more kids."

Robinson has watched many grandparents like her dealing with the grief of losing children to addictions and struggling to cope with the needs of those left behind.

"That's the same thing with us. We try to do the best we can to move on with our lives and we know that they need us. The grandchildren need us," she said.

Noela Crowe-Salazar has been a practising social worker for more than two decades, and has seen how the breakdown of families and intergenerational trauma have led to addictions in Indigenous communities.