Celebrity Breaks Silence in Emotional Note about Sister's Heartbreaking Death
They say people aren’t given more than they can bear. But for one woman, right now what she’s been given to bear is a lot.
It seemed like things were going really well for singer and actress Jordin Sparks. It was just in November 2017 that word broke she and husband Dana Isaiah, who had secretly married in July, were expecting their first child together in the spring, according to People Magazine.
In an exclusive interview with the magazine, Sparks shared the couple’s joy.
“We’re both really excited,” she said. “He’s been like, ‘I want to shout it from the mountain tops!’ We’re really proud to be married to each other and to be celebrating this.”
But, just weeks after that news broke, tragedy hit the Sixth season “American Idol” winner when she lost her step-sister Bryanna Jackson-Frias following complications due to sickle-cell anemia.
Jackson-Frias passed away on Tuesday, January 30, 2018, and the announcement was shared on Facebook by Jordin and Bryanna’s mom, Jodi Jackson, the following day.
It was on that same Wednesday that two more people close to the celebrity were taken.
The Daily Mail wrote that “Former NBA basketball player Rasual Butler and his American Idol wife Leah LaBelle were killed when their Range Rover flipped over and crashed early Wednesday morning in Los Angeles.”
But even that was not the end of the days of sadness piled up so close together for Sparks. Her cousin Q also apparently died the same week, though details were not forthcoming about exactly when or the circumstances surrounding her passing.
The public became aware of the terrible losses when Sparks shared a heartbreaking post on Instagram about it. In it, she wrote, “My heart is just so heavy & broken. I’m in shock, numb and feel everything all at the same time.”
Just hours before Jackson-Frias died, Sparks had posted a plea to Instagram for fans to keep her in their prayers. Following her death, Sparks noted about her and Q that both “were such bright lights in this crazy world [who] made everyone better just by knowing them.”
Sparks added that their “smiles made anyone’s day better. The world is less sparkly without [them] in it.”
Citing the Mayo Clinic, iHeart Radio explained what sickle-cell anemia is. “For those who aren’t aware, the illness is ‘an inherited form of anemia — a condition in which there aren’t enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen throughout your body.'”
Jackson-Frias had battled with sickle-cell anemia all of her life, wrote the Daily Mail.
In the Facebook post announcing her passing, it was requested that donations be made at the GoFundMe page established in her honor.
Dealing with the loss of a loved one is never easy. But dealing with the loss of friends and family, all at the same time, is nearly impossible. We hope the families involved find peace and comfort in this time of grief.
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