Cee Cee’s memorial
I never thought I’d have to mourn over the death of my mother at 17 years old. My name is Leyona. I have two siblings; Shawn (19) and Mia (21).
On November 20, 2021, around 4am, I ran upstairs to my mom having a seizure. I had just made her some food and I told her that I had school in the morning so I needed to go to sleep. I gave her a hug and a kiss and I went to bed. A few hours later my brother busted in my room terrified. I can’t remember exactly what he said but I do remember him saying something was wrong with mommy and I needed to hurry up and go upstairs. Shawn said he was downstairs getting something to drink when he heard mommy’s ex boyfriend, Pappy, yelling her name, telling her to get up. Shawn got upstairs before me and said he seen her eyes rolling in the back of her head and her cigarette ash was really long, like she’d been unconscious for a while. When I got upstairs Pappy was trying to hold her up cause she was falling out of her chair. My mom is plus size so she was very heavy. Pappy dropped her and I immediately grabbed her, holding her head. Everybody was panicking at this point. Pappy kept yelling call the ambulance, call the ambulance! We did. As I held my mom in my arms, begging with everything in me that she would wake up, I watched her face and fingers turn blue. When Shawn seen this he lost it! “MOMMY PLEASE! PLEASE GET UP WE NEED YOU. THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING! SHE’S DEAD!” I tried to hold him back and tell him that she wasn’t gone yet. But I knew she was. Shawn never cries. When I seen him break in devastation that’s when I began to lose it as well.
We don’t have family. It’s always just been us; mommy, Mia, Shawn, Tim (my uncle, her little brother), Angie (my aunt, her little sister), my grandmother, and me.
We’ve struggled financially all of our lives. My mom would live with men she didn’t even want to be with to take care of us. Some of those men abused her. We’ve lived in poverty multiple times. Houses with black mold, water damage, no running water, no heat, no air, no electricity, barely any food, no bed to sleep in, bedbugs, roaches, termites, fleas, ants. We lived in places people should never have to experience. We’ve slept in cars, & abandoned houses on cold nights. It’s ALWAYS been hard for us. Even now, the house we live in has black mold everywhere, water damage everywhere, no insulation, old heaters that barely work, the ceiling is cracked in multiple places as if it’s going to fall in at any moment, windows that are so old they don’t even want to open, no central air, roaches, termites, silver fish, mice, no washing machine, the windows and doors aren’t correctly sealed so bugs constantly come in, and so much more. (I’ll have pics for proof) We’re not dirty people at all, we’ve always kept our home clean. The landlord doesn’t do anything to help us. All he wants is his money but doesn’t want to fix anything. He even had the nerve to raise the rent, knowing she was already struggling to pay what it was.
My mom’s death was very unexpected. She does not have life insurance and she was the one paying all the bills. We’re struggling a lot, financially, and are currently behind in rent. We cannot afford her memorial. Any donation will help! This is a very tragic time for my family and I. Mommy had a heart out of this world and would give her last to anyone in need! She even had the heart to donate her organs. We would like to raise enough to cover her expenses & enough so we don’t have to worry about bills for a while, as there is no income coming into our home. I’d really like to graduate at the school that I am attending right now. If we can’t raise enough money, i’ll have to move to another city and leave and leave my bestfriend behind. I can’t live without her
