We are the family of Italia "Tt" Fragasse.

We are heartbroken to share with you all that that at the age of 21, she has tragically passed away. We are choosing to share her story for awareness in hopes that it might help someone, AND, we ask for your respect of our privacy and your care around how sensitive and difficult that it is to share.

Italia was a beautiful person. The heartbeat our family. Our baby.

She was a cherished daughter, sister, cousin, partner, friend, and her favorite role: a mother. Motherhood was one of Italia's most important journeys. She and her partner Adrian have been raising Ilaria, their beautiful baby girl, together, and were expecting Adrian III, their baby boy, in the new year.

Italia was diagnosed with Epilepsy when she was 19 years old. She took medication daily to treat it. Recently, she made her doctors aware that she had begun to have seizures very frequently during her second pregnancy with baby Adrian, and like many Black women who talk to their doctors about concerns, nothing was done to adjust her care plan to remedy the situation.

On October 30th, Italia had a seizure that took both her, and her son's, lives.

We are aware of how unjust that this situation is. And while we are angry in the midst of our hurt, we WILL address this at a later date.

Today however, our most URGENT and IMPORTANT concerns are us being able to give Italia and baby Adrian III the funeral and burial arrangements they deserve.

We could not have ever anticipated these events and we.

Black Mothers die from pregnancy related causes 4x more often than non-Black mothers do. This is because of disparities in the care that we get to access.

Black Mothers with Epilepsy have an even higher increased risk of death during their pregnancies.

It is Epilepsy awareness month and Italia and baby Adrian should still be alive. We are determined to celebrate them. To fight for them and to honor what Italia what have wanted.

We want to ensure that Ilaria, her pride and joy, has everything that she needs including access to resources to help her heal and thrive like therapy, and education without any financial barriers preventing this.

Every dollar that you donate will help:

We are deeply appreciative of every share, well wish sent, dollar donated, and all of the love sent.

Help us send our Beautiful girl home.

Help us ensure that her daughter has everything that she needs.

Help us make sure that she did not die in vain, and amplify this story.

Thank you.

We are so grateful for your support in this time.

<3