✨ Help Tristin Fight Her Way Back after a Life Threatening Stroke.

This November our lives split cleanly into a before and an after.

My sister Tristin, who has spent years of her life helping people recover from addiction and rebuilding their futures, suffered a massive and unexpected stroke. One moment she was fighting for others. The next, she was fighting for her life.

The day that Everything Changed….

the stroke caused severe, dangerous brain swelling. We were rushed into a hospital room where time felt frozen and unreal. A surgeon sat across from us and delivered the unthinkable:

“Without emergency surgery to remove part of her skull, she will not survive.”

He told us she may never speak again. Never swallow again. Never eat, walk, or even know we were in the room. The words shattered through us. My mom was devastated and I almost threw up.

But something inside me said: This is not the whole story.

Because the night before, Tristin had kicked both her legs. She squeezed our hands. She showed strength that didn’t match the surgeon’s bleak prediction.

So we demanded more information. We called specialists. We begged for clarity. We prayed.

A different doctor told us something we desperately needed to hear (I refer to this doctor as the angel from Brooklyn):

“She still has a chance. She deserves the chance to fight.”

Choosing Life

My mom and I sat together. We looked at each other, terrified and grieving, but refusing to give up. I sat on the floor grabbed her hands and said:

“Let’s do the surgery. Let’s give her a chance.”

And we did.

They performed a life saving craniotomy. A surgery where part of her skull was removed so her brain could swell outward, not inward.

It saved her life.

Where She Is Now

Tristin is stable and she is fighting.

She moves her legs.

She moves her arms.

She breathes.

She understands.

She is here!

This week, she swallowed three tiny ice chips during a speech therapy session.

And days ago… she said “hello.”

A small word.

A giant miracle.

But her road ahead is long. Months of rehabilitation. Countless therapies. A feeding tube. Medical equipment. Continued hospital care. And unknown future costs. The bills are already staggering.

Why We’re Asking for Help

We are doing everything we can, my mom is relentless in her fight to save her but we cannot do this alone.

This GoFundMe will help cover:

• Acute hospital care

• Speech, physical, and occupational therapy

• Long-term rehabilitation

• Medical devices and equipment

• Travel and time off work so our family can be by her side

• The long-term care she will need to rebuild her life

Who My Sister Is

Tristin is kind. She is funny. She is stubborn in the best way.

She has held the hands of people who believed their lives were over… and helped them start again.

Now she needs us to do that for her.

If You’re Reading This

We are asking for help with humility, with gratitude, and with hope.

Every donation, every share, every prayer, every kind thought… it all matters. It all lifts her. It all brings her closer to a future we were told she might never have.

Thank you for standing with my family.

Thank you for believing in her fight.

And thank you for helping us bring my sister back to us.

With all my heart,

Alisha