Where do I begin? My cousin Teresa, aka “T,” is my rock. Prior to this life event, she has faced and continues to face trauma and struggles that would break most humans. As a child, she was forced to grow up quickly, and stability was foreign in her vocabulary.

Fast forward, and the woman you have today is diligent, motivated, structured, hardworking, maybe at times a pain in the ass, but she is real. She speaks the truth, and she lives with intention and gratitude.

Teresa made it her mission in her adult life to never let her children grow up the way she did. Being a young mom to her son Izaiah, whom she grew up alongside, and later raising twins; some may call her a survivor, but her “Beansie” & “Tator Tot” call her brave.

Among the challenges that she bore, she completely rebuilt her life after a house fire destroyed everything she and her twinsies considered valuable. The challenge of living through sepsis is one most hope they never endure.

Teresa is currently hospitalized due to septic shock after a scheduled laparoscopic hysterectomy & bilateral salpingectomy to remove a recent stage 3 cancer diagnosis. She presented in the ER with all the symptoms, and the doctor just discharged her, calling it pain from the procedure (which her labs could prove false). Hours later, she returned by ambulance in worse condition as her body started shutting down internally. Being transported to a trauma center, she again went back into surgery to repair a perforated bowel. With organs shutting down and both lungs collapsing, it was truly a miracle that she survived this.

Currently, my brave cousin T, as I call her, being the sole provider for her single-mother household, is unable to work and had to put her bachelor's degree, excelling her nursing career, on hold for the foreseeable future.

She is celebrating her birthday in the hospital, missing monumental moments in her girls’ lives as they embark on their senior year of high school. Making matters even worse, her animals, including her anxiously attached Nova girl, are sitting at home wondering where mom is.

My cousin has never been the one to ask for a handout, EVER. I've never even witnessed her cry. So, I took it upon myself to ask for her.

She NEEDS help.

While trying to recover from sepsis that almost killed her, she is exhausting that energy by worrying about how to maintain the life she built outside those hospital walls.

PLEASE, help me help her by donating to what I hope is the last challenge she faces for a while. She has a very long road ahead of her in terms of recovery, and who knows when she’ll be able to return to work. The last thing she should worry about is having a home to go back to.