Greetings and thank you for your presence, attention, and love.

It is with heavy yet hopeful hearts that we share news of our beloved Elder Iya Tahirah.

On Wednesday, November 26, 2025, she was found alone in her home and rushed to the hospital, having suffered physical injury from a fall that was a result of an ischemic stroke.

At first, the prognosis was dark (she only had days to live). We believe now that this was a combination of her condition (we estimate 36 hours between the stroke and when she was found), and the doctor’s inability to see beyond the facts (age, race) and into the truth. Iya Tahirah has shown that she is cogent, lucid, and generally aware of what is going on, she spent several days active and talking, before waning again due to an inability to swallow.

In that time, a few members of the family rushed to be by her side, and we worked alongside her communities (local and international) to get her out of St. Croix and to a facility in Miami, Florida which will give her the wrap around care that will help start her healing journey.

The Situation

Iya Tahirah is resting and little by little recovering in a Miami Hospital. Before leaving St. Croix, she was given strong recommendations for inpatient rehabilitation, however, some complications arose during travel that have set her back. We wait for her to improve so that we can support her on the long road to recovery.

The Hope, The Prayer

You can read more about stroke recovery here (scroll down and select topics of interest from the right hand column on the page).

Essentially, we hope for the best: that our beloved Iya will spend the average 2-3 weeks in rigorous inpatient rehab before being discharged to family in Indianapolis where she will need anywhere from 6-18 months of care, assistance, and support in the form of presence.

We don’t know what the future holds, but we imagine our beloved Elder may want to return to her life in St. Croix, with her hard earned independence in tact, and to resume her life as normally as possible. We want to do everything we can to get her as close to that reality as possible

Iya Tahirah is fiercely independent. The road to recovery requires her to be dependent upon others. We can only imagine the emotional and mental toll this will take on her, in addition to being in a body that doesn’t work in the way in which she is accustomed. This will be hard for all of us, but not harder than it will be for her. Please remember that if you volunteer to share, to give, to be present, to be alongside her.

The Ask

Many hands make light work, and there is strength in diversity. There are many ways you can give, share your support, and send love to Iya Tahirah.

The family has needed and will continue to need financial support for getting to Miami, and closing out Iya Tahirah’s affairs in St. Croix.

Financial Support

The family has needed and will continue to need financial support for getting to Miami, and closing out Iya Tahirah’s affairs in St. Croix. In addition, if all goes according to hope, funds to support Tahirah’s travel to family in Indianapolis will be needed. Once there, we are expecting to cover anything her insurance does not in the vein of a home health aide or nurse and outpatient physical, occupational, and speech therapies. The final big ask in support of Iya Tahirah’s healing journey will be for money to give her access to whatever alternative healing modalities she sees fit. We are already envisioning the following (some of which she has already mentioned):

We are also asking for care and support for her caregivers, both primary and secondary. Those in her family and closest circles will be invited and encouraged to visit, to send funds for food orders, nights out, spa dates, and to share the load of being present, being loving, being social, and being attentive to Iya Tahirah as she recovers from her stroke.

In-Kind Donations are Encouraged!

If you have access to, or can provide any of the above goods and services, please contact the family to see the best time and place to either send the goods or send a service provider.

Loving Messages, Sound Healing, Circles of Prayer and Support

We have already received so many of these, and for that we are grateful. If you are reading this on CaringBridge, your messages are in a good place to be received. If you have a recording or other file to send to Iya, please upload it to the Google folder here. If you have sent a message to her via phone, we encourage you to send it again via email or one of the methods above–she does not have access to her phone at this time, and we don’t know when or if she will recover it.

Prayers

Thank you for your prayers for Iya’s healing, peace, clarity, assurance, faith in the Creator, and resilience, and thank you for praying the same for her family (both blood and found), and yourselves; we share her, and we are all touched by her life, wisdom, and wit. We hold space for her rebirth through this trial. Thank you for holding us while we are holding her.

With utmost gratitude,

The Adams-Merchant Family of Iya Tahirah AbuBakr