Mikeylah's Trip to the Stars ✨
Donation protected
This is my daughter Mikeylah. The beautiful, vibrant, sensitive light of my life. I always thought my first time raising GFM money would be for help sending her off to college... Now I'm here, trying to send her off to the Heavens instead.
No parent expects, imagines or dares suspect in too much detail that this would..or could, EVER happen to their child. Nobody wants to be prepared for the devil creeping into their home while they sleep, to suck the life, light and soul out of their sons and daughters in the dead of night... Well, it happened to us. HEROIN KILLED MIKEYLAH.
This week should've been a great one. On Tuesday January 16, Mikeylah celebrated her 18th BDay. There were gifts, laughs, even a seafood dinner out w her Pop Pop... Life was good. Over the next few days, she brought home three A's in her toughest subjects, earning herself the $$ needed to attend a Senior class trip to Disney World in the Spring. On Thursday, Jan 18, Mikeylah said she'd decided on adolescent psychology as a major and I began planning for application fees. How proud I was in that moment, smh... My lil girl was growing up to help others...
The next day, Friday, the 19th, Mikeylah hung out with some old friends after school. I wasnt thrilled, however, I planned to spend time w her that night so she was home early. Although there was some obvious teen angst going on, over all, she was fine... normal. Or so I thought. We ordered pizza, binged "The Steve Wilkos Show" & laughed like lunatics at every last wig that got hurled off the stage... NORMAL! At 1:30am I gave her a hug, tousled her hair & said Im going to get sum sleep..."G'nite Kiddle."
As I closed her bedroom door, I nvr thought that'd be the last time I'd ever see her alive... I also never heard it lock behind me.
On Saturday morning, Jan 20th, barely 4 days after turning 18, Mikeylah was dead and gone... before the sun even had a chance to rise. I'd beaten myself up at first, over not trying to wake her sooner because she always slept in on Saturdays, but she was gone instantly. In the minutes it took to break the door open, even if we'd known, it would be too late still...
Mikeylah was my one & only. I'll never see her graduate, build a career, marry, be a mother, I'll never be a grandmother... This is a sudden, life shattering tragedy thats so awful, it's indescribable. There are no words. Sure, kids party. Beer and weed are as much part of high school as pop quizzes & lunch ladies. Always have been... Nowadays, experimenting with heroin is too.
Mikeylah was a life long member of youth group, regularly made the Merit roll and perfect attendance in school. She loved track and field hockey. She'd never been suspended or in any trouble. Smart, sassy, sensitive... The world was her oyster...as a single mother of a biracial daughter, I constantly encouraged her, mkng sure she knew she was the best of both worlds and could do, be or go anywhere in life she desired.
I guess she just didn't believe me. ..
She did believe in her friends though. And one of them sold her the fatal dose. Someone who KNEW she shouldn't be messing with that garbage & didn't care. Someone she trusted facilitated her death. Point blank.
As a mother, all I can do now is pray for justice and give my beloved princess a proper homegoing, headstone and resting place...
Holding it together long enough to make the arrangements and see this through is already excruciating... I don't forsee myself as stable, employable or able to go on living in the future. Paying off funeral expenses & deposits, services cemetery, headstone, venues donations, food, casket, etc etc... ($15-20,000.) is really the only impossible task I can focus on right now. (Praying this GFM is the Godsend I've heard it can be)... Any leftover funds raised, I'm going to give a memorial fund in Mikeylahs name to St Pauls so that each year a girl from the youth group can go away to that summer camp she loved.
And PLEASE, IF YOU KNEW MIKEYLAH OR EVEN IF U DIDN'T... IF U HAVE A LOVED ONE WHO IS STRUGGLING WITH DEPRESSION OR ADDICTION, EVEN IF THEY'RE "JUST DABBLING"... U CAN RELATE, DONATE... IF U HAVE TEENS WHO ARE "GOOD KIDS", TALK TO THEM!! TELL THEM MIKEYLAH'S STORY, SHOW THEM THE PICTURES, HOW EASILY ANYONE CAN GO FROM THE TOP OF THE WORLD TO THE END OF THE LINE OVERNIGHT. LITERALLY. THESE KIDS AREN'T INVISIBLE! ...
"Heroin has NO place in our homes and high schools. Not everyone is your friend.". TELL THEM... AND DONATE.
if Mikeylahs death can change, sway, or save just one kid, then Ive helped one parent avoid this devastation.
Any and every donation in Keylahs memory, no matter how big or small is immensely appreciated, more than I can say. This is the worst thing anyone can go through. An unfathomable loss.
These kids, hundreds of them, who count themselves among her friends, many have never lost anyone before. They're more than upset, they're mad. MAD OVER HOW SHE WAS ROBBED, AND SO WERE THEY... Help me help THEM. Its taken two services to accomodate the overwhelming response of those wishing to hv a chance to say goodbye... She left so suddenly, it's only right. "They need some closure too, Mom"....
It's what Mikeylah would say.
This needs to be something ppl will talk about... for a long time.
As I get stronger, and the pieces fall into place, I'll work to spread her story. Bring it to teens and tweens far & wide... This was no hopeless addict.. This was a smart, young lady 4 mos away from HS graduation with limitless potential and passion for life who made a naive, fatal mistake... & no one who knew her will ever be the same. My poor parents, their only grandchild died in their house. They can't even WALK they're so distraught. I'll be reserving 3 plots tomorrow. Not just one. Theres no question about it. They'll go right behind her...
THIS can't continue to happen. We cant wait for the system to do something, we HAVE to help ourselves, by helping each other... If THIS isn't proof that it truly takes a village I don't know what is... Entire families are being destroyed.
Hug ur kids, friends, siblings and loved ones. Keep them close. Take NOTHING for granted. You never know WHO that devil is stalking until it's too late... Drugs dont discriminate.
I thank you all in advance for your compassion, empathy and generosity during this devastating, heart wrenching time... Sincerely.
(Rest In Peace, Mikeylah.
️ We Love You. ️)
No parent expects, imagines or dares suspect in too much detail that this would..or could, EVER happen to their child. Nobody wants to be prepared for the devil creeping into their home while they sleep, to suck the life, light and soul out of their sons and daughters in the dead of night... Well, it happened to us. HEROIN KILLED MIKEYLAH.
This week should've been a great one. On Tuesday January 16, Mikeylah celebrated her 18th BDay. There were gifts, laughs, even a seafood dinner out w her Pop Pop... Life was good. Over the next few days, she brought home three A's in her toughest subjects, earning herself the $$ needed to attend a Senior class trip to Disney World in the Spring. On Thursday, Jan 18, Mikeylah said she'd decided on adolescent psychology as a major and I began planning for application fees. How proud I was in that moment, smh... My lil girl was growing up to help others...
The next day, Friday, the 19th, Mikeylah hung out with some old friends after school. I wasnt thrilled, however, I planned to spend time w her that night so she was home early. Although there was some obvious teen angst going on, over all, she was fine... normal. Or so I thought. We ordered pizza, binged "The Steve Wilkos Show" & laughed like lunatics at every last wig that got hurled off the stage... NORMAL! At 1:30am I gave her a hug, tousled her hair & said Im going to get sum sleep..."G'nite Kiddle."
As I closed her bedroom door, I nvr thought that'd be the last time I'd ever see her alive... I also never heard it lock behind me.
On Saturday morning, Jan 20th, barely 4 days after turning 18, Mikeylah was dead and gone... before the sun even had a chance to rise. I'd beaten myself up at first, over not trying to wake her sooner because she always slept in on Saturdays, but she was gone instantly. In the minutes it took to break the door open, even if we'd known, it would be too late still...
Mikeylah was my one & only. I'll never see her graduate, build a career, marry, be a mother, I'll never be a grandmother... This is a sudden, life shattering tragedy thats so awful, it's indescribable. There are no words. Sure, kids party. Beer and weed are as much part of high school as pop quizzes & lunch ladies. Always have been... Nowadays, experimenting with heroin is too.
Mikeylah was a life long member of youth group, regularly made the Merit roll and perfect attendance in school. She loved track and field hockey. She'd never been suspended or in any trouble. Smart, sassy, sensitive... The world was her oyster...as a single mother of a biracial daughter, I constantly encouraged her, mkng sure she knew she was the best of both worlds and could do, be or go anywhere in life she desired.
I guess she just didn't believe me. ..
She did believe in her friends though. And one of them sold her the fatal dose. Someone who KNEW she shouldn't be messing with that garbage & didn't care. Someone she trusted facilitated her death. Point blank.
As a mother, all I can do now is pray for justice and give my beloved princess a proper homegoing, headstone and resting place...
Holding it together long enough to make the arrangements and see this through is already excruciating... I don't forsee myself as stable, employable or able to go on living in the future. Paying off funeral expenses & deposits, services cemetery, headstone, venues donations, food, casket, etc etc... ($15-20,000.) is really the only impossible task I can focus on right now. (Praying this GFM is the Godsend I've heard it can be)... Any leftover funds raised, I'm going to give a memorial fund in Mikeylahs name to St Pauls so that each year a girl from the youth group can go away to that summer camp she loved.
And PLEASE, IF YOU KNEW MIKEYLAH OR EVEN IF U DIDN'T... IF U HAVE A LOVED ONE WHO IS STRUGGLING WITH DEPRESSION OR ADDICTION, EVEN IF THEY'RE "JUST DABBLING"... U CAN RELATE, DONATE... IF U HAVE TEENS WHO ARE "GOOD KIDS", TALK TO THEM!! TELL THEM MIKEYLAH'S STORY, SHOW THEM THE PICTURES, HOW EASILY ANYONE CAN GO FROM THE TOP OF THE WORLD TO THE END OF THE LINE OVERNIGHT. LITERALLY. THESE KIDS AREN'T INVISIBLE! ...
"Heroin has NO place in our homes and high schools. Not everyone is your friend.". TELL THEM... AND DONATE.
if Mikeylahs death can change, sway, or save just one kid, then Ive helped one parent avoid this devastation.
Any and every donation in Keylahs memory, no matter how big or small is immensely appreciated, more than I can say. This is the worst thing anyone can go through. An unfathomable loss.
These kids, hundreds of them, who count themselves among her friends, many have never lost anyone before. They're more than upset, they're mad. MAD OVER HOW SHE WAS ROBBED, AND SO WERE THEY... Help me help THEM. Its taken two services to accomodate the overwhelming response of those wishing to hv a chance to say goodbye... She left so suddenly, it's only right. "They need some closure too, Mom"....
It's what Mikeylah would say.
This needs to be something ppl will talk about... for a long time.
As I get stronger, and the pieces fall into place, I'll work to spread her story. Bring it to teens and tweens far & wide... This was no hopeless addict.. This was a smart, young lady 4 mos away from HS graduation with limitless potential and passion for life who made a naive, fatal mistake... & no one who knew her will ever be the same. My poor parents, their only grandchild died in their house. They can't even WALK they're so distraught. I'll be reserving 3 plots tomorrow. Not just one. Theres no question about it. They'll go right behind her...
THIS can't continue to happen. We cant wait for the system to do something, we HAVE to help ourselves, by helping each other... If THIS isn't proof that it truly takes a village I don't know what is... Entire families are being destroyed.
Hug ur kids, friends, siblings and loved ones. Keep them close. Take NOTHING for granted. You never know WHO that devil is stalking until it's too late... Drugs dont discriminate.
I thank you all in advance for your compassion, empathy and generosity during this devastating, heart wrenching time... Sincerely.
(Rest In Peace, Mikeylah.
️ We Love You. ️)
Organizer
Aimye McDowell
Organizer
Bass River, NJ
