The Healing Power of Sisterhood

July , 21st , 2025

How heartbreak and turbulent . Family relationships transformed a former only child into having a new sister with a renewed sense of purpose.

In her own words. Alana J. Best, 31 was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Having lived in Inglewood. She graduated from Palisades High School in 2012. Studied Business Administration at Fresno State University. Astrology, Numerology, and Psychology since a child from the influence of her grandparents. Now looking for new sense of self after multiple family passings in recent years.

In 2022 after living in the Central Valley of Fresno for about 8.5 years, I decided to move back to LA to be in a big city again and spend more time with family. Family was always difficult for me to connect to as I am the first only child in the family in over 6 generations so my journey with a lack of siblings was always difficult to navigate. So at 28, I decided to actively work on my relationship with my father whom people would describe as very tough, eccentric, and at times difficult to be around due to his upbringing and challenges as a young man growing up in LA’s crack epidemic and finding his way out of the gang culture in his lifetime. His journey of discovery as a man and father impacted my life greatly. By living with him, I discovered there were many things we couldn’t work on together so I decided to spend time with my mother in mid-2022.

Unfortunately I discovered that my beautiful, hardworking, and selfless mother was suffering from a long time, hidden addiction to alcohol and a deep depression from the COVID lockdown and the change in lifestyle that came with it. She was very sick and it was too late for me to help. We fought and fought and eventually went no contact from the pain I felt with her self harm and lack of desire to seek help leading me to move a third time with my grandparents

 All the moving lead me to instability financially and emotionally. While living with my grandparents from the end of 2022 to 2023, I found out through small updates from my uncle, my mother’s younger brother that my mother was slowly dying in the hospital for the last few months and she had less than a year to live.

 As I began visiting her, my father would reach out to update me about my younger sister that lived in Alabama with her mother whom I’ve known since a child from my father’s days as a football coach, coaching one of her son’s from a previous relationship around my age at the time.

They rekindled their relationship decades later, having my sister in 2017. Unfortunately my sister’s mother having a baby after 40, suffered a massive stroke a few years after my sister was born forcing her to learn how to walk, speak, and live independently again. My sister was now 6 in 2023 and he hoped we would finally meet as her and her mother would be moving to LA to be with him. But I had my hesitation and heavy heart because I also have a younger brother on my father’s side as well born in 2004, that I cannot have a relationship with due to my father’s relationship with his mother leaving me to suffer from their issues.

Having that heartbreak the first time, 10 years before made meeting my sister a big deal. As I met my sister for the first time while watching my mother’s life fade away. In April 2023 I met my sister for the first time. It was short but magnetic. We just clicked. But I wasn’t fully present as I was accepting my mother’s fate. In July my mother passed away with all her friends around her leaving me, her only child to process the loss. My sister and I grew closer and she started to fill my emptiness with her joy and pure love. We are now closer than ever as life continues to unravel for me. It’s healed the space where our brother used to me before he was taken off it of my life.

 After my mom passed, my grandpa passed 13 months later leaving me to be the sole caregiver for my grandmother, my mom’s mom, with dementia. Watching her lose her daughter and her husband within a year of each other just crushed her in many ways. As her dementia progressed, spending time with my sister served as a valuable healing resource for me. Watching my grandma, my best friend, fade mentally hurt me beyond words. Still does. Eventually my family and I decided a nursing home would be best, we moved my grandma out of the house at the end of March 2025. Now, as I navigate this new reality where my small, immediate family has almost vanished within 2 years, I search for ways to create joy for my sister and I. I don’t know where life is leading me but as I wait for the dementia to lead my grandmother to her final transition, I open myself to the love and affection my sister offers me and the nurturing and love I give in return to remind me that love is always near. It has been so hard and I know it isn’t over yet but knowing I have my little sister makes everything a little lighter as I search for direction and next steps.