As Mariah Carey’s estranged sister, Alison, agonized on her deathbed, she hoped she could repair her broken relationship with her megastar sister.
Alison’s friend and medical representative, David Baker, told uaebreaking.co.uk that the family knew Alison had been in hospice care for a month at their home in the small town of Coxsackie, New York, just 34 miles south of Albany.
But the “Vision of Love” singer never called to check on her dying sister, Baker said.
“Alison was hurt by the way her mother and Mariah had treated her, but she always had mixed feelings about her mother, “But at least I get to have that conversation with Mariah, I know that was her final wish.”
On Monday, Mariah confirmed that her mother, Patricia, and Alison had died.
“I am heartbroken over the loss of my mother this past weekend,” Mariah told People magazine in a statement. “Sadly, my sister lost her life in a tragic event on the same day.
She continued: “I am blessed to have been able to spend my mother’s final week with me before she passed away. I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respecting my privacy during this impossible time.”
Baker acknowledged that Mariah never called Alison while she was in hospice, but said that over the past month, Alison’s four adult children had visited Mariah at their home in Coxsackie.
Mariah has spoken openly about her estrangement from her sister, who has struggled with drug addiction for years.
In her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the singer called Alison her “ex-sister” and still claimed that Alison tricked her into taking drugs and “inflicted third-degree burns on” her children.
“When I was 12, my sister gave me Valium, offered me nails full of cocaine … and tried to sell me to a pimp,” Mariah wrote in her memoir. “Something inside me was blocked by this trauma, which is why I often say, ‘I’m forever 12.’ I still struggle with that time.”
Mariah said she eventually made the decision to cut Alison out of her life to avoid being an “enabler.”
The estrangement was extremely painful for Alison, Baker said.
When it came out, she couldn’t believe Mariah would do something like that, because Mariah had already stopped talking to her, but she kicked Allison in the teeth, who was already feeling bad.” To make a living, she became a prostitute in New York. She was diagnosed with HIV in 1990, but Baker doubts that the diagnosis was accurate.
Allison went into a downward spiral and was arrested in Saugerties, New York, in 2016 on suspicion of prostitution.
Allison did not die from cancer or HIV. He declined to give the exact cause of death but said Allison died from “internal failure” in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Mr Baker said he found Allison unconscious around midnight on Saturday. Nurses were called and the 63-year-old was pronounced dead.
“She was on medication to keep her comfortable and there was no sign that she was in any distress or pain,” Mr Baker said.
The friend said Allison’s four children had come to visit her in the weeks before her death.
Allison made an impassioned plea to her famous sister, asking for financial help as her health deteriorated following a devastating robbery in 2015 that left her with brain damage.
“Mariah, I love you. I desperately need your help,” she told Mariah in the 2016 interview. “Please, don’t let that put you down.”
Baker, who has been Allison’s health advocate and representative for the past nine years, said Allison, 63, had been sober for more than three years but her health continued to deteriorate.
Before Alison bought an apartment in a small town in upstate New York, she lived in a facility where she received physical rehabilitation.
In the last weeks of her life, Allison often wondered if her famous sister would ever contact her. Ms Baker said her girlfriend of nine years was barely conscious for the final two weeks before her death on Saturday.
Baker criticized the singer and the prepared statements released after the two women’s deaths.
“It was the worst because it was all about her,” Ms Baker said. “In their eyes, it was all about Mariah and no one else.”
If anything had happened to her, she would have spoken to Alison when she knew she was near death. Mariah had been like this for a long time. She would do anything for attention and she was always looking for attention.
In her memoir, the “Honey” singer wrote that her mother’s jealousy of her successful career may have caused a lot of friction in their relationship.
“[The jealousy] is part of success, but when it’s your mother and it comes at such a young age, it’s especially tough,” she wrote about Patricia.
Carey’s mother was reportedly living in a retirement home in West Palm Beach after Mariah sold her mother’s Westchester County, New York, home that she had bought in the 1990s.
Although their relationship was difficult, Mariah and Juilliard-trained opera singer Patricia appeared together on a Christmas special with their famous daughter.
Meanwhile, Mariah had become estranged from her siblings.
Alison and Mariah’s brother Morgan, 64, had already taken legal action against her sister over the “brutal and outrageous allegations” made in the book.
Morgan said Alison inherited $1.6 million from her father, Alfred Carey, who died in 2002.
A trust fund was set up for Alison’s children, but Alison continued to suffer from mounting medical bills.
She squandered the rest of the money on her drug addiction, Morgan said.
Baker said Allison has been honest about her problems and hopes she can one day reconcile with her family, especially Mariah.
“[Allison] was a very intelligent, sensitive person who was going through a really difficult time in her life,” Baker said. “She had a lot of obstacles in her life from a young age, but I don’t think there’s any way most people can go through something like that and not be affected by it.
“[Mariah] called her her ex-sister, which was a mean remark and [Allison] never got over it. She just continued to ignore them as if there was anything she could do to change it.” No matter what happens, she will always be her sister.