At the time of her death, had not seen her sister, pop superstar , in decades, according to Alison’s friend and advocate .
The sisters had a strained relationship, with Baker telling People that the two last saw each other “either 1994 or 2002.”
Alison died in her home on Saturday, August 24, the same day as her and Mariah’s mother, .
“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend. Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day,” Mariah, 55, said in a statement. “I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed. I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”
The Grammy winner went into further detail on her relationship with Alison in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
″I had to stop making myself available to be hurt by [my family],” she wrote. “It has been helpful. I have no doubt it is emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact with my [siblings].”
The book led to Alison suing Mariah, alleging she inflicted “emotional distress.” The lawsuit was not resolved at the time of death, according to InTouch.
Baker explained that Alison, who had been receiving hospice care since early August, got her wish in dying at her Coxsackie, New York, home.
“We saw it coming, but it’s still a shock,” he said. “She got ill fairly quickly and a month later, she’s gone.”
Baker went on to describe her as “a highly intelligent, very sensitive person.”
He and Alison became friends in 2015, shortly after Alison suffered a brain injury during a home invasion while she was living on Long Island. When she was transferred upstate, her brother, , took to Facebook to find someone in the Albany area who could visit her.
“I knew when I saw the request that I was the only person anywhere near Albany, New York, so I said, ‘Well, I’m going to go for this,’” Baker said. “They eventually sent me to the hospital and I met Alison.”
“I saw somebody who needed help and I knew I could do it,” he continued. “She’d tell me that she was so glad I was around. More recently, before she got sick, if I went somewhere for an hour, she’d call and say, ‘When are you coming back?’ And I’d say, ‘Well, I’ll be there in 20 minutes.’ And then she’d call a second time and say, ‘When are you coming back?’ Because short-term memory was affected by the brain injury.”
