Briana Nicholas-Danner

Mom

My name is Briana, I am a 34 year old mom of 6. I am the youngest of 4 siblings. We were raised in Chicago & had a pretty normal childhood. In 2017 I decided to relocate to a small town in Central Illinois because that is where my oldest sister Brandie lived & we wanted to raise our kids together. May 24, 2020 at 6:30am I got a phone call from my brother in law telling me Brandie was not breathing. I raced to her house and pulled up at the same time as the coroner. My life has never and never will be the same since. Brandie's death hit all of us hard especially knowing that her struggle with alcoholism ultimately brought on the heart attack that took her from us. She left behind 4 kids and a husband. As I said, I am the youngest of four siblings. My second oldest sister Bridgette, was at one point, my closest sister. We lived together, we worked together and had many mutual friends. Unfortunately Bridgette had many demons she battled and chose to comfort herself with alcohol. Me and Bridgette are 7 years apart and she had a drinking problem for as long as I could remember. Unfortunately I cut contact with her around 2018 because of the choices she was making & I believe tough love was the answer. Her drinking fluctuated and the times she was sober we actually were very close. Unfortunately all the years of drinking finally caught up with her and she started going into liver failure. In November 2021 she caught covid & her last words to my mom were "I think I have covid & I know I'm not gonna survive this". She died December 18, 2021, fifteen hours after my grandfather lost his battle with cancer. She left behind 1 daughter & many friends.