Mariah Carey’s late sister Alison Carey was dealt a difficult hand in life — but was able to see her children before she died on Aug. 24, according to her friend and advocate.
David Baker, who knew Alison, 63, for nine years, said that she “had a tough life” before she died at her home in Coxsackie, New York.
“We saw it coming, but it’s still a shock,” he says. “She got ill fairly quickly and a month later, she’s gone.”
Baker previously shared on X on Aug. 3 that Alison had entered hospice. It was he who helped her find her final apartment in Coxsackie, New York, where she’d lived for the past three years. He says that there was talk of putting her in a nursing home prior to the move, but he offered to help her out if it meant she could remain living on her own.
“She got her wish,” he says. “She died in her own home.”
Mariah Carey performing in April 2024.
Denise Truscello/Getty
Alison was a mother of four — three sons and one daughter — and Baker says that her children visited two or three weeks ago, including her daughter, who lives nearby and had been visiting daily.
As for her famous sister, Baker says Alison wasn’t exactly sure the last time they’d seen each other, but that it was either 1994 or 2002. The two shared a complicated relationship, as Mariah wrote in her memoir that it was, at least at the time, “emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact” with her or their brother Morgan.
Alison was also unaware that her mother Patricia died on the same day, as Alison passed just after midnight on Aug. 24.
“Alison was a highly intelligent, very sensitive person” he says.
Mariah Carey and her brother Morgan. Barry King/WireImage
Baker and Alison’s paths first crossed in 2015, when Alison suffered a serious brain injury during a home invasion. She lived on Long Island, New York at the time and was hospitalized there, but was ultimately transferred upstate. While in physical rehab, she was hospitalized once again after suffering a brain hemorrhage.
At that point, Baker says, her brother Morgan reached out for help in a Facebook group that he was a part of, looking for someone in the area who might be able to visit her.
Mariah Carey on Feb. 4, 2024.
Kevin Winter/Getty
“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,’” he recalls. “They eventually sent me to the hospital and I met Alison.”
Over the last nine years, Alison and Baker grew close, and he says “hardly a day went by” in which they did not see each other in person or speak on the phone.
Mariah Carey performing in April 2024.
Denise Truscello/Getty
“I saw somebody who needed help and I knew I could do it,” he says. “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.”
We confirmed on Monday, Aug. 26 that Carey’s mother Patricia and sister Alison died on the same day over the weekend.
“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,” the Grammy-winning singer, 55, said in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE. “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.”
