As Rihanna revels in the joy of her newborn baby, the second in her brood, a heartbreaking event has cast a shadow over her and her family’s life.
The singer’s 28-year-old cousin, Tanella Alleyne, tragically passed away. The exact cause of her untimely demise remains undisclosed.
However, details shared by her adoptive mother, Julie-Ann Bryan, with their church community on August 6th shed some light on the situation. Tanella had undergone a CT scan, and upon receiving the results, she informed her adoptive father, Simon Bayne, about the doctor’s discovery of “a b######## mass.”
Concerned, Bayne probed to find out more details about the “mass,” to which Tanella cryptically responded to her dad that is a “a b######## 4×4,” according to Loop News.
Tanella’s farewell services took place on Monday, August 28th, at St. George Parish Church in Barbados.
She was preceded in death by her brother Tavon who was fatally shot six years ago.
During the memorial service, family and friends gathered to pay their respects to Alleyne, accompanied by the moving strains of Rihanna’s poignant ballad, “Lift Me Up.”
In the sermon, Bryan said Tanella was a person who “lived a life of gratitude with an outrageous amount of attitude, sprinkled heavily with confidence.”
Tanella attended St. Paul’s Primary School and the Garrison Secondary School, where, as Bryan noted in her eulogy, the journey was akin to a “rollercoaster.”
While school was an adventure, she said the young woman lived her life full-heartedly and loved to travel.
“Tanella camped in St Vincent, vacationed in Trinidad, traveled to South Africa, loved London, visited France, debuted in a music video in Canada, shopped, shopped, shopped in the USA,” Bryan said.
It is unclear if Rihanna attended the service.