Pregnant with a baby girl, that she was to name Mariah, EC graduate Tamika Winston suddenly died last Tuesday morning.

Her death and the death of her baby was the result of what is believed to be a rare medical condition affecting pregnant women known as eclampsia.

Eclampsia is a mysterious medical condition that targets pregnant women causing high blood pressure, usually in the second half of pregnancy.

“The doctors are about ninety percent sure that it’s eclampsia, but we’re still waiting for final confirmation,” said Winston’s husband Mario Winston.

After graduating from EC, and earning her realtor’s license, Winston began working part-time at Sunbelt Realty for Pat Grogan.

Grogan remembers Winston as a personable and outgoing woman.

“She was a nice person who had her life cut short way before her time,” Grogan said. “She really seemed to enjoy her life and family and I’m really going to miss her.”

Winston was known for her love of people, especially children.

Before she decided to become a real estate agent, she was a student counselor at Inglewood High School and also became a licensed day care provider for neighborhood children.

She was a mother of two boys, Jeramiah age 6, and Jonathan age 4, and Winston always told them “We don’t say ‘I can’t,'” Mario said.

Winston lived by this motto and proved it by winning an award for earning the highest score on a standardized test in junior high school to earning her associate’s degree last year and working jobs ranging from a day care provider to the manager of a retail store.

“It was one of her proudest moments, other than her children, when she graduated from college,” said Donna Grogan, Winston’s real estate proffessor at EC. “She was just the sweetest person; she worked hard and had good values.”

Despite her drive to succeed, Tamika always found time to enjoy herself as well, Mario said.

One of Winston’s biggest goals was to be a homeowner.

With Mario, her husband of eight years, and her income put together, they were able to become homeowners in less than a year.

Recently, in anticipation of her baby girl Mariah, Mario said he and Winston decorated a bedroom for the baby in yellow pastels and flowers.

Because of the intimate relationship Winston shared with her mother, Marion said she anticipated having a daughter of her own who she could share the same kind of bond with.

“Mika wanted to teach her daughter how to be self-sufficient, resilient and outstanding,” Mario said in the obituary.

Tamika liked to joke that a daughter would balance out a house of boys.

She said that she always dreamt of a daughter with curly hair.

Mariah’s birth was expected to take place on May 29.

“Mariah’s brothers may not understand why mommy and their baby sister went to heaven so soon,” Mario said. “However, I know they definitely know that they’re now angels, because they were angels on earth.”