Hello. My name is Kristopher Freeman. Tess Valentine Wanket, my girlfriend of 11 years, recently passed away due to her epilepsy on 5/19/2025. She was truly an angel. You didn’t know it at the moment, but if you got to meet her, you were truly lucky. I still and will always consider myself lucky and fortunate for how amazing she is. When we first met in 2014, I had no idea how much my life was going to change for the better beyond what I can even imagine now. She truly made me a better person.
We were still teenagers when we first started dating. She had just graduated high school, and I was on my way to college. That summer, we spent every waking moment together, from 8 am in the morning until my curfew at 1 am. We would always tell each other to text when we got home so we knew they were safe. When summer was ending, I was going off to college at Hampton on the east coast. I knew I was supposed to go off to school, but the morning I was leaving, it felt like I was being torn in two. I went off to Hampton but didn’t last long; I was lovesick beyond anything I had felt. Maybe I was young and naive to think or have such a feeling, but now I know I was exactly right in how much I loved her. I came home two weeks later and enrolled in Cal Poly Pomona. She was going to Fullerton Community College. Still, in 2014, when I started at Pomona, I got a dorm with the school, and we pretty much lived together from then on. Every day and every night together.
On my 21st birthday was the day of her first seizure. We were in Pomona having dinner, then went to bed. I woke up to her shaking, body clenched, and spitting up. I had no idea what was happening; I thought she was choking on her saliva, so I rolled her over, but she kept convulsing. Once it stopped, her body jolted and lunged her off the bed. Sitting there waiting for someone to wake up and say, “I think you had a seizure,” was the weirdest feeling to me. We went down to see her parents in Trabuco Canyon the next day and told them what happened. Even though the event was over, her mom insisted we go to the ER. Once reported, the doctors told her they had to alert the DMV because a lapse of consciousness due to seizures is grounds for a possible license suspension. She was not happy about that, but it was understandable. Six months later, it was reinstated. She was later seen by a neurologist, but after the tests they ran, they simply said she suffered from epilepsy. I know that seems vague, but honestly, that’s how vaguely it was explained to us. After that, she went on medication, but the seizures continued, so they switched her to Keppra. That helped for a little while, one seizure a year, but then it started turning into one seizure a month.
About 6 months ago, in December 2024, things started getting more intense. She was hospitalized in December for kidney and pancreas issues. She went back in February for the same thing and had to spend her birthday in the hospital. Then, unfortunately, she had a seizure while driving in March. Miraculously, she didn’t hit anyone and didn’t harm herself, just drove into a ditch. Thankfully, she had an understanding boss who knew of her condition and allowed her to work from home. I started having to Uber to work, but it’s just what you have to do in some situations. We never really had a lot of money, mostly living paycheck to paycheck, but we had each other, and it was never a conversation of what we weren’t doing but rather, “I’m glad to just be here with you.” Some couples need space after a little while; that was the last thing we wanted. To be separated was to feel incomplete.
It was up until Monday, 5/19/2025, that life was perfect. Being loved by her made living worth it, my reason for getting out of bed. To wake up and find a part of yourself, the person you love the most in this world, more than yourself, more than life itself, gone is a feeling very few will know, and it is the last thing I would want for anyone to feel. It’s a pain beyond description. To go to bed completely happy, laying next to each other, then the next day have that same beautiful person just taken from you. It’s very difficult on the heart and very difficult on the brain. It’s almost impossible not to cry because everything reminds me of her. To lose your best friend and your lover who was only the age of 29 is too soon, way too soon. She had so much more life ahead of her. Myself, her family, my family, and our beautiful three cats will forever love and miss her. She was a lot more than what ailed her. She was beautiful, sensitive, charming, vulnerable, a beacon of light, stubborn, goofy, funny, clumsy, exciting, passionate, and above all, loving. I could go on forever about her and all the things we got to share. I just want everyone to read her message. The following Saturday we had a gathering of family and friends for her, a celebration of life so those family members who flew in from other states could be there in her passing. It was amazing, more than 40 people gathered in a matter of days because they loved her so much. Her mom Jerri got their family tattoo artist to do personalized tattoos.
My mom, growing up, would tell me to never leave the house angry at someone or go to bed angry because you don’t want that to be the last conversation you have. Tess and I, not knowing it, had a very lovely last night together. She had one of her favorite foods, browned butter garlic mazithra from The Old Spaghetti Factory. If you have anyone you love, significant other, family, friends, tell them you love them every day. One, because they deserve it, and two, you never know if that will be the last time you say it and you hear them say it back. I want to end with a positive note from Tess. Her favorite movie was The Notebook and her favorite line was “If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.” I hope you find or have your other bird you want to fly with.
We are fundraising to cover the medical expenses and funeral costs for Tess and for her sweet three cat babies Indo, Mouse and Teddy.