Tia Robinson—Austin Elizabeth

Tia Robinson’s relationship to Austin Elizabeth is a maternal grandmother’s claim complicated by absence, uncertainty about care, and a legal contest over who will raise the child. Tia invokes her kinship after her daughter, Sanquita Bell, dies, but the narrative gives her no established caregiving history with Austin. Instead, her sudden appearance at the hospital sets her biological relationship against Brett Bohlinger’s close bond with Sanquita and the promise Brett makes to care for the baby. The distinction is central: being Austin’s grandmother gives Tia a family connection, while Sanquita’s written wishes and Brett’s sustained care become the grounds on which custody is decided.

Kinship and the First Claim

Tia enters the story outside the locked neonatal intensive care unit, surrounded by hospital staff and a security guard. Her long yellow hair, skeletal appearance beneath a bulky faux-fur coat, red heels, slurred speech, and unsteady movement make her seem intoxicated to Brett. Tia insists that she has a right to see her grandbaby. The scene establishes her relationship to Austin through Sanquita: she is the child’s maternal grandmother, and she arrives claiming access on that basis. But the circumstances of her arrival make the claim immediately uneasy. The hospital’s security presence and the locked entrance frame the encounter as a boundary dispute, not a family visit already accepted by the people responsible for the newborn.

Nurse LaDonna later identifies the woman as Tia Robinson and reports that she was so high or drunk that she could barely walk. Tia has come for her granddaughter, and LaDonna warns Brett that relatives who step forward to take a child are often favored because doing so means one fewer case for the state. This is a general observation, not a decision about Tia’s suitability, but it sharpens the stakes: Tia’s status as a relative could carry weight independently of Brett’s relationship with Sanquita. Brett fears that a biological family connection may prevail even though she believes Sanquita entrusted the baby to her.

A Claim Shadowed by Sanquita’s History

The novel presents Tia’s claim against a history that appears strained. When Brett asks why Tia would want Austin after not wanting to raise her own daughter, the question points to Sanquita’s experience of her mother as someone who had not undertaken that responsibility. The available account does not provide Tia’s explanation or a full history of their estrangement. It does, however, distinguish the fact of kinship from a demonstrated record of care: Tia is Sanquita’s mother and Austin’s grandmother, but those titles alone do not resolve who should parent the child.

The financial explanation comes from LaDonna, who says Tia wants the death benefits Austin will receive: approximately one thousand dollars a month in Supplemental Security Income for eighteen years. This is LaDonna’s assessment of Tia’s motive, not a motive established through testimony from Tia. Its effect on Brett is immediate. She sees a determined maternal grandmother with a possible financial incentive, while recognizing that her own position rests on being Sanquita’s teacher and friend for only five months. The contrast is not simply between a relative and a stranger: Brett’s connection is comparatively recent, but it is built through the relationship Sanquita chose and through a promise made when Sanquita was dying.

That promise has a context of practical care. Sanquita asks Brett for help earning her diploma so her baby will know her mother was smart; Brett agrees and brings her a chemistry book. At Joshua House, Brett brings Thanksgiving dinner to Sanquita and the other residents. These episodes do not establish that Tia never helped Sanquita, but they show the forms of support the novel makes visible between Brett and Sanquita: education, friendship, and concrete assistance. By contrast, Tia’s connection to Austin first becomes visible as a demand for access after Sanquita’s death.

The Dispute Becomes a Legal Question

Brett tells LaDonna that she intends to take Austin because it was Sanquita’s last wish. LaDonna replies that the decision is not Brett’s alone and directs her to Kirsten Schertzing, the hospital social worker. The next day, Brett meets with Schertzing and Brad Midar. Brett explains her relationship with Sanquita and the dying woman’s wish that she keep the baby. The meeting turns the intimate promise into a matter requiring institutional review. Tia’s kinship claim and Brett’s account of Sanquita’s wishes must be considered within a process that neither woman can settle by assertion alone.

The custody dispute reaches a bench trial at the Cook County Courthouse. Tia sits with her court-appointed attorney, Mr. Croft, but does not testify. Brett, sworn in as a witness, identifies herself as Sanquita’s homebound teacher and friend during the five months before Sanquita’s death. Her testimony therefore describes the relationship on which her request depends; it does not make her a blood relative. The courtroom setting exposes the difference between biological kinship and the evidence Sanquita left about whom she wanted to raise her child.

The decisive document is a notarized statement dated March 5, several weeks before Sanquita’s death. It records Sanquita’s wish that Brett, named as her best friend and homebound teacher, receive sole custody of the child if the child survived her. The statement translates Sanquita’s private intention into evidence the court can act upon. Judge Garcia grants Brett temporary custody until adoption procedures are finalized. The ruling does not erase Tia’s place in Austin’s family tree, nor does the evidence establish the final outcome of adoption or Tia’s later relationship with the child. It does, however, prevent the grandmother’s biological claim from being the sole determinant of who will care for Austin.

The Meaning and Limits of the Relationship

Tia Robinson and Austin Elizabeth are connected through Sanquita Bell, but the novel gives the relationship its defining shape through a conflict over responsibility. Tia’s appearance makes the grandmother-granddaughter tie urgent because it may affect custody; her claim is explicit, and LaDonna’s warning underscores that relatives may have a practical advantage in placement decisions. Yet the text supplies no scene of Tia caring for Austin, and it does not give Tia an opportunity to explain her intentions in court. Her portrayal remains filtered through Brett’s alarm and LaDonna’s interpretation, a limitation that matters when distinguishing reported suspicion from proven motive.

Sanquita’s notarized request supplies the counterweight. She names Brett—not Tia—as the person she wants to receive custody, and the judge grants Brett temporary care while adoption is pursued. In this outcome, biological relation remains real but is not treated as sufficient by itself to determine Austin’s home. The novel thus leaves Tia as Austin’s maternal grandmother while showing how Sanquita’s expressed wishes, Brett’s relationship with her, and a legally recognized document shape the immediate exercise of parental care. The bond is established by descent; the question of who will act as family is contested through care and law.