Michaela Williams was getting ready to go live on Tik Tok for her popular The Yellow Room Live when the then 23-year-old felt a piercing pain in her head, then collapsed.
The rising TikTok star had about 50,000 followers and had just begun being paid by the social media platform for her messages of joy, inspiration, faith and God, with some edginess thrown in.
She aired mostly in her bright yellow room wearing bright colors to reflect her cheery, sunshiny outlook. Her intent was to reach out and “help as many as possible,” she said.
“I enjoyed life. I worked, loved to go outside and dance,” Williams, now 26 said, three years after the stroke. Then and now she tells people about God and maintains, “Everything we go through in life, he talks to us all,” she says.
But the day she collapsed would not be so cheery and yellow, although her faith remained.
Williams was rushed to the hospital and luckily her mom, Teia Jackson, was by her side at the family’s home in Meriden.
Williams, it turned out, had suffered a ruptured brain AVM (arteriovenous malformation), a rare and sometimes fatal tangle of blood vessels that can cause a type of stroke and brain bleed.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, these malformations are rare, occurring in about 1 in 100,000 people. “Anyone can be born with an AVM. Providers mainly discover them in people from ages 20 to 40. The risk of symptoms is highest between ages 30 and 50.” Further, according to the clinic, those who have a brain AVM that leads to a “blood vessel bleed (rupture), it can cause a stroke and brain damage.”
Doctors had to remove half of Williams’ skull to save her.
Williams survived, but once she awoke, couldn’t walk, talk, or eat on her own, and was cognitively impaired. The young woman was in pain and weakness on her left side, which still remains to a lesser degree.
She recorded every step of the way, but put The Yellow Room Live on hold and still hopes to resume it when further along in recover.
For now her recovery inspirations can be found on TikTok under “Michaelaalovee” where she has about 27,000 followers.
She calls those who continued to follow her recovery her “TikTok family.”
After a month at Hartford Hospital, Williams spent months of rehabilitation at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare to regain her skills.
Dr. Alyse Sicklick, medical director of inpatient rehabilitation at Gaylord, said Williams arrived “very impaired” and in addition to not being able to function independently had issues with a tracheotomy and was also fed through a tube in her stomach.
“Now you wouldn’t know to look or talk to her,” Sicklick said. “She’s amazing, she’s great. It’s been a long, long hard journey.”
She said it helps that Williams has a good support system “with an amazing mother” and that Williams gives “150 percent” to her rehabilitation.
Sicklick declined to comment on the God agenda, but said “spirituality can be so beneficial in healing.”
Williams’ talk about God and faith are not only intact, but stronger than ever, she’s just not doing it live.
Michaela believes there was a “miracle” involved in her survival and recovery.
She said that after the stroke God told her to write a book that’s now sold on Amazon called, “Relax, Reboot, Refocus,” by Michaela Breann.
Mom Teia Jackson said her only child recorded in her bright yellow room that reflects her disposition, message and the tone of their household, which includes mom, Michaela and dad, Eddie Jackson.
“Our household is a bright loving household that shows you’re surrounded by love and support,” Teia Jackson said. “Our household is one big bundle of joy.” Faith and belief in God are a big part of it all for the family.
As for Williams , mom says her daughter has was always a positive person.
“She’s the type who can walk into room and make anyone feel better. She always sees the best in everything and everyone,” Jackson said.
Williams started making videos in about 2019 and throughout the pandemic.
As much as she loves God, Williams said, “We get mad at God,” and she had moments of that after the stroke. She said she wondered why it happened to her since she wasn’t out there doing bad things.
But then she came to believe God “saved me for a reason.”
“I trust him. If he let it happen, it happened for a reason,” Williams said. “God has spared me”
Mostly her TikTok material is off the cuff, depending on how she feels on a given day,
One day this week Williams woke up from a nap hurting and she thought about, decided it was from being sedentary that day and so she asked followers, “In what areas of your life might you be sedentary?”
“In everything we go through in life he talks to us,” Williams said.
Sometimes on the air Williams will be inspired to open the Bible and tell the audience “God has a word for you,” and she reads scripture.
“It’s no different than being in church,” she said.
She even has a segment called, “Spit that s—‘ for outburst type thoughts when she’s fired up.
“This is how I’m feeling for a couple of minutes. It’s raw,” Williams said.
“I’m very transparent with my TikTok family,” she said, noting in Spit that S— segments, “I just let out whatever I feel. The audience loves me through the ups and downs.”
She doesn’t have as many followers as she once did, but “I get passionate about Papa,” or God, she said. Her new TikTok has about 27,000 followers.
Williams said her family is Christian, non-denominational and doesn’t necessarily attend church.
When she shows herself dancing outside or getting into the fresh air. Williams says she is, “Getting outside with Papa.”
She will soon return to Gaylord as an outpatient for more aquatic therapy, she said.