Trish Stratus’ mother has died after a battle with cancer, the WWE Hall of Famer announced on Wednesday.
Alice Stratigeas passed away last week, two weeks after Straus cancelled an appearance at a signing in Wales two weeks ago to be by her mom’s side.
“My mama is gone. I don’t even know how to write this… she passed last week and I haven’t been able to find the words,” Straus wrote in a heartbreaking Instagram post on Wednesday.
The 49-year-old, who won the WWE Women’s championship seven times, wrote that her “heart feels broken in a way I can’t describe” and that her “life will never be the same.”
“It’s as if writing the words makes it more real that my best friend, my safe place, my go-to, the one who was there for every single moment of my life, showing up for me in ways that no one else ever could for every milestone, every heartbreak, every joy — is gone. She was always there and now she won’t be,” Stratus wrote.
“You’ve all seen her by my side — cheering me on from the crowd, along for my travels, exceeding expectations as a Nana — practically a second mom to my children. My kids only know a life where their Nana was always there. Explaining to them that she won’t be there anymore was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.”
Straus noted that her mom fought through so many battles in her life with strength that amazed her and even on her hardest days her mom was thinking of others.
“That was my mama — selfless, brave, and full of love,” she wrote.
Straus, whose full-time WWE career ran from 2000-2006, has one of the longest women’s championship reigns in company history at 448 days.
She and best friend Lita were the first women to main event “Monday Night Raw” in 2004.
Stratus has made sporadic appearances in WWE since retiring, her latest was to take on Women’s champion Tiffany Stratton at the company’s second all-women’s Evolution premium live event in July.
