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Madison Martinez is raising a sister and earning a degree in wake of unimaginable loss

Madison Martinez has endured more in her 28 years than most face in a lifetime. But quitting isn’t part of her character.

Madison’s mother, father, and brother all died within an 11-month span of 2024 and 2025. Without them to cheer her on and support her, she’s been chasing her dreams while raising her sister, 11-year-old Mia.

As she continues to work toward her goals for a better future, a few family friends have set up a GoFundMe to help her reach them.

Madison Martinez has raised her now 11-year-old sister, Mia, after their father and mother died within a year span. Photo courtesy of Madison Martinez

Battling addiction

Madison graduated in 2016 from Peninsula High School, where she was a three-sport athlete. The Martinez family was deeply involved in the community and had many friends in those years.

Martinez and her brother, Marcos Jr., spent their teen years helping their father, Marcos Sr., build a landscaping business. Mom Tiffani was a paraeducator who coached softball and volleyball at Peninsula.

The tight-knit family spent much time together and maintained a family tradition of hunting in the fall. The joy increased in 2015, when Tiffani gave birth to a baby girl, Mia.

But addiction took hold within her family. Soon after Madison graduated from high school, the family began to split apart.

Her father and her brother were addicted to drugs and her mother struggled with alcohol, Madison said. Still, she pursued higher education to improve her situation.

After a post-high school gap year to help her mother with the baby, Madison enrolled at Olympic College in Bremerton. She earned an associates degree and transferred to the University of Washington at Tacoma to pursue a bachelor’s in communications.

The first tragedy struck in 2024, seven years after doctors diagnosed Tiffani with a heart condition.

Tiffani, Madison and Mia had just moved to Tacoma, “and I found mom the next morning,” Martinez said. “She died from heart failure.”

The Martinez family before tragedy struck. From left, Marcos Jr., Marcos Sr., Tiffani and Madison.

Caring for Mia

Though struggling with grief, Martinez also felt a responsibility to her sister. Knowing that her father was not well enough to care for Mia, Madison gained guardianship through the courts.

She scheduled visits with her father in public places and tried to maintain a relationship while setting boundaries.

“My father was homeless at that point, and so was my brother,” she said. “I was always juggling distance and boundaries with someone struggling with addiction. So I let him see my little sister in a controlled situation.

“It was hard, because even though he struggled with addiction, he was my brother’s coach growing up, and we all hunted as a family, and he was loving with me and comforting if I lost a game or had a hard day. He had made me feel like everything was going to be OK.”

But things weren’t OK by that time. On the day after Father’s Day in 2025, the county Medical Examiner’s Office called Martinez to inform her that Marcos Sr. had died.

During her father’s memorial service a month later, tragedy struck again.

Marcos Jr. had been clean for a few months after enrolling in a treatment program, she said. But “he had gotten fentanyl and went up in the woods after the celebration of life and he died there,” Martinez said.

Helping hands

Family friends Jess Somerton and Hayley Higgins told Madison to reach out if she needed anything.

“She came to me and said, ‘I’m pulling the mom card.’ And I said let’s start a GoFundMe,” Higgins said. “It will help with housing and tuition. So, this is to help her finish her bachelor’s degree. We set a goal of $7,000.”

“I’m proud of the grace and kindness and strength that she has shown along the way, and she has not let what happened define her,” Somerton said. “She spent much of her life showing up for people, and now it’s time for us to show up for them (Madison and Mia). They have a community behind them.”

Martinez is finishing her bachelor’s degree this winter while trying to provide a stable home for Mia. She found work in the aerospace industry and plans to apply to a masters degree program next year at the main UW campus in Seattle.

Madison Martinez is a student at UW Tacoma, earning her degree in communications. She plans to graduate in December and hopes to apply for a masters program at the Seattle campus next year. Photo courtesy of Madison Martinez

Second job a tribute to mom

When a call came in from her friend Megan Blunk, it set Madison’s life in a new direction. Blunk, a Gig Harbor native, is a wheelchair basketball player who helped the U.S. win gold during the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

Blunk needed a coach to help with the Tacoma Titans, a Rainier Adaptive Sports basketball team. Martinez said her love for sports made her a good fit for the coaching job — and it gave her a way to feel close to her mom. She feels that she is following in her mother’s footsteps by coaching.

“I’m just trying to use what I’ve got to be as financially stable as possible,” Martinez said of the second job.

The GoFundMe to support Madison Martinez is here.