Nicole Taylor, a member of the country music trio Taylor Red, died on Monday, September 28 at the age of 35 following a battle with breast cancer. Her sisters and bandmates, Natalie and Nika, shared the news on Monday, November 1, more than a month after her death.
The sisters also posted a statement on their website, which read: "Nicole, the oldest of us three sisters, will be greatly missed. She was our leader and our best friend. We are heartbroken, but we know she is in Heaven and will see her again." They followed this with an emotional video about their sister, who was older than Natalie by one minute and older than Nika by two minutes.
Sisters Share Heartbreak in Video
"We are shocked and heartbroken to announce the passing of our sister Nicole Taylor," they said at the beginning of their video. "This isn't the video we thought we'd ever be making. You know, we thought she would be here sharing her story of earthly healing, but instead we're here sharing her story of heavenly healing and she's at peace and no longer suffering, so we're thankful for that," they admitted.
"This honestly feels really hard to talk about, but we're going to do our best in sharing some of her story. She was always the one who would speak on behalf of us. She was the first to give her life to Christ. She would always speak up for what's right," they shared as they fought back tears. "Obviously, those are just highlights. She was so much more than that to our family and sisterhood," they said.
Details of Her Cancer Battle
They continued: "A lot of those things explain her fearlessness with what she battled. Some of y'all may have seen or heard her breast cancer battle. And we want to thank y'all for your prayers. We want to thank the doctors and the nurses that helped her along the way."
The duo revealed she had first been diagnosed with the disease in 2022 and was in a public place when she got the devastating phone call. "...She...put it on speaker...The nurse was like, 'Do you have any family with you?' And so we kind of knew where the conversation was headed and she was like, 'You have cancer.' I just remember...breaking down in utter shock. I was so surprised... We've been blessed with good health...our whole life. So this was a big shock and it wasn't what we were expecting. I was crying and ran out to the hallway to tell Nika and I remember that Nicole just said, 'God's going to use this for his glory'," she recalled.
"It was stage three breast cancer, very aggressive, and she told the doctors that God was going to get her through. And I remember me and Natalie were just so shocked and... destroyed and we were just paralysed like what just happened to our sister? And one day she said, 'We're not going to dread this. We're not going to live in fear. We're going to have fun during this time.' And she was just always cheering us up."
Career and Legacy
In a tragic twist, they revealed she had been responding well to treatment and had even "rung the bell," which is something cancer patients do when they finish treatment. They said she had "no evidence of disease" at that time, but "a while later" it returned and was "stage four." They said that although she bravely fought her diagnosis and underwent treatment while travelling and working two jobs, she was unable to beat it this time around.
The sisters began their musical career in 2011 with their independently released debut album, Red Roots. They found huge online fame with that and their subsequent releases and also toured extensively. They performed over 1,000 live shows across America and internationally in countries such as Norway and Canada, opening for acts including Amy Grant, Charlie Daniels, Diamond Rio, Don Williams, High Valley, Josh Turner, and Michael W. Smith.
