The mother of Jasmina Anema, the 6-year-old New York girl who died of leukemia in January, has backtracked from a Twitter post questioning Rihanna’s motives in rallying behind her daughter’s cause – but the grief-stricken mom admits that she expected a phone call from the “Rude Boy” crooner after her daughter passed away.
“It has been a month since Jasmina’s passing. Still not even a card or text message from Rihanna. Did she use my child for a publicity stunt?” the tweet in question, posted to the official ONEFORJASMINA account this weekend, read. The note has since been deleted, but not before it was retweeted hundreds of times.
Rihanna — along with Kelly Rowland, Lil Mama, and even The First Family– were instrumental in a worldwide initiative to find a bone marrow donor for the precocious Manhattanite. But Thea Anema felt abandoned by her celebrity pals after Jasmina lost her cancer battle earlier this year.
In an e-mail to PEOPLE.com Monday, Anema denied writing the message herself, but said she is disappointed not to have heard from Rihanna, 22, since Jasmina passed away on Jan. 27.
“Friends have helped me with all kinds of stuff and many know the passwords to my personal e-mail, the Caringbridge site and also Twitter,” Anema wrote. “Although I did not Tweet this particular one, I do wish that Rihanna had responded to me on Jasmina’s passing. It would have meant the world to me. Jasmina adored her,” she writes. “Rihanna was so kind to come and visit her. I just felt hurt not hearing anything from her. Or of any other celebrities for that matter. The only ones who reached out to me personally during this time of grief were the Obamas.”
In Rihanna’s defense, pals say the pop star was devastated by Jasmina’s death, and hasn’t been able to bring herself to call the child’s parents. Days after Jasmina’s passing, Rihanna remembered her fondly in a statement issued by her publicist: “She was a very free, fun spirited little girl, full of energy, always happy, always energetic. I always remember she wouldn’t sit still. She was always running around, always had a smile on her face.”