Grace's mother dies
Grace’s mom Tina died. Her houseband Dave wrote on Facebook:
Remembering the beautiful life and love of our amazing Tina
It’s hard to find the words to adequately express our family's sorrow, but I want to share the sad news that our beloved Tina VanderWaal —“Superwife” and Mother “extraordinaire” — passed over to the Lord’s hands last night, October 20. She was a fighter to the end of her long, 17-month battle with cancer, always finding a positive outlook no matter what — for herself and, even more importantly, for others facing the same difficult journey.
We were married for 27 wonderful years and were blessed with three incredible children — Jakob VanderWaal, Olivia VanderWaal Patterson, and Grace VanderWaal. Tina truly was the heart of our family, filling our lives with creativity, laughter, and love. Whether she was designing beautiful jewelry, teaching others to discover their creative spirit, or making every holiday and family moment special, she brought light and joy to everything she touched.
In the next few days, I’ll share a link to a Celebration page where all can honor her life and, if desired, make a voluntary contribution to a cancer organization in her memory.
While our hearts ache, I take comfort in knowing that Tina is now in Heaven — her bright, shining light still guiding us. I know we’ll see her again one day. Until then, we’ll hold tight to the love, joy, and beauty she gave us. She was a laser beam of light to all who knew her.
Holding Tina’s beam of light in our hearts always,
Dave, Jakob, Olivia, and Grace
Grace posted a few pictures and video of her and her mother on Instagram, writing: "Can’t yet find the words. I love you mommy. So much. I wake up and want to call you. I don’t know how to move forward without you. I love you."
Grace’s post on Instagram quickly garnered more than 150.000 likes, and thousands of comments, among the commenters were:
Katy Perry: “❤️🩹” Grace was a huge Katy Perry fan when she was a child, and considered her a role-model when she was young. Grace has covered six Katy Perry songs (all way before AGT). Grace tagged Katy Perry in a post back in 2019, when she had found and posted an old video of herself covering “Thinking of You”. (No longer available)
Lauren Jauregui (former member of the girl-group Fifth Harmony): “💔🙏 sending you so much love angel “ (we do not know of any previous connection here)
Allesia Cara: “❤️🩹🕊️”. Grace have covered Alessia Cara’ s Scars to Your Beautiful four times (all in 2017). After performing the song on the Elvis Duran show , Grace tweeted to Cara: "I also did a cover of #ScarstoYourBeautiful by @AlessiaCara on @ElvisDuranShow this morning ❤️ Love this song" And Cara tweeted back: “u are a star, little lady 🖤🖤”
Howie Mandel: ”I’m so sorry 🙏 “ Howie Mandel was of course the judge on AGT who gave Grace the golden buzzer.
Jewel (singer-songwriter) wrote: ”Oh heavens!! I’m so sorry to hear!” Grace was interviewed online by Jewell at the Kroeger World Mental Health Day Summit in October 2020.
Selma Blair (actress) wrote: ”I am so so sorry. Grace and Olivia met her at the Cirque de Solei show in Cancun in November 2024
Gulia (Brazilian singer and actress): ”thinking about you and sending so much love 🤍 so so sorry for your loss 😔” Grace sat next to Gulia at the PatBo New York Fashion Week runway show in September 2025.
Mike Benj (Played percussion for Grace at the Today Show in October 2024) ”Sending so much love sis ❤️🩹”
A couple of Grace’s old friends and collaborators also left a message for Dave on his Facebook-post:
Autumn Rowe wrote: ”I am so very sorry Dave. Sending my prayers to you and your children. I cannot imagine the pain your family is going through. May she rest in heaven 🙏🏼. “ Singer/songwriter Autumn Rowe was Grace’s vocal coach on AGT, she has co-writing credits on Clay, Gossip Girl and Light the Sky, and was involved in her first studio sessions. Dave replied: ”Thank you Autumn. You experienced first hand, way back in 2016, the fierce motherly love Tina had for her Grace. Thank you for handling Grace and our family with the "grace" that you showed in those life-altering moments. Best always, Dave V”
Blythe Thomas wrote: ”Oh God Grace, I love you and your family so much. Tina was such as a light. This is impossible to understand. Sending you guys all so much love.“ Blythe Thomas was Grace’s videographer for many years and directed many of her early music videos. Dave answered: ”So many good memories of you with Tina (and Grace). We all had some incredible times and Tina shone her bright laser beam of light on us all. BTW, remember Japan and the late-night video....that was crazy but also so much fun.” Blythe write back: ”I’ll never forget 3am in Japan! So many memories, so much gratitude to get to go all over with you guys.”. (Grace went to Japan twice in June and late November 2017 to promote her “Just The Beginning” LP, which was issued in a special Japanese version).