Love Triumphs

Aziza Kibibi is Arrishtk Ayinde’s mother—and also her sister. They’ve survived the unspeakable, thanks to their exceptional bond.

- Liz Brody

The facts of this story are dark, disturbing to the bone. Even a court reporter said it was the worst case she’d ever heard. It all started with a man who found success in the music business (he directed the Fugees’ “Killing Me Softly” video)—while secretly abusing his wife and children with brutal depravity.

How Aziza Kibibi, 40, and Arrishtk Ayinde, 23, bloomed from such a tangled family tree is a wonder. Meet them, and you sense that their personal space is somehow shared, that a glance between them telegraphs, “I got you.” But mostly you notice their laughter. Despite their grim past, they can barely get through a sentence without giggling—at each other, with each other—their strength plaited together with an unerring and invincible love.

First, there was Aziza

Aziza remembers her childhood years in a quiet, residential part of Paterson, New Jersey, as idyllic, playing with her three siblings and the kids on the block, running through their two- family house, learning to read with her parents. But that quickly changed.