44-Year-Old Mother of 11 Dies from Stage-4 Breast Cancer: 'We Just Have Each Other'

"As you can imagine we are devastated," the family wrote on their GoFundMe page

Eleven children ranging from 4 to 23 years old are mourning their 44-year-old mother, Rashida Lawson, who died from stage-four breast cancer on Saturday.

According to Fox 2 in Detroit, the older siblings are now stepping up to raise the little ones and will be acting as both mom and dad.

“Some people still have their parents and tell you it is going to be okay — it’s not,” son Kenneth Stone told the news outlet. “We don’t know it’s going to be okay. We don’t have our parents anymore. We just have each other.”

Added daughter Tamera Stone: “We can’t tell them, ‘Hey guys, it’s going to be okay — she’s coming home.’ And I have to be honest with them.”

According to Tamera, Lawson “was the glue that held us together. She didn’t want to break us down. She didn’t want us worrying about her.”

Their mother “was a very genuine and loving person,” according to a GoFundMe page that was created for the family. “She took pride into raising her children the right way and doing the best she could for each and every one of them.”

The children’s father also died 10 years ago, according to the fundraising page.

“As you can imagine we are devastated,” they continued to write.

The kids knew something was wrong when they noticed that “her chest was leaking” and suggested that she get it checked out, Tamera told Fox 2. It was then that she discovered she was sick.

“She was okay and a week later, boom,” Tamera told the news outlet.

On Saturday, Tamera and her siblings received “the scariest phone call of my life” and went to see their mom in the hospital. Her heart stopped and she died later that day, Fox 2 reported.

“We’re battling with the financial problems right now,” Tamera told the news outlet. “And considering that school is still in, we have to pick up the pieces where our mom left off at. Right now we’re on our own.”