Four siblings who lost their mother to breast cancer have made a pact to live together to help each other overcome the loss.
Alison Barber, of Ashtonfield, died last Sunday at age 48, six weeks after being diagnosed.
From her hospital bed, Alison asked other relatives to briefly step out of the room, so she could share her dying wish with her children.
"When we came back into the room, we found out they were going to move back in together to support one another, as they grieve," Alison's brother Raymond Barber said.
"That's the pact they've made."
Daughter Breeanna Gannon said "Mum didn't want us to go our separate ways".
"She wanted us to stick together to help each other get through it," Breeanna said.
Tahlia, 15, Bailey, 18, Breeanna, 22, and Wesley, 27, intend to fulfil their mum's wishes.
Raymond has started a GoFundMe titled, "In Loving Memory of Alison: Supporting the Children".
He said his sister was a "bright light in the lives of so many".
"She was a devoted and hard-working single mother whose love, strength, kindness and big heart will never be forgotten," he said.
Alison loved her kids deeply and would take them to work and school, as well as working herself at a motel.
Breeanna said her mum "meant the world to me".
"She bent over backwards for all us kids and her three grandkids," she said.
"You'd ask her anything and she'd be there. She'd do anything for you."
She said her mum was "funny, stubborn, loving and caring".
"She loved the NRL and supported the Parramatta Eels," she said.
Alison grew up at Telarah with her two older brothers, Dave and Raymond.
"She was a strong woman," Raymond said.
Breeanna added that "she wouldn't take anybody's bull----".
"It didn't matter who it was," she said.
Raymond joked that she was scolding son Bailey "even on her deathbed".
"She was a character. She fought all the way to the very end," he said.
Alison began getting symptoms before Christmas.
"She had aches and pains," Raymond said.
Doctors thought it was arthritis and polymyalgia rheumatica.
"She'd been complaining about it for months. They were treating her for that, but I think it was the wrong diagnosis," Raymond said.
Shortly after Christmas, Alison noticed a lump in her breast.
She waited a few months to see a doctor, thinking she was OK, before being sent for a scan.
There were further delays to see a specialist and have a biopsy.
In her first appointment with a surgeon, she was told the cancer had spread and was incurable.
"Eventually they did a biopsy, but they explained that by the time we got the results back, she'd no longer be with us," Raymond said.
Breeanna said her mum had tumours on the breast, liver, lower spine and shoulder, adding that she wanted women to be aware how breast cancer could spread.
Alison's organs began to fail before she could start radiation treatment or hormone blockers.
"She didn't have time on her side," Raymond said.
Alison was admitted to intensive care and then palliative care at the Calvary Mater hospital, where she died.
