On October 10, 2024, Kerry Kennedy turned to the social media platform X to announce the sad news of her mother’s death. She wrote, “It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our mother, Ethel Kennedy. Please keep our mother in your hearts and prayers.”

Kerry also included a statement from her family which explains that Ethel had a stroke last week, and she died on October 10th due to “complications” from that stroke.

Ethel was the widow of Robert F. Kennedy. She was 96 years old.

In the family’s statement, they share some of Ethel’s accomplishments during her lifetime writing, “Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren, and 24 great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly.”

The statement continues, “She was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant, and we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy; her children David and Michael; her daughter-in-law Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and her great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie.”

The statement ends with a wish to “please keep our mother in your hearts and prayers.”

In 2012, Ethel told PEOPLE, “I pretty well lived in the moment. And I was blessed with faith.”

Ethel met her future husband, Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, in 1945, and they later married in 1950. She knew she liked him from the beginning. She told PEOPLE there was “no maybe about it.”

According to Ethel both she and her husband “wanted a lot of children.” They had 11 children, but sadly, Ethel outlived two of them.

Besides raising her children, Ethel also supported her husband, who was a lawyer working for the Department of Justice and later the attorney general.

After his brother’s death, Ethel supported her husband when he ran for President, and she was there when he was shot and killed after winning the California primary in 1968.

Watch the video below to learn more about Ethel’s life.