“She was the most loving and generous person in the whole wide world,” Marirose Powell’s daughter-in-law tells PEOPLE
Shortly before her death, Marirose Powell sang a song that meant a lot to her for the final time — and a video of the emotional performance that her daughter-in-law posted on TikTok has now touched millions.
“She was the most loving and generous person in the whole wide world,” Sam Xenos tells PEOPLE of Powell, her husband’s mom, who died on April 10 from breast cancer.
The day the video was taken, Xenos tells PEOPLE that two of her mother-in-law’s friends came over with their guitars and said, “‘What do you want to play?’ “
“And she said, ‘I want to sing “Landslide.’ And so she sang “Landslide” one last time,” adds Xenos.
In the clip, Powell, 62, sings as she rests in her bed, while in hospice care at her home in Stockton, Calif.
A singer-songwriter who also fronted a Fleetwood Mac cover band for over 20 years, Powell’s voice was strong as she gripped the railing of her bed, catching slightly as she sang, “I’m getting older too.”
“My mother-in-law performed as Stevie Nicks for decades,” Xenos wrote over the video. “This was her final performance before she passed the following week.”
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“That was the last time she could actually sing with her voice,” Xenos tells PEOPLE. “And we sang to her from outside of her window and she knew that was going to happen.”
“I felt like she held on for that moment,” Xenos adds. “And even when she couldn’t talk, her friends would rally around her and just sing to her.”
(L-R) Sam Xenos and Marirose Powell. PHOTO: Courtesy of Sam Xenos
From there, she says the family “only had six months with her.”
In the caption of her TikTok post, Xenos wrote that there wasn’t “a day that goes by that I wish we’d had more time with her.”
“She was truly the only person I’ve ever known to leave people better than she found them,” she added. “Until we can be together again mama.”
Marirose Powell performing in a Fleetwood Mac cover band. PHOTO: Courtesy of Sam Xenos
In real life, Powell would have been thrilled about the response to her performance, which has been seen over 3.7 million times.
“I used to tell her, ‘Post your music on TikTok.’ “ Xenos recalls. “And when that took off, everyone kept asking for more of her performances. So I started posting more of her stuff. And I just remember sitting there like, ‘Oh my gosh…they love you.’ “
For the matriarch who “couldn’t say no” to her family, Xenos says Powell “deserves” all of the love the clip has inspired.
“She was truly the only person I’ve ever met that when she met you, she found you,” Xenos says. “Just knowing her left you a better person. Everybody is now seeing that through a 30-second video.”