Caroline Kennedy, 68, and her husband, Ed Schlossberg, have taken on a heart-wrenching new role: raising their late daughter Tatiana Schlossberg’s two young children alongside her widower, George Moran. Tatiana, who died in December 2025 at just 35 after a battle with acute myeloid leukemia, left behind son Edwin, 4, and daughter Josephine, 2.

“My parents are grandparents, but right now they’re truly new parents,” Tatiana’s younger brother, Jack Schlossberg, tells PEOPLE. “They live with my niece and nephew, taking care of them every single day. It’s incredible how they’re managing everything while keeping the kids’ lives as normal as possible.”

Tatiana, an environmental journalist and author, wrote a poignant essay for The New Yorker before her death, revealing the heartbreaking reality of leaving her young children behind: “My first thought was that my kids… wouldn’t remember me. My son might have a few memories, but my daughter… I couldn’t even hold her safely for months after my transplants.”

Her husband George, a Yale-educated doctor, stood by her through every moment. Tatiana reflected on his devotion: “He did everything for me… slept on the hospital floor… never got mad when I raged on steroids. I feel so cheated that I won’t get to continue our wonderful life together.”

Through Tatiana’s illness and now after her passing, Caroline, Ed, and the rest of the Kennedy family have stepped in, providing love, care, and stability. “Most of all, we remember Tatiana,” Caroline said during the annual John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award ceremony in May. “She represented everything my parents stood for—beautiful, amazing, and far too short a life.”

Tatiana Schlossberg, left, her husband, George Moran, center, and Jack Schlossberg, right, in Boston on May 20, 2018.

Jack adds with quiet admiration, “I don’t understand how my mom has so much energy, but somehow she manages. The kids… they make me laugh just like Tatiana did. It’s what keeps her memory alive.”

From tragedy has emerged a family united, determined to give Tatiana’s children the childhood she fought so bravely to protect.