Mother takes in late friend's 6 children after her death

ALTON, Va. — When a Virginia mother of six realized she was dying, she turned to her best friend for the ultimate favor.

Beth Laitkep and Stephanie Culley first sparked a friendship when they worked together at Walmart as teenagers, according to Today. While the pair lost touch after high school, their friendship reignited when Laitkep moved back to Virginia years later.

At that point, 39-year-old Laitkep had won a tough battle with breast cancer and was happily living in remission. But after finding a lump, she received the heartbreaking news that the cancer had returned. Culley stepped in to help her friend with home repairs while she was in treatment.

“I was over there all the time and I took my children down there with me,” Culley told Today. “We all got really close.”

Sadly, Laitkep’s cancer continued to spread and she was admitted to the hospital. As her condition consistently deteriorated, she approached Culley with a proposition — if she died, she needed someone to care for her six children. Would Culley consider being that someone?

"I would try to laugh it off," Culley told Today. "I said, 'We're going to get you well, you're going to live, we're going to raise our grandbabies together.'"

But that dream would never be — Laitkep’s health progressively deteriorated, and it became clear that the end was near. Once again, the dying mother asked her friend if she felt she was capable of taking on six more children.

Culley — herself a mother of three — brought it up with her husband, who was “a deer in the headlights,” she said. It didn’t take long for him to warm to the idea, promising her they’d be able to make it work.

There was one group that didn’t need convincing — the Culley children.

"My children were screaming, 'Yes!' at the tops of their lungs. They got to have their best friends become their brothers and sisters," Culley told Today.

Laitkep passed away shortly after Mother’s Day in May. The Culleys were granted temporary custody of her children and hope to receive full custody next month, Today reports. While it’s been challenging at times, Culley says she’s trying to appreciate the beauty in the “small stuff.”

"Snotty noses, disastrous house, laundry as tall as the ceiling?” she said. “Beth would give anything for that right now, and I have that."

A GoFundMe account* has raised nearly $60,000 for Laitkep's children.

*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

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