SWV's Coko Gamble Takes In Cousin's 12-Year-Old Twins After Losing Her to Lupus: 'No Brainer'

The R&B singer tells PEOPLE exclusively about adapting to life with two new kids under her roof all while grieving the loss of her cousin

When her now adult-aged children moved out of her Virginia home, SWV's Cheryl "Coko" Gamble thought her nest was finally empty.

"Yes," the 52-year-old mom to sons Jayye Michael and Lil' Tracy, tells PEOPLE exclusively when asked if she thought her days of taking care of young children in her home were over. "My youngest is 20 and my oldest is 27."

But after promising her cousin Sheila Laney that she'd take care of her twins, son DJ and daughter Nevea, 12, if anything happened to her, all of that changed.

"She was sick," Coko says of her cousin who also contracted COVID-19 shortly before her death. "She had lupus, and we feel like she knew that she was sick already and that she wouldn't be here much longer because she was getting things in order. We were like, 'Of course, sure, no problem,' and she was getting paperwork in order and everything. Shortly thereafter, she got really sick and she passed away, and so here we are today."

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With the help of Coko's mom, Lady Tibba Gamble, 76, the tight-knit family moved the siblings in January from New York to Virginia without thinking twice.

"It's family," Coko says. "I would want somebody to do that for me. [I'm] pretty sure my mom would've wanted somebody to do that for her, so when she asked it was like a no-brainer, absolutely. I have the room. We were just that tight. She knew we had her back and we knew that she had ours, if anything ever happened."