Brad Pitt is grieving the passing of his mother, Jane Etta Pitt.
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TMZ reported Wednesday that the F1 star’s mom, aged 84, had died. Brad Pitt, 61, has not yet addressed the loss publicly, and his representative declined to provide a comment to PEOPLE.
Sydney, the daughter of Brad Pitt’s younger brother Doug, shared the news of her grandmother’s passing through a touching tribute on Instagram.
“My sweet Grammy, Jane Etta, we were not ready for you to go yet, but knowing you are finally free to sing, dance, and paint again makes it a tad easier,” she wrote alongside a series of shots of her grandmother over the years. “If you knew Grammy, you knew she had the biggest heart. She cared deeply for everyone and everything, no questions asked.”
Jane “taught me how to paint, how to be strong, how to lead with kindness, to love Jesus through everything, and to find joy in the smallest things,” Sydney continued. “She made up the silliest games just to make us laugh.” Jane “believed in fairness, in putting others first, and doing good simply because it was the right thing to do.”
“She could keep up with” all 14 of her grandkids “without missing a beat,” her granddaughter pointed out. “There was no limit to the love she gave, and everyone who met her felt it.”
“I don’t know how we move forward without her. But I know she’s still here in every brushstroke, every kind gesture, every hummingbird. She was love in its purest form. We were truly blessed to have her to love on growing up. I know she lives on through each of us,” she concluded.
A Missouri Hospital Named a Wing in Honor of Brad Pitt’s Mother, Jane Etta Pitt
Pitt grew up in Springfield, Missouri, with his mother, a retired school counselor, his father, William, a trucking company owner, and his younger siblings, Doug and Julie.
In 2009, Brad Pitt and his siblings contributed $1 million to a Missouri hospital, leading to the opening of a new wing named in honor of their mother — the Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center. This donation enabled the hiring of the region’s first pediatric oncologist and hematologist in southwest Missouri, per CBS News.