Reba McEntire’s mother, Jacqueline, passed away in March, just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to impact the country. Although it caused Reba to postpone both her Las Vegas residency shows and her own arena tour, the 65-year-old is finding the silver lining in the time off the road, which she is spending with her sister, Susie and brother-in-law Mark.

“Susie and Mark were sweet enough to let me stay with them the last two months,” Reba shared on the Today Show. “I was in Oklahoma; Mama had just passed away the 14th of March, two months ago, and I had gone back. After being there with her, then I came home to do some rehearsals for the tour that we didn’t get to do. Went back, and we were going to plan the funeral, have it all ready to go, and then the quarantine started.

“It was a true blessing,” she continued. “It really was. I got to stay there at Mama’s house, and help Susie and Pake clean everything out. We had so many great times, going through drawers and boxes. Found pictures we’d never seen before. We cried, we laughed. We toasted Mama. It was an absolute huge blessing to get to do that.”

Reba credits her mother with instilling in her an early love of singing and performing, initially as a way to keep her and her siblings out of trouble.

“Mama had four kids,” Reba recounted. “Alice didn’t sing with us, but it was Pake, Susie and myself. We were the Singing McEntires. But when we were on the road with Daddy, rodeo-ing, us four kids would be in the back, wrestling and fighting, and Mama would turn around and get us to singing, to keep us out of trouble. We didn’t have a radio in the car, so it was us, just trying to entertain ourselves. That’s where we became the Singing McEntires.”

Reba just released a new version of the video for her 1997 “What If” single, to inspire those struggling in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. She is currently hoping to kick off her arena tour in July. Keep track of updates at Reba.com.