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A cousin of Bobbi Kristina Brown's says a picture of her mother, the late singer Whitney Houston, gazed down on her in the days before her death. Pictured: Brown poses at the premiere of "Sparkle" in Hollywood, California August 16, 2012. REUTERS/Fred Prouser

Jerod Brown, a cousin of Bobbi Kristina Brown, said she spent her final days in hospice with a framed photograph of her mother gazing down at her from her bedside table. The 27-year-old told the Mirror his cousin was full of life 72 hours before Gordon had found her unconscious and revealed the aspiring singer wanted to follow on her mom’s footsteps to achieve superstardom.

“Bobbi’s mum was her guardian angel, and she wanted to make her proud. That was her mission,” he said. “I will never forget the last time I spoke to Bobbi. It was just three days before the incident and she was so excited. She wanted to release her first single, to get on with her own music projects for her mum.”

Brown admitted his cousin suffered from depression. She would often call him and say she was dealing with her mum. "She would say, ‘She’s heavy on my heart,’ ” he said, adding he would try to talk her down. “We talked about suicide and I would talk her down from it, explain it wasn’t the right thing to do. I had been there myself, so I would talk to her about it and we would get her through it.”

Speaking about the close relationship between mother and daughter, Brown said: “I told her she had more to live for, and her mother wouldn’t have wanted that. But her mind was that of a depressed woman. Whitney was her best friend. They were together every day. Just before the incident she said her mother was visiting her in her dreams every night.”

During her final days, her father Bobby Brown, grandmother Cissy Houston and other relatives gathered around Brown’s bed in hospice. Jerod Brown said a bed was set up beside her so that a relative could be with her around the clock. “There are so many tears in that room. Bobbi lies there quietly. There is a bed for people to sleep in next to her so she isn’t on her own. My uncle Bobby doesn’t leave her side. He is being very strong,” Brown said.

Several reports have claimed there were numerous misunderstandings, but Brown denied it. “It can get emotional with everything going on, but they’re not feuding. Everyone is supporting one another,” he said. Brown also denied the marriage reports but added that his cousin wanted to have a wedding some time in August, on a date close to her mother’s birthday. “Bobbi’s ultimate mission in life was to have a family,” Jerod said. “She always wanted to have kids and she was planning a wedding. She was hoping it would happen around her mother’s birthday this August. It would have been so special for her. And her mum would have been at her side, if only in spirit.”

Bobbi Kristina Brown died Sunday. She was 22.

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