Carly Simon 'filled with sorrow' over the deaths of two sisters last week

Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Singer-songwriter Carly Simon has broken her silence regarding the cancer-related deaths of two of her sisters last week.

"I am filled with sorrow to speak about the passing of Joanna and Lucy Simon. Their loss will be long and haunting," Simon, 75, said in a statement Sunday.

"As sad as this day is, it's impossible to mourn them without celebrating their incredible lives that they lived. We were three sisters who not only took turns blazing trails and marking courses for one another, we were each other's secret shares. The co-keepers of each other's memories."

Opera singer Joanna Simon, 85, died Wednesday after a battle with thyroid cancer, and Grammy-winning composer Lucy Simon, 82, died Thursday of breast cancer.

Their younger brother Peter, a photographer, died in 2018 at the age of 71 after he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

"I have no words to explain the feeling of suddenly being the only remaining direct offspring of Richard and Andrea Simon," Carly Simon's statement said.

Richard Simon was co-founder of the publishing house Simon and Schuster.