Marie Stewart knew her job was dangerous but kept doing it to be close to the schoolchildren.

By Brian R. Ballou Globe Staff

EVERETT ­­­­— Diagnosed with throat and lung cancer two weeks ago, Marie Stewart kept at her job as a school crossing guard, despite almost daily close brushes with traffic, because she loved the children so much, relatives said.

She was helping about a half-dozen elementary students cross Ferry Street Wednesday morning when a Massachusetts Water Resources Authority pickup truck struck her. Stewart later died from her injuries.

“A big part of my life is gone,’’ Neal Stewart, her husband of 52 years, said Wednesday night. “What can I say? My wife is gone. I don’t know what I’m ­going to do.”

Earlier in the day Stewart’s son-in-law, Scott Poliskey, had been briefed by doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“She’s never coming back,’’ he said. “She’s never coming home again.”

Poliskey said Stewart suffered head trauma. He said that the family had gathered at her bedside at Mass. General, and that clergy had delivered last rites.

Everett police said in a statement Wednesday night that they had been notified by Mass. General that Stewart was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m.

Stewart had been on the job for only seven months. She was dressed the usual way Wednesday, wearing a bright-orange vest with a white stripe and holding a large stop sign as she stepped out into Ferry Street at its intersection with Cherry Street at 8:05 a.m. to usher the children through a marked crosswalk.

She was struck immediately, before the children had entered the crosswalk, Everett police said.

Nearby residents and shop owners heard a high-pitched tire squeal, then a horrifying scream. Some looked out their windows; others rushed outdoors.