Landlord Died Unexpectedly

My husband and I have been renting our home from our good friend and landlord (lived directly across the street from us!) for 17+ yrs. He actually bought this house for us so we wouldn’t leave the neighborhood (we lived next door to him in a much smaller house originally). He and my husband shook hands on the understanding that he would NEVER SELL THE HOUSE OUT FROM UNDER US; that it was ours as long as we wanted to live here.

Our friend/landlord died unexpectedly late last year (my husband did a welfare check and found him deceased …), and his brother says they have to sell our home in order to close the estate (apparently he didn’t leave it to neither his brother nor sister; brother is the executor (?) of the estate.)

PLEASE tell me we have some rights here … we’re both retired, I have Mult Scler, etc etc