Mom June, Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird, Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson It is Jessica Shannon are remembering Anna “Chickadee” Cardwellin last days before his death.
ET’s Rachel Smith spoke with the reality stars ahead of their return Mama June: family crisis, and they gave an insight into what Anna’s final days battling cancer were like. A-N-A died in December after fighting stage 4 adrenal carcinoma. O mother of two he was 29 years old.
In the days before Anna’s death, her family recalled, she wanted to take a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, despite the possible ramifications of such an adventure.
“We took a family trip to Gatlinburg at the end of November. We didn’t come home until four days after that (before she died),” Mama June told ET. “We knew the risk of taking Anna to Gatlinburg, but she kept begging us.”
“The hospice nurse informed us that this would cut into her time, taking this big trip to Gatlinburg (because) this is a stress on her body,” Lauryn noted, before Mama June chimed in: “But she wanted to, so we We did .”
When the group returned from the trip, things quickly went downhill for Anna.
“(She was) having panic attacks because she felt like she couldn’t breathe,” Lauryn said. “…She (couldn’t) even lie down because the cancer was so compressed in her organs that she had trouble breathing.”
Through it all, however, Anna maintained her sense of humor.
“She was telling jokes the day before. She was telling jokes. She was like, ‘Mommy, you’re being too loud!'” Alana recalled. “And then she wanted a steak so badly. She knew for sure that she wasn’t going to eat the steak, but she wanted the steak.”
Although Anna’s immediate family was present through it all, she chose to keep the severity of her condition private from others because “she didn’t want sympathy,” Alana said.
“For her, I think, she needed the people who were there,” Lauryn said, with Jessica adding, “She always said, if you weren’t there in the beginning, she didn’t want you there in the end.”
Mama June admitted that she thinks about that “terrible” moment “every day,” but noted that she and her family can feel Anna’s presence “all the time.”
“She’s here with us today. We talk about her. (Jessica) got a tattoo. We keep her alive,” Mama June said, before Lauryn chimed in, stating, “I feel like we still keep her memory alive. We talk about her a lot.” .”
Mama June: family crisis returns on June 14th on We TV.
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