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Mama June Shannon spoke about her daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell’s final days in a touching interview with Daily Mail, published on Wednesday, January 31. The reality star, 44, shared new details about how she took care of her late daughter before she died following a battle with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma at 29. She and her daughter Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird spoke about how they made sure that Anna knew that she was loved.
Mama June told the outlet that Anna had been living with her during her final days, and Anna’s daughter Kaitlyn would help with the caretaking. “She passed away in mine and Justin’s home. Eldridge and the girls and her were living there for three weeks and one day. [I was] hearing her scream my name at night, hearing her little oxygen cord going round,” she said. “She would not keep her oxygen on for anything. The day before she passed away Kaitlyn was helping us give [Anna] medicine – and she would only take it for Kaitlyn.”
The TLC alum admitted that she and Anna’s other family members kept reminding her that she was loved through her cancer battle. “The final things that we all made sure that we said in the last couple of days… I can’t tell you how many times I said I love you,” she said.
Anna’s sister Lauryn spoke about how hard her sister had tried to hang on especially at the end, while she assured her that it was ok. “She fought until the very end. You could tell at the end that she was ready. She was done. She fought as much as she could so I was telling her, ‘It’s okay, everybody’s here,’” she said. “It definitely happened very quickly. It went from one to five years to 10 months very quickly.”
June also said that today she and the rest of the family still keep Anna in their hearts and minds. “We do talk about her quite a bit. We all carry her with us,” she said.
Mama June announced that Anna had died following her battle with cancer in an Instagram post in December 2023. “She passed away in my home last night peacefully at 11:12 PM. She gave one hell of a fight for 10 months she passed away with her family around her like she won’t and we will will be updating y’all with more information as we get it today. We love y’all and continued prayers and thoughts for our family doing this difficult time,” she said