Anna ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell’s Husband Celebrates Her Strength and Vows ‘I Will Never Stop Loving Her’ (Exclusive)

Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell’s husband, Eldridge Toney, tells how his late wife’s strength never wavered as she approached her final days.

Despite “a lot” of “lower back pain” and taking “a lot of medication,” Toney tells PEOPLE exclusively that the reality star “didn’t show a lot of emotion” and was “super strong for the family.”

Cardwell may have looked brave for her loved ones, “but when it was just the two of us, it was hard not to break down,” she recalls.

Anne ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell’s husband feels ‘lonely’ since her death aged 29: ‘It’s getting harder’ (Exclusive)

Loved ones visit Anna Cardwell in the hospital.

Lauryn Efird/Instagram

On December 9, Here comes Honey Boo Boo alum died at age 29, less than a year after being diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal cancer last January. While announcing the death on Instagram, her mother, Mama June Shannon, shared a family photo and wrote: “It is with a broken heart that we announce that @annamarie35 is no longer with us. She passed away at my home last night at 11:12 a.m. in a peaceful afternoon.”

“She fought one hell of a fight for 10 months and died with her family around her like she won’t and we’ll update you with more information as we get it today,” Shannon, 44, continued.

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Anna Cardwell. Anna Cardwell/Instagram

Cardwell and Roney were married in Wilkinson County, Georgia on March 4, shortly after her diagnosis because they “knew that time was limited.”

The couple began dating in 2017 following Cardwell’s divorce from ex-husband Michael Cardwell, with whom she had a daughter, Kylee Madison, in 2015. Cardwell was also the mother of a daughter, Kaitlyn Elizabeth, born in 2012.

“They’re my girls,” Toney says of Cardwell’s daughters. “I promised Anna that I would do the right thing and make sure they remember their mom. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

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Anna Cardwell and Eldridge Toney.

Anna Cardwell Instagram

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Although the couple always imagined they had plenty of time, after learning of her cancer diagnosis, Toney and Cardwell made a pact to “never go to bed angry or arguing because you never know what tomorrow will bring.”

“She was the one I was supposed to grow old with,” he adds. “She was my only true love, she was that for me. I will never stop loving her. There will never be another Anna.”

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Source: HIS Education