Anne ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell’s husband, Eldridge Toney, reflects on how his life has changed since her death last weekend after a months-long journey from cancer.
“It’s hitting me again,” she tells PEOPLE of her grief. “It’s going to be a lot different.”
Toney admits the thought of “returning to our home without Anna and without the girls” was “hard to fathom”. It was “very hard” to see the empty rooms in the home they once shared and wake up in the morning to find Cardwell gone.
“It will be very lonely,” he adds. “It’s getting harder.”
Anne ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell’s husband recalls her last breath: ‘I was holding her hand’ (Exclusive)
Anna Cardwell and Eldridge Toney.
Anna Cardwell Instagram
Cardwell died at the age of 29 on Saturday, less than a year after being diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal cancer in January.
The reality star’s mother, Mama June Shannon, 44, shared the news of her death with her fans in a statement shared on Instagram.
“It is with broken hearts that we announce that @annamarie35 is no longer with us,” she captioned her post alongside a family photo. “She passed away peacefully in my home last night at 11.12 pm.”
“She put up a hell of a fight for 10 months and she died with her family around her like she won’t and we’ll update you with more information as soon as we get it today,” Shannon continued.
“We love you all and continue to offer prayers and thoughts for our family as they go through this difficult time,” she concluded.
Mum June Shannon says the family didn’t mind the chair Anna ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell spent her final days in
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(959x14:961x16)/anna-cardwell-fa511f8776364193ad8d5c1bdec69539.jpg)
Anna Cardwell. Anna Cardwell/Instagram
On Monday, PEOPLE confirmed that Cardwell and Toney tied the knot on March 4 in Wilkinson County, Georgia.
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.
“We decided to get married after we were diagnosed with stage 4,” Toney explains to PEOPLE. “We didn’t get married because she had cancer. We just sped up the process because it was always something we planned to do.”
Anna ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell remembered as ‘full of life’ and ‘brave to the very end’ at funeral (Exclusive)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(799x0:801x2)/anna-cardwell-eldridge-toney-5-42e4e01f576341e0a959eeaa08ba758f.jpg)
Anna Cardwell and Eldridge Toney.
Anna Cardwell Instagram
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Although the couple initially wanted a “long engagement and a big wedding”, they decided to make things “official” because they “no longer had the luxury of time”.
Despite knowing their time was “limited,” Toney says he and Cardwell asked the doctors not to let them know how much time she had left.
“We never wanted to know,” he adds.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education