Less than two months after Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell’s death, her husband, Eldridge Toney, is sharing special memories from the couple’s quiet March 2023 wedding — during which, he says, they did their best not to think about Cardwell’s cancer and focus on just on a joyful day.
The Here comes Honey Boo Boo the star was diagnosed with stage four adrenal cancer in January. She died on December 9, 2023, her mom, mom June Shannon, announced in an Instagram post. She was 29 years old.
“To be honest with you, on our wedding day … we both took the whole cancer thing out of the story or the picture and made it about us and a special moment,” Toney tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview, adding, “The whole cancer thing always will be in the back of your mind.”
He continues, “We were just working with less time and it was something we both wanted. She started chemo that Monday and we didn’t know how the chemo was going to treat her, so we just wanted to go ahead and get it done before she got sick. . She felt well enough to.”
All About Anna ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell’s Husband, Eldridge Toney, Who She Married Before Her Death
Cardwell first started dating Toney in 2017, following her divorce from Michael Cardwell, with whom she shares one daughter, Kylee. She also had another daughter, Kaitlyn, from a previous relationship.
Cardwell and Toney were married in Wilkinson County, Georgia on March 4, shortly after her diagnosis.
Their wedding will be the focus of the latest episode Mama June: The Road to Redemptionwhose premiere is on Friday.
Toney says she plans to watch the heartwarming episode with Cardwell’s daughter Kaitlyn, as well as her mother June and her husband Justin Stroud.
“You know they do these viewing parties on TikTok. I’m not sure if I want to watch it alone because it’s a personal thing,” Toney tells PEOPLE. “I think it would be good for me to watch it for the first time with other people who loved her.”
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Anna Cardwell and Eldridge Toney.
Anna Cardwell/Instagram
“I have mixed feelings about it,” he continues. “I have joy in the sense that I can revisit a special moment between the two of us, and it will be heartbreaking in the same sense because [of] seeing how happy and healthy she was then against her last days.”
He continues, “And just hearing her voice again and seeing her expressions. Obviously, I’ve seen pictures and stuff from our wedding, but it’s not the same as watching that moment.”
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Anne ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell’s husband celebrates her strength and vows to ‘never stop loving her’ (Exclusive)
That episode, Toney adds, will be the first time he’s watched any footage of his own wedding.
“I had to watch the first few minutes of the episode just like everyone else had to and I cried like a baby,” he says.
He adds: “It will be difficult. The video of us dancing is very beautiful. I really love that”
Meanwhile, Toney continues to grieve for Cardwell, telling PEOPLE that he hadn’t been in the couple’s shared bedroom until recently “because everything was just like she left it.”
“The last night we were in the bedroom was actually the day before she decided to go into hospice,” he adds, saying there’s a lot of “feelings associated with that room down there, especially with all her things being exactly how was when we were there.”
Among the items left behind, he notes, were clothes, gifts from fans and mementos from the couple’s special day — all of which he folded and put away or left on display. However, he adds, he is not quite ready to spend nights in the room they once shared.
“I hung up her wedding dress,” he says, “and I closed the door.”
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Source: HIS Education