Mom June Shannon knew when it was the beginning of the end for daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell after her stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
“We knew after we got back from our last vacation on the 4th of December when we went to Gatlinburg. That’s where she wanted to go. We went there the last week of November instead of the 4th of July. Well, the 5th.” Mama June: Family crisis star, 44, speaks exclusively to PEOPLE. “I knew something was going on when we were in and out the last few days, but we loved our time.”
June continues: »Once she came back here too [had] i saw the nurses and all that, they were just telling us that she was starting to transition, which i just thought was because she was off traveling and stuff like that. But no, she was really in transition.”
Anna Cardwell prepares to get her ‘affairs in order’ amid her cancer journey as her family worries about their new reality
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Anna ‘Chickadee’ Cardwell.
Anna Cardwell TikTok
PEOPLE confirmed last March that Anna was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in January. She died at the age of 28 the following December.
Although Anna’s diagnosis and eventual death proved difficult for the family, June says the experience allowed the famous lunch to bring them closer together.
“We became closer during that. Because that’s really what Anna kept saying, ‘I want to spend more time with my family. I want to spend more time together,'” she shares. – We got together and made it happen.
Anne Cardwell’s husband is finally emotionally ready to go through her belongings 2 months after her death (Exclusive)
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Pictured are mom June Shannon and family.
Mama June/Instagram
Fortunately for June’s family, the matriarch says her husband Justin Stroud has been a “huge supporter”.
“I told a lot of people that he didn’t have to do what he did [has] done. But he and I took Anna to every treatment. He was mostly the one who helped get the kids back to school, things like that,” she adds. “He was a big supporter. My children call him.”
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Mama June: Family crisis airs Fridays at 9pm ET on WE tv.
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Source: HIS Education