Mama June and Pumpkin told ET all about Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell's heartbreaking final days.
Mama June, Lauryn "Pumpkin" Efird, Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson and Jessica Shannon are recalling Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell's final days before her death.
ET's Rachel Smith spoke with the reality stars ahead of the return of Mama June: Family Crisis, and they gave insight into how Anna's last days battling cancer played out. Anna died in December after battling stage 4 adrenal carcinoma. The mom of two was 29.
In the days leading up to Anna's death, her family recalled, she wanted to take a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, despite the possible ramifications of such an adventure.
"We took a family trip to Gatlinburg in the end of November. We were only home four days after that [before she died]," Mama June told ET. "We knew the risk of taking Anna to Gatlinburg, but she kept begging us."
"The hospice nurse did let us know this is going to lessen her time, taking this massive trip to Gatlinburg [because] that's stress on her body," Lauryn noted, before Mama June chimed in, "But she wanted it, so we did."
When the group returned from the trip, things quickly declined for Anna.
"[She was] having panic attacks because she feels like she can't breathe," Lauryn said. "... She [couldn't] even lie down because the cancer was so compressed on her organs that she had trouble breathing."
Through it all, though, Anna kept her sense of humor.
"She was cracking jokes the day before. She was cracking jokes. She was like, 'Mama, you're being too damn loud!'" Alana recalled. "And then she wanted a steak so bad. She knew for a fact that she wasn't going to eat the steak, but she wanted the steak."
While Anna's immediate family was there through it all, she opted to keep the seriousness of her condition private from others because "she didn't want sympathy," Alana said.
"For her, I think, she needed the people that were there," Lauryn said, with Jessica adding, "She always said, if you weren't there in the beginning, she didn't want you there in the end."
Mama June admitted that she thinks about that "very awful" time "every day," but noted that she and her family manage to feel Anna's presence "all the time."
"She's right here with us today. We talk about her. [Jessica's] got a tattoo. We keep her alive," Mama June said, before Lauryn agreed, stating, "I feel like we still very much keep her memory alive. We talk about her a lot."
Mama June: Family Crisis returns June 14 on We TV.
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