Mama June Shannon reveals how she keeps her daughter's memory alive six months on from her death
Mama June Shannon carries her daughter's ashes around in a charm bracelet.
The 44-year-old reality star lost Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell' when she succumbed to cancer aged just 29 towards the end of 2023 and revealed that it was her daughter's dying wish to be cremated and carried around in jewellery so that her memory is kept alive.
She told People: "We very much still today, even six months later, keep her memory alive. For me, I personally have to talk about it all the time. She's actually here with us today. She's here [in my charm bracelet]. I always tote her around. That was her thing, that she wanted to be cremated and toted around, so I'm like, ‘Okay, let's go, girl."
The 'From Not To Hot' star - who shot to fame when she starred alongside her other daughter Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson and the rest of her family in the reality series 'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo' more than a decade ago - explained that she "never expected" to lose a member of the family or have to face the possibility of dealing with it on camera.
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She said: "“We never thought that we would have to lose somebody in our family. We didn't think we was going to experience that ever in reality TV."
But June's other daughter Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Efird noted that WE tv was “respectful enough not to put anything that Anna wouldn't have wanted on frame.”
June recently admitted that she hoping to take her granddaughter Kaitlyn, 11, - who now lives with her and her husband Justin - away from the house where the tragedy happened.
She said: "We're hoping to be able to move soon because Anna passed away in our home, and for me and Justin and Kaitlyn it's just a constant remembering. This is where everything happened.
"We are living in a constant nightmare, but for me, for the last six months, it's been a struggle. I got emotional earlier today. It is just really, am I going to wake up from this nightmare?"