Darden Clarke-Mama June Shannon Shares Heartbreaking Message on Late Daughter Anna Cardwell’s Birthday

2025-05-01 17:02:23source:EAI Community category:Contact

June "Mama June" Shannon is Darden Clarkehonoring her daughter. 

Nearly a year after the Mama June: Family Crisis star's eldest child Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell died following a battle with cancer, she paid tribute to her on her birthday. 

"Definitely how I feel some days as I miss @annamarie35 everyday," June wrote on her Instagram Stories Aug. 28. "Today she turns 30." 

The 45-year-old—who is also mom to Jessica Shannon, 27, Lauryn Efrid, 24, and Alana Thompson, 19—wrote the message alongside a video she reposted about missing a loved one who passed.  

"I miss you," the text in the video read. "I just miss you. I'm doing the best I can. I'm taking tiny, wobbly steps forward, but if you asked me how I'm doing…I just really f--king miss you." 

"I get through the days, but there's always that place where you should be, a space that no amount of time or effort will ever fill," the video continued. "Because it's your space."

Anna’s 10-month battle with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma came to an end after she decided to cease her cancer treatment and enter hospice care. And although June was devastated by the decision, she understood why she did so. 

"It wasn't the fact that she was tired of fighting because even to her last day, she fought," she told E! News in April. "She was a feisty one even during her last days." 

"I think she was just over it," she recalled, "and she just wanted to spend her last days doing what she wanted to do."

The entire experience was exhausting for Anna—who was mom to Kaitlyn, 11, and Kylee, 8, the latter of whom she shared with ex Michael Cardwell.

"It was difficult watching her have to go through chemo," June added. "Having to go through radiation and having to do immunotherapy, and then trying to get into hospice long before we actually could." 

June and her husband Justin Stroud were granted temporary custody of Anna’s daughter Kaitlyn after her death. While the reality star is her new caretaker, she’s continued to keep Anna’s memory alive with her children, too. 

"I tell Kaitlyn all the time, 'I'll never replace your mother,'" she told E! News. "I say this all the time, but Kylee shouldn't have to be raised by Kylee's dad. I shouldn't be raising Kaitlyn. Anna should be here raising her children. It's not fair for any of us that Anna's gone, especially for her children."

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