Mama June Shannon Says Late Daughter Anna’s Death ‘Feels Surreal’ 1 Year Later: ‘We Want Her to Be Remembered’ (Exclusive)

Monday, Dec. 9 marks the first anniversary of Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell’s death — and the late reality star’s mother, Mama June Shannon, is now candidly sharing her feelings about the moment.

“It feels surreal, if that makes sense,” June, 45, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “This weekend would’ve been her declining weekend because she passed away on Sunday. She passed away on her daughter’s birthday, her youngest daughter’s birthday.”

Anna died on Dec. 9, 2023, at age 29. Her death came 10 months after she was diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma.

In addition to June and her sisters, Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird and Jessica “Chubbs” Shannon, Anna is survived by her daughters, Kaitlyn and Kylee, and husband Eldridge Toney.

“Anna loved, loved being in the spotlight. She did not give a f— what it was, being on TikTok or anything else, she loved being in the spotlight,” June says. “She loved being on reality TV because if it was up to her,  we would’ve streamed her funeral. And that’s what she wanted and we [were] like, ‘No, no.’ That was the only wish we did not give her when she passed away.”

Admittedly, for June, “Some days are good and I can put on that face. Well, they’re not good, but I can act like it’s good,” she says.

“But then there’s just some days I can just sit here and I just wallow in it,” she continues. “I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to be bothered. I went through that slump I think until a month or so ago where I didn’t go for four months to get my hair done. I didn’t go get my nails done. I still hadn’t got my lashes done. It’s like you just get in these funks and sometimes I’m just f—ing pissed off and mad because I’m like, ‘Why?'”

Keeping Anna’s memory alive has been important to June and he family. In terms of the family’s commemoration plans, June notes that “no, you will not see [it] on a new season” of their WeTV series, Mama June: Family Crisis, which is slated to return in the spring of 2025. But she says that Anna’s husband, Eldridge, mentioned “something about doing a balloon release on Monday.”

“I think us, as a family, we’re just kind of …  I wouldn’t even say not acknowledging it, but not want[ing] to really think about it,” she says, explaining the difficulty around navigating her loss. “Trust me, I talk about her all the f—ing time.”

Another way the family has continued to keep Anna close is by using their group chat, dubbed “Jumping on Hoes Necks” by Alana, where they text her old number.

“Our family chat, we do text in that but then we’re like, ‘Oh, my God, if somebody ever gets her number.’ It must have went [to someone who doesn’t have] an iPhone anymore because now my messages are going through as green, so we think that it just went to an Android user. Nobody’s ever responded back, but we’re just waiting for somebody to respond back and be like, ‘Y’all got the wrong number.'” 

June says the family is “keeping her as alive as [best as] we can,” and she hopes fans do the same.

“We just want people to remember Anna and stuff like that,” she adds. “Whether it’s this year or next year or three years from now, we want her to be remembered, always.”