Mama June: Family Crisis: Devastated matriarch vows she will not let late Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell's daughter become a teen mother... after her tragic cancer death aged 29
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Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell's devastated family attempt to pick up the pieces after her death of cancer at 29, on the latest episode of Mama June: Family Crisis.
Chickadee allowed cameras to film her into her final hours, but the show declined to shoot her death or funeral out of respect for her loved ones' grief.
Last week's harrowing episode brought viewers hauntingly close to Chickadee's last breath, allowing them to see her family members bidding her goodbye.
Now the family are shown reeling after the memorial service, as Mama June - Chickadee's mother - adopts the late woman's own daughter Kaitlyn, 11.
While shopping for school clothes for Kaitlyn, June vows to raise 'an A-B student' rather than a 'teen mom,' in defiance of the family 'curse.'
Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell 's devastated family attempt to pick up the pieces after her death of cancer at 29, on the latest episode of Mama June: Family Crisis; June pictured
The episode begins just after Chickadee's funeral, with June sharing that the anguish she is in now cannot 'f***ing compare' to anything she experienced before.
Although she and Chickadee had agreed that June would take custody of Kaitlyn, a couple of legal roadblocks were suddenly thrown up in her path.
First, June had neglected to actually sign the requisite documents to make the arrangement official, so her legal standing was weakened.
Then it emerged that Chickadee's ex-husband Michael Cardwell, with whom Chickadee welcomed her other daughter Kylee, eight, wanted custody of both girls.
June was determined to retain guardianship of Kaitlyn, explaining that her resolve was based on her desire to honor Chickadee's memory.
'Anna wanted Kaitlyn to stay with her biological family,' said June: 'and I'm going to fight to my last breath till I don't have any more fight in me to make sure that is how it works.'
June and her new husband Justin Stroud were able to take Kaitlyn in - but tension soon flared up in the marriage over their differing parenting styles.
All started well, with June and Justin taking the little girl shopping for school clothes and reflecting on the kind of student she would be.
Chickadee allowed cameras to film her into her final hours, but the show declined to shoot her death or funeral out of respect for her loved ones' grief; June's husband Justin Stroud pictured
Last week's harrowing episode (pictured) brought viewers hauntingly close to Chickadee's last breath, allowing them to see her family members bidding her goodbye
Now the family are shown reeling after the memorial service, as Mama June - Chickadee's mother - adopts the late woman's own daughter Kaitlyn, 11
The episode begins just after Chickadee's funeral, with June sharing that the anguish she is in now cannot 'f***ing compare' to anything she experienced before
'I'm trying to raise maybe an A-B student, sometimes Cs, and not a teen mom. I did that with myself, and I did that with Pumpkin, and I did that with Anna. So I want to break that curse,' said June in a confessional.
Back home, however, sparks began to fly after June strictly instructed Kaitlyn that she was to go to bed right after her bath that evening.
Kaitlyn turned to Justin as a soft touch, asking if she could watch television and indulge in a bit of ice cream before bedtime.
Justin compassionately acquiesced only for June to bark from a distance: 'Well don't listen to him! I've done told you to go to bed.'
With Kaitlyn out of the scene, the husband and wife began to fight - she accused him of being too lax and he insisted she was the one who was too stringent.
'I was able to make her take a bath, clean her room, if she had homework I could have got her to do her homework just by being able to empathize with her a little bit,' argued Justin, whom June met when she was in addiction recovery.
Justin became so frustrated at his inability to express an 'an opinion around here' that he flung a load of laundry to the floor and told June to do it herself.
In their next fight on the issue, June insisted she only wanted Kaitlyn to have 'normalcy' while Justin argued a little leniency was in order under the circumstances.
June was determined to retain guardianship of Kaitlyn, explaining that her resolve was based on her desire to honor Chickadee's memory
June and her new husband Justin Stroud were able to take Kaitlyn in - but tension soon flared up in the marriage over their differing parenting styles
All started well, with June and Justin taking the little girl shopping for school clothes and reflecting on the kind of student she would be
'I'm trying to raise maybe an A-B student, sometimes Cs, and not a teen mom,' she said: 'I did that with myself, and I did that with Pumpkin, and I did that with Anna'
Back home, however, sparks began to fly after June strictly instructed Kaitlyn that she was to go to bed right after her bath that evening
With Kaitlyn out of the scene, the husband and wife began to fight - she accused him of being too lax and he insisted she was the one who was too stringent
In their next fight on the issue, June insisted she only wanted Kaitlyn to have 'normalcy' while Justin argued a little leniency was in order under the circumstances
'Your "normalcy" is: "I run this s***. Y'all are on my time, and y'all do what I say," and nobody else has a say so,' Justin fumed.
Noting how wounded he was at the fact that June did not include him in her custody papers, he said: 'You sit there, you want me to raise a child, but you want to tell the child to her face that I don't have any say so.'
He maintained: 'I don't have a say so in this house. Like, do you want to raise Kaitlyn all by yourself? I do all of these things that it requires of a parent to do for a child. I'm not just your driver, because that's how I feel. I'm just here because it's convenient.'
When June floated the idea of 'counseling,' he raged: 'F*** you and counseling! I'm not going to keep investing into somebody who thinks she's above everybody else.'
Mama June: Family Crisis airs on Fridays on WE tv.
