It's hard to believe a year has passed since the death of Beth Chapman.
The beloved wife of Dog the Bounty Hunter, aka Duane Chapman, lost her battle with throat cancer in June 2019. The time has gone by in a blink of an eye. It's clear to see Beth's death still weighs heavily on the hearts of those who loved her most.
Among those people is her daughter, 27-year-old Cecily Chapman. Recently, fans have been marveling at just how much Cecily looks like her mom. A new selfie had fans taken aback as Cecily channeled some of Beth's signature style choices.
Cecily has kept Beth's memory close. She admitted that she can sometimes feel her mom's presence with her. The beautiful Hawaiian celebration of Beth's life on the anniversary of her death was one of those times. It's those moments that help Cecily move through her mourning and enjoy her own life.
Cecily Chapman is doing everything she can to keep her mom's memory alive. It's been just over a year since Beth Chapman, wife of Duane "Dog" Chapman, lost her battle with throat cancer. Understandably, the year has been a tough one for her family.
Cecily recently surprised fans with a selfie in which she bore a striking resemblance to Beth. In the recently posted picture, Cecily wears a crocodile-skin halter top. The animal print was paired with curls in her blonde hair and a well-outlined glossy lip.
Fans were truly floored by the resemblance.
"Wow girl you are your mom's mini 100%," one commenter wrote.
"All I see is Beth ♥️," added another.
Over the summer, Cecily gathered with other family members in Hawaii to remember Beth on the one-year anniversary of her death. The experience was emotional for Cecily, as she revealed to The Sun.
"I feel like the whole way up until that day, I felt sad," she shared.
"I thought a lot about planning it and making it perfect for her, making the best flowers," she continued.
"It was definitely something I worked on all month long just to make sure that it was perfect."
Her focus on organizing helped keep her mind off the pain of Beth's absence.
"Then when the day came, I was really focused on what was going on. So it was kind of a bittersweet distraction," she explained.
"I was constantly on the move and I constantly had something to do all day. And that kind of got me through it."
Part of the memorial was a paddle out into the water for prayer and reflection. It was during that time that Cecily could feel Beth's presence strongly.
"When I got to the water for the paddle out and got in, I just felt this pure feeling, there was God's light coming from the clouds and felt like she [Beth] was there," she said.
That brought Cecily a lot of peace during the day's events.
"Mary, her best friend, in all of her photos has this little green light in the picture, like an aura or spirit, so we feel that was her," she said.
"You could definitely just feel her presence all through the day."
While the memorial was a success and a beautiful way to honor Beth, when everything was done, Cecily was still left with heaviness in her heart.
"Once it was all said and done it was a bittersweet feeling … I felt really sad because I didn't want it to be the one year already," she said.
"I felt like I was at peace but it has still taken me a while to share these pictures because I felt like it was just so precious to me at the time."
Cecily felt good about her decision to process on her own time, including sharing photos.
"Being a celebrity you can't always be so quick to post everything about your life," she said.
"Sometimes you have to just pause and ingest and comprehend everything yourself before you can share it with the world."
"Now I feel like it's time for me to share it with the world, just because everyone has their special place for her," she continued.
"And I want people to see that now I really tried to commemorate her in the best way, with the flower arrangements and everything that I did on my own.
"A lot of people didn't come, which is fine, but there were a lot of close friends and family there and we just had a really cute little private ceremony."
Cecily has been engaged to fiancé Matthew Smith for some time. Her grieving had her unsure of how to proceed with wedding plans because the pain of doing it without her mom there was too much to bear. Now she's starting to think ahead.
"I feel like it took me a year of grieving to reassure me that this is who I think I should be with because if he can put up with me at my best, my worst, then I feel like I should give him that shot," she said.
"I feel like he deserves it because he's been with me for thick and thin. And the fact that he slept by my side this whole time, just kind of reassuring me, as I struggled with my grief … If we can get through this and we're still totally in love, there's got to be something huge there."
Now that the one-year mark has passed, Cecily is ready to move on with the planning.
"I kind of promised myself after the one-year anniversary I have to move on and do what I need to do in order to grow," she said.
"So my goal is to get married next summer, but within the next two years for sure, depending on money, travel and everything. So yeah there could be two Chapman weddings and that would be very exciting."
