Evelyn Braxton Reflects On Losing Daughter Traci: ‘There’s A Time You Have To Let Go For Their Sake’

Watching your child die before you has to be a gut-wrenching type of pain. It’s unfortunately one Evelyn Braxton, 75, is familiar with as she lost her daughter, singer and TV personality Traci Braxton, to cancer. During her visit with the Smitty and Dee podcast on August 11, she spoke about her grieving process.

“You don’t know that pain until you experience it,” she said. “However, I thank God for the years that God gave me with Traci and Traci with me.” 

She continued, “I have no complaints. None. I would prefer that she would go and rest in the bosom of God than to suffer. I think sometimes, as parents, we want them around so we can hug them and see them, and we become selfish. Am I still grieving? Absolutely… because I carried her those nine months, but there’s a time you have to let go for their sake.”

Traci died from esophageal cancer at the age of 50 in March 2022. 

“I think everyone has to grieve in their own way. I can’t tell you how to grieve. You have to figure it out. Because my grieving may not touch, and no one can tell you when to stop. It’s none of their business, and it’s not their right. You will figure it out,” she added.

Traci was a prominent personality on the hit series Braxton Family Values, which first aired in 2011. The show also included her sisters, Grammy-winning artist Toni Braxton, as well as Towanda, Trina and Tamar Braxton. The tight-knit sisters were crushed by the loss of Traci and have all been processing their grief in different ways. In March this year, they marked one year since her passing. 

The Braxton sisters are also keeping Traci’s memory alive through a symbol that all the sisters share. 

“We, all the sisters, have a hummingbird locket, and it’s a locket because her ashes are actually in it,” Tamar said on Dish Nation last year. “We all have one and the reason being is because she wanted to go everywhere we went.”

The TV personality and singer loved hummingbirds—so much that she had five hummingbird tattoos on her back. 

“She wanted to be a hummingbird and she looked at us as hummingbirds. So, here’s to my forever angel hummingbird,” she said.