Very sad news this week out of the reality television world.
Mary Schmucker — a former TLC reality star often dubbed as “Mama” — has been moved to hospice care amid her ongoing cancer battle, according to the cable network personality’s daughter-in-law, Rebecca Schmucker.
Rebecca shared a photo of Mary via Instagram on Wednesday, November 13 and made a plea to Breaking Amish fans … asking for well wishes while also providing an unfortunate update on Mary’s condition.
“I’m making a prayer request for mom,” Rebecca wrote as a caption at the time.
“She’s not feeling good the last few weeks and can’t keep anything down and she’s having trouble eating. She is on hospice now. Her pain has been so bad and they are helping with that.
“If you could, flood her with positive messages and pray for her to be comfortable and pain free. Thank you.”
Schmucker appeared on both Breaking Amish and Return to Amish, alongside son Abe and daughter-in-law Rebecca.
She was initially a recurring cast member, although she remained on the show following Abe and Rebecca’s departure because she became a rather big fan-favorite.
Hence the number of sorrowful comments left this week on Rebecca’s Instagram picture and affiliated statement.
“Stay strong! Holding you in the light and wishing you a swift recovery,” wrote one follower, while another added:
“Stay strong. the world is praying for you. We Love you.”
On March 10, 2022, Mary confirmed that she was leaving Breaking Amish after several seasons.
“I am not coming back on TV, but a lot of the others went back. I would love to come back on TV, but there’s too many issues that won’t work for me,” the Pennsylvania native said back then.
“I would like to come back, but come back as we are doing now. I feel we should do a story like what happened after the show, where we are now and what happened to us, so people know, but they don’t want to do that.”
A month later, Mary announced she was scheduled for colon cancer surgery.
While the procedure seemingly went smoothly, Mary’s condition later took a turn for the worse, as Schmucker noted in the summer of 2022.
“When I did my surgery, they said they got all of the cancer. Two weeks later they called me and said, ‘You have to come in right away.’” Mary wrote on Facebook about two and a half years ago.
“Now they tell me, I have stage three cancer, almost stage four. Chemo will not help on stage four. So, why should I even do chemo? But I’m not taking their word for it; I’m going for a second opinion.”
We can’t say for certain what that second opinion came back with, but we’ll be keeping Mary Schmucker and her loved ones in our prayers.