Tamar Braxton makes her first public appearance following the passing of her older sister Traci Braxton. The singer was a guest host on “Dish Nation” on April 20.
Last month, in a joint statement shared by the Braxton family, it was revealed that Traci succumbed to her battle with esophageal cancer at the age of 50. Following the statement, it was reported that Traci had been battling the disease for a year before her death on March 12.
During Tamar’s appearance on “Dish Nation,” the “Love and War” vocalist paid tribute to her late sister as she opened up about how her family is coping following Traci’s passing. She said, “The truth is my family is really hanging in there. It’s been very difficult, as you can imagine. We were just there with her by her side ’til the end.”
The conversation then shifted to the recent celebration her family had on April 2, on what would have been Traci’s 51st birthday. Tamar disclosed why the family held a celebratory event for Traci on “her heavenly birthday” rather than a funeral because she requested it.
“The celebration of life as you guys saw wasn’t actually a celebration of life. It was actually her heavenly birthday. My sister was very particular, and she didn’t want a funeral. She didn’t want anything where everyone was going to be sad.”
Tamar wrapped up the conversation by mentioning the hummingbird locket all of her sisters have filled with Traci’s ashes.
The 45-year-old said, “We also all as sisters have hummingbird lockets. It’s a locket because her ashes are actually in it. We all have one. The reason being is because she wanted to go everywhere we all went. Even if I don’t have it on, it’s in my purse. It’s in my bag, it’s close to me.”
She added, while bringing up the significance behind the hummingbird, which stemmed from Traci’s love for the bird. “So she had five hummingbirds on her back to represent each one of her sisters… So she wanted to be a hummingbird, and she looked at us as hummingbirds. Here’s to my forever angel hummingbird.”
Following her appearance, Tamar also shared the clip on her Instagram page with the caption, “Told you, Trace, because we promised you.. and It is also my honor to take you EVERYWHERE we go just like you asked! even to @dishnation I miss you every single second.”
Tamar’s interview comes weeks after it was reported that the Braxton family felt that Traci’s husband, Kevin Surratt, and her former manager were exploiting her death by having a public memorial service.
It was also reported that none of the Braxton sisters attended the service on March 31, despite being invited by Surratt.
