Dog the Bounty Hunter star “Baby Lyssa” Chapman took to social media to share a heartfelt message for her late stepmother, Beth Chapman, who died in June at the age of 51 after a battle with cancer. On Christmas evening, Lyssa Chapman, 32, shared an old photo of Beth wearing a fur jacket and fur hat while smiling for the camera.
“Nothing is the same without you,” Chapman captioned the photo. “Merry Christmas in Heaven @mrsdog4real … I bet you have the biggest tree ever.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
Fans immediately took to the comments section of the post to send Chapman well wishes and support.
View this post on Instagram
“May the Lord Bless you and your family and give you comfort and peace. You are not alone, you have a lot of people who love you and care about you, most important, the Lord loves you and cares about you and your family. Hope you had a Merry Christmas,” one Instagram user wrote.
“and the prettiest, brightest and most badass tree in the heavens, you can count on it! Hugs to you xoxo,” another said.
“I bet Mrs Dog has the biggest tree up in heaven too with beautiful ornaments & lights,” someone else wrote.
“My heart n prayers go out to baby lyssa . I know it hurts been there not good. But they say, time, heals all wounds,” one person wrote.
“Merry first Christmas in heaven Beth ,enjoy with the birthday boy,” someone said.
“So missed,” another said.
“Love this! She loved you all soo much,” one wrote.
“We all have an empty spot in our hearts!” someone else wrote.
Alongside photos she shared celebrating Christmas with her family, Chapman also thanked her “Twitter family” for the words of support. “My Twitter family makes me feel like I have a whole other family. Thank you all, your words and kindness mean the world to me,” she wrote with a heart emoji.
On her Instagram Story, Chapman reshared a post from a Dog the Bounty Hunter fan account asking fans to keep the Chapman family in their thoughts and prayers amid the family’s first Christmas without Beth.
Family patriarch Duane “Dog” Chapman, 66, opened up to Entertainment Tonight recently about the family’s plans for the holidays.
For the holidays, probably half of us, including me, will be in Colorado, and then the other half is in Hawaii, and of course Leland [Chapman] is in Alabama,” he explained. “So this year, everybody’s all spread out.”
But that doesn’t mean they’re skipping out on Beth’s traditions.
“Beth was old style, old-fashioned. So, you know, that means the tree and the presents. All the stockings hung up… so I’m trying to keep that exact tradition,” Chapman said. “I’ve got it all decorated. All the stockings are hung. We always left — when the kids were young — cookies for Santa, and I think I’ll do that this year also.”
“Every little ball that’s on the tree, every ornament, you know, there’s 20 years plus of ornaments on that tree, so as I hung [them], I remembered where and when we bought each one,” he added, saying there was plenty of singing going on in the Chapman households, even if it is a bit melancholy.
“Beth knew every single [Christmas song], and she made us all listen to Christmas songs like two weeks before Christmas,” he recalled. “As we decorated the tree, she’d put on Christmas songs. Every night before we went to bed she’d put them on. So I think the girls are taking it the hardest without being able to sing with mom.”
