Losing a loved one to cancer can bring a family together, even if there had previously been arguments and disputes that had led to hurt feelings or worse. But while sometimes a family member’s illness can make things difficult, usually the family does come together at the end of a cancer journey. And that’s what’s happening in the Chapman family after their matriarch, the celebrated bounty hunter Beth Chapman, passed away at the end of June at age 51 after a long battle with cancer.
Beth's daughter, Bonnie, and step-daughter, Lyssa, both posted a photo of this memorial meant to honor Beth "Hawaii style."
On Sunday evening, Beth’s stepdaughter Lyssa, who had been feuding with Beth in the weeks leading up to her death, posted a never before seen photo on Instagram showing Beth, her husband Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman, his son Leland Chapman and other friends and family happily posing together in recent years. Lyssa (sitting in the picture’s foreground wearing a “Dog” t-shirt) captioned it simply with “Forever” and a heart emoji.
“May you all feel the peace and comfort that only He can provide,” wrote e_emmy_mom.
Within an hour of its posting, the photo had receive almost 13,000 “likes”.
It’s the latest conciliatory gesture from Lyssa, who’d been on the outs with Beth at the close of Beth’s life. By all accounts, Lyssa has been reeling since Beth’s death, in part perhaps because the two women do not appear to have settled their feud before Beth was put into a medically induced coma at the end of June, from which she never awoke.
Lyssa Chapman in her mugshot when she was arrested for harassment and property damage; and on the cover of her memoir.
The two women began feuding just after Mothers Day, when Beth expressed concern on Twitter that Lyssa (known to reality show fans as “Baby Lyssa”) did not acknowledge her on Mothers Day; did not invite Beth and Dog to Dog’s granddaughter Abbie’s high school graduation; and blocked Beth and Dog on social media. Lyssa denied the allegations and accused Beth of being an attention seeking liar. But Beth, despite her advancing illness and the pressures of filming her new reality show “Dog’s Most Wanted”, held her ground.
The dispute escalated when Beth (on Twitter) commented “Seriously who gives a f—??” regarding an article about Lyssa being a fan of the reality show “Naked and Afraid”.
Seriously who gives a fuck ?? Lyssa Chapman, Stepdaughter of Beth Chapman from ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’, Reveals Her Favorite ‘Naked and Afraid’ Contestant https://t.co/OmkYMcOwpB
It was after that comment that Lyssa retaliated by posting on Twitter taunting pictures of herself in a bikini with the comment “Looking for two f— to give” (a clear reference to Beth’s tweet). Lyssa declared herself a #milf (a vulgarity for a sexually attractive mother), this also presumably being a dig at Beth who at the time was seriously ill.
Lyssa Chapman posted taunting bikini pics of herself, which she took down as soon as Beth’s condition worsened.
Shortly afterward, when Beth was put into a medically induced coma, Lyssa took down the bikini pictures and posted instead a photo of her and Beth that showed kinship and love.
It was one of several pro-Beth gestures Lyssa made since Beth’s coma and subsequent death — she posted several loving pictures of her and Beth in recent days. And with Sunday night’s posting, she was making clear that old feuds have been set aside, and that what Lyssa will remember forever is the love and companionship she found in the Chapman clan.
Lyssa Chapman
Lyssa, known as Baby Lyssa, is Beth's stepdaughter and the ninth of Duane's 12 children (Lyssa's mother is Duane's third wife, Lyssa Rae Brittain). The granddaughter at the center of Lyssa's dispute with Beth is Lyssa's first daughter Abbie, who was born when Lyssa was only 15. The 24 year old father was arrested for statutory rape. Lyssa would later go on to marry and divorce a different man. She is now engaged to a woman with whom she operates a tanning salon in Hawaii.
Alyssa and her romantic partner, Leiana Evenson
Beth had been going through her cancer journey for a long time. She was first diagnosed with throat cancer in September of 2017, but she had surgery at the time and was declared cancer free. She was again diagnosed at the end of 2018, this time with Stage 4 lung cancer. Even though Beth was really open about the struggles of battling cancer in the public eye, she was not totally clear about how she is being treated.
Lyssa Chapman
On Mother's Day, in Beth's final public speaking appearance, Beth told congregants at the Source Church in Bradenton, Florida, that she is not undergoing chemotherapy and that she's really putting her faith in God as she battles the disease. "This is the ultimate test of faith," Beth said during the event. "It is the evidence of things hoped for, and it is the substance of things not known. And although chemotherapy is not my bag, people, sorry, that's not for me. So for me, this is the ultimate test of faith."
Beth is pensive behind the wheel in a publicity still from her new show “Dog’s Most Wanted”.
For a long time, chemotherapy was considered the standard of care for people with stage 4 lung cancer but times have changed over the past decade or so. Precision medicine, or matching treatment to the biology and characteristics of a specific tumor, has made major headway when it comes to treating advanced lung cancer. Targeted therapy seeks out very specific cancer cells and leaves the healthy cells alone. Chemotherapy tends to cause a lot of collateral damage because it kills all fast-growing cells both healthy and cancerous.
