By Stephanie Wenger and Elissa Rosen

Eldridge Toney is opening up about how he has kept a close bond with his stepdaughters nearly two years after his late wife Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell's death.

Toney tells PEOPLE that "the main thing that's really kept me going" is his relationship with stepdaughters Kylee, 9, and Kaitlyn, 12, since Cardwell's death from stage 4 adrenal carcinoma in December 2023.

"If I have any opportunity to kind of make their lives better, even if it's just a little bit, I'm going to do my best to do that," he shares. "Because I know that's what Anna would have wanted. I've been in their lives for this long. There's no point in me leaving just because Anna's gone. Like I'm not, I'm not stepping out of the picture."

Toney says he is reminded of his late wife when spending time with the girls.

"Every time I see them, I feel like she would be so proud of [the] stuff they've accomplished and how they're growing and just learning more every day," he says.

Toney admits that he still thinks of Cardwell often, nearly two years after her death.

"I've been having better memories of everything because at first, everything was fresh," he recalls. "All you think about and remember is just the cancer portion of it. But now that it's been so long, you start remembering all the good times."

When asked what he missed most about his late wife, he says, "Just our conversations, just talking and just being in each other's presence and just being there and just little silly things that we would talk about and joke around about and just spontaneous things that we would do."

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