JoAnna Garcia Swisher Says Her ‘Sweet Magnolias’ Co-Stars Became Her Support System Following The Death Of Her Mother

etcanada.com:

JoAnna Garcia Swisher is grateful for her “Sweet Magnolias” family. Back in May, the actress posted a photo of herself with co-stars while filming season two of the Netflix series, writing that the show has “blessed me, saved me, and brought me so much joy.” Now, she tells ET Canada’s Carlos Bustamante, “Sweet Magnolias” has helped her through her darkest times. “I lost my mom and my dad in the last couple of years, so it’s blessed me in that I get to do what I love and I get to do a show that people have enjoyed, which is such a gift,” she explains. “It’s saved me because I have felt so enveloped, and my mom passed two weeks before the season.

We started filming season two and they just carried me through in so many ways. And it’s just been. The exact right story to tell in the right moment in my life.” “I don’t take it for granted and I’m so grateful for it and I tell them all the time,” she tells ET Canada. READ MORE: New Loves And Old Secrets Shake Things Up In ‘Sweet Magnolias’ Season 2 Trailer Swisher, 41, says her co-stars and crew knew what she was going through on set and allowed her the space to grieve as she needed. “You know, it was never lost on anybody, what I was experiencing on a personal level, but I never had to you know, suck it up,” she says. “I never had to compartmentalize, I was allowed to mourn and I was allowed to celebrate joy, and I was allowed the space to be taken care of when I needed it and to not, you know, think about it when I needed to just not think about it for a minute.

So it was all of the things.” For Swisher, it was “exactly what you hope for and a support system when you’re experiencing something really traumatic and painful.