Rob Delaney Pens Emotional Essay in Wake of 2-Year-Old Son’s Death

Eight months after his son Henry passed away following a battle with brain cancer, Catastrophe star Rob Delaney is hoping to help fellow parents of sick children by offering a heart-wrenching glimpse into his own family’s ordeal.

On Tuesday, eight months after announcing that his 2-year-old son had lost his battle to cancer, Rob Delaney reminded parents with sick children that “someone understood and cared,” sharing an excerpt from a book he began writing after learning of his son’s diagnosis in 2016.

In the emotional essay, the 41-year-old Catastrophe star recalls his son’s 2-year battle with brain cancer, detailing the multiple doctors’ visits after he and his wife Leah noticed Henry frequently vomiting. Although initially diagnosed as a urinary tract infection or gastrointestinal issue, an MRI on Henry’s brain revealed that he had ependymoma, a tumor, on his posterior fossa and wrapped around cranial nerves.

Surgery to remove the tumor left Henry with “Bell’s palsy and the lazy left eye,” as well as hearing loss in his left ear. A tracheotomy tube also had to be inserted to keep saliva from infecting his lungs, which prevented him from speaking.

“My wife recently walked in on me crying and listening to recordings of him babbling, from before his diagnosis and surgery. I’d recorded his brothers doing Alan Partridge impressions and Henry was in the background, probably playing with the dishwasher, and just talking to himself, in fluent baby,” Delaney wrote. “F–ing music, oh my God I want to hear him again.”

Henry’s condition meant months-long stays in the hospital, and while Delaney noted at the time that he “may wish Henry wasn’t in the hospital,” he was “always, always happy to enter the hospital every morning and see him.”

“When he smiles,” Delaney added, “forget about it. A regular baby’s smile is wonderful enough. When a sick baby with partial facial paralysis smiles, it’s golden. Especially if it’s my baby.”

Delaney’s excerpt stopped there. After learning that his son’s tumor had returned and he only had months to live, Delaney stopped his writing to focus on being with his son, and the book was never published.

“I stopped writing when we saw the new, bad MRI. My wife and his brothers and I just wanted to be with him around the clock and make sure his final months were happy. And they were,” Delaney said.

“The reason I’m putting this out there now is that the intended audience for this book was to be my fellow parents of very sick children,” he added. “They were always so tired and sad, like ghosts, walking the halls of the hospitals, and I wanted them to know someone understood and cared.”

Henry lost his battle to cancer in January, Delaney making the heartbreaking announcement in a Facebook post just a month later.

In June, five month’s after Henry’s death, Delaney revealed that he and his wife were expecting their fourth child.