‘Grief drove a bus through the part of my brain where memories are stored’: Rob Delaney opens up about son’s death
Rob Delaney has shared the devastating details of his late son Henry’s death from brain cancer.
The actor and his wife Leah’s son passed away in January 2018 at the age of two, following two years of treatment for a brain tumour.
Delaney opened up about Henry’s diagnosis, time in hospital and death in a poignant extract, published by The Times, from his forthcoming book, A Heart That Works.
Henry first showed symptoms of a brain tumour at 11 months old, when he began repeatedly vomiting.
Delaney said doctors told him they suspected a tumour on 27 April, 2016 – the day after he won a Bafta Award for comedy writing with Sharon Horgan.
Describing the day he and Leah received the results from the MRI scan, Delaney said it was “the heaviest pain in the world”.
“Grief drove a bus through the part of my brain where memories are stored,” Delaney said.
“After the MRI, Dr Anson confirmed that Henry had a large tumour in the back of his head, near his brain stem. He delivered the news calmly, and ended by saying a paediatric brain surgeon would come to see us within a few hours.
“We sank inside ourselves. The heaviest pain in the world. I felt like I had suddenly quadrupled in weight, and an oily, black whirlpool began to swirl where my heart had been.”
Henry underwent an operation to remove the tumour, and was able to move back home in June 2017. However, a follow-up scan in September found that the cancer had returned.
Recalling the family’s last few days with Henry, Delaney said: “I lay with him, and Leah held him and danced with him. His brothers read to him and played with him.”
The toddler passed away peacefully at home one morning in January 2018.
“It was just the five of us in the house. Five people who loved each other and needed each other. Henry opened his eyes and looked into Leah’s eyes around five the next morning. Then he died,” Delaney writes.
“I am so happy Henry died at home. I am so happy that he did so in the arms of his beautiful mother, who loved him desperately.
“I am so happy that he lay between us afterward and we could kiss and hold him and stroke his beautiful long, sandy-blond hair.”
