Warning: This article contains discussion of child loss which some readers may find distressing
Actor and comedian Rob Delaney has said that he 'loves' to talk about his son Henry, who sadly died at the age of two after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Delaney has been very open and honest about his son in the past, saying that it was the 'heaviest pain in the world' and that his family 'sank inside' themselves when it happened.
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Henry's tumour was discovered on 27 April, 2016, the day after Delaney won a BAFTA for Catastrophe, and Rob had recounted in his book A Heart That Works how the first symptoms came up when the boy was 11 months old.
"Grief drove a bus through the part of my brain where memories are stored," Delaney said, and has also said that if the opportunity arises he would like to die in the the room his son passed away in.
"Henry opened his eyes and looked into Leah’s eyes around five the next morning. Then he died," Delaney wrote in his book about the moment his son died.
"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.
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"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."
He told Desert Island Discs that he told his landlord that should the house ever be sold, he'd like to know first so he could buy it.
"So when I'm 81 I can crawl in here and die. In the same room that my son died in, that my other son was born in," Delaney said of his desire to buy the house.
Appearing on Today with Hoda & Jenna, Rob explained his view on speaking about Henry.
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He said: "I love to talk about him. He’s my son, I’m his dad. His brothers miss him, his mum misses him, and he’s part of our family, so I don’t know how to not talk about him."
"Henry was better than other children. And he was so funny and his brain tumour was in the back of his head near his brain stem, so it brought him a lot of physical disabilities ‘cause that stuff is controlled back there.
"But his frontal lobe was fine so he was very funny and smart and charming and gorgeous and flirty and silly and brilliant. He learned sign language cause he couldn’t talk cause he had a tracheostomy."
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Joe Harker