Rob Delaney opened up to the world about the struggle of coping with the loss of a child during the holidays on a Twitter thread Christmas Day.
The “Catastrophe” star and comedian, who is an active social media user, lost his son Henry, 2, to a brain tumor back in January, but he is hardly forgotten. On Tuesday, Delaney spoke about spending his first Christmas without him.
“Our first Christmas without Henry came & went,” he wrote. "The day itself was okay, maybe because there were so many horrible, painful days leading up to it; we must have hit our quota or something. We talked about him a lot & included his memory throughout the day.”
"I speak publicly about Henry in an effort to destigmatize grief," he continued. "My family is sad & in pain because our beautiful 2 yr old boy died after a long illness. Why wouldn’t we be sad? Why wouldn’t we be angry and confused?"
“Tweets like this aren’t therapeutic to me, nor are they ‘updates,’” he went on. "I just want other bereaved parents & siblings to feel seen/heard/respected/loved. And maybe they might help someone not schooled in grief support a friend better. I don’t know.”
“My sweet boy,” he wrote simply in the last part of the thread, along with a photo of Henry.
Delaney, who has two other sons with his wife, Leah, has been vocal about losing Henry in the 11 months since he passed, often writing about him.
In April, on what would’ve been Henry's third birthday, Delaney encouraged people to donate to charity in his son’s honor. On Father’s Day, he also expressed his sympathy to other parents who’ve lost children.
"This is the first Father’s Day since my beautiful Henry died," Delaney wrote. "Love today to all dads & moms who’ve lost a child."
In early July, however, he did share some happy news when he revealed that he and Leah are expecting a baby.