Three weeks before Jessica Li was due to give birth, her fiancé Cagney Wenk was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer in the brain.
Birth photographer and videographer Sarah Boccolucci was connected to the family via Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, an organization that connects volunteer photographers with families who have lost their babies to provide “remembrance photography”.
“We have all the love in the world around us right now”
“While this type of session isn’t what we typically volunteer for with the organization, it was just as important and emotional,” Boccolucci wrote in her Facebook post.
Wenk was being treated in the same hospital (Boulder Community Hospital), and travelled from the ICU to the delivery room to witness the birth of his son. Boccolucci’s video captures the heartrending and beautiful experience the couple went through as they welcomed their son Levon into the world.
According to The Huffington Post, Wenk had been experiencing headaches for three days before he was diagnosed with cancer, and is currently undergoing radiation and chemotherapy.
His nurses in the ICU, where he was recuperating from brain surgery, were the ones who reached out to Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.
Dad with cancer won’t miss his son’s birth: “There were so many tears, emotions and so much LOVE!”
Photo: Jessica Li/Facebook
“The video was really for the family to have it as a memory of a magical moment,” Wenk’s sister Marissa told The Huffington Post. “I think the video shows it all with their reactions. There were so many tears, emotions and so much LOVE!”
Boccolucci’s Facebook post encourages viewers to donate to the young family’s GiveForward campaign. “It is my hope that people will see the video, feel the love this family shares, and help lift them up and make a donation if they are able,” the photographer told The Huffington Post.
