A year after the death of their 9-month-old daughter on Christmas Eve, CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski and Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Ensign have welcomed a new member to their family: daughter Talia Davida Kaczynski.
She was born Thursday, Kaczynski announced on social media – 13 months after the couple lost their first daughter, Francesca “Beans” Kaczynski, to a rare and aggressive form of pediatric brain cancer on Dec. 24, 2020.
“She was named with the Hebrew name of her big sister Beans. We love her endlessly,” Kaczynski tweeted Saturday. “We love how much she looks like her big sister she’s named for,” he added, sharing side-by-side photos of Francesca and Talia. “My heart is so full knowing she’s Beans’ sister.”
Baby Francesca died on Christmas Eve. Here’s what her parents learned about life, loss and hope.
Kaczynski and Ensign learned in the fall of 2020 that Francesca’s illness was serious, he recalled in an interview with USA TODAY last month. Francesca was diagnosed with atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, which is the most common form of brain cancer in infants, but because of its overall rarity, the drugs available to help Francesca were both few and toxic.
Kaczynski felt compelled to share his daughter’s fight, both the good days and bad, on social media. He posted updates and photos and videos throughout her final months, including a simple statement along with a smiling photo of their “Beans” on Christmas Day 2020, announcing her death.
‘We’re heartbroken’: CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski reveals 9-month-old daughter died on Christmas Eve
“It’s been a pretty terrible year, I’ll be honest,” Kaczynski, a reporter with CNN’s investigative unit, KFile, told USA TODAY. “Fundraising has given me purpose, but emotionally, losing a child to cancer, you feel so empty and painful. It’s like this void you want to forget.”
The couple turned to fundraising to keep their daughter’s legacy alive. He ran the Boston Marathon to raise money to start the Infant Brain Tumor Program at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, whose doctors treated Francesca. They’ve raised $1.87 million. Kaczynski plans on running the marathon and fundraising for Team Beans again this year, he announced last week.
“Francesca won’t get to grow up, but she gets to live on through this,” he added. “Her death is always going to be the lens through which I view life. I’ll never be the same.”
“I do feel I’m now a kinder person, because now I realize you never know what someone else may be going through, and Francesca gave me that gift,” he said.
Kaczynski said he used to be afraid of dying, but “Francesca died, so now I can die. Wherever she went, that’s where I get to go. It’s such a peaceful thing to think about. When it’s my time to die, I know I’ll think, ‘I get to go be with Francesca now.’ So I don’t stress things anymore.”
More on grief: How to help kids cope with loss of a loved one during the holidays
