‘I know how much I was loved’: a woman with cancer from New York herself announced her death on social networks

A Brooklyn girl announced her death in a heartbreaking social media post. She wrote it so that her friends and family would know how “deeply” she loves them, reports the New York Post.

Casey McIntyre, 38, died Sunday, November 12, of ovarian cancer. She worked as a publisher at Razorbill, part of Penguin Random House, which publishes books for children and young adults.

“Note to my friends: if you are reading this, it means I am dead,” began her touching Instagram message. It was accompanied by a series of photos of McIntyre smiling surrounded by loved ones, particularly her husband Andrew Gregory and their 18-month-old daughter Grace.

“I loved each of you with all my heart and, believe me, I knew how deeply I was loved,” she said, noting that the last five months she spent in hospice with her family and friends were “magical.”

Words I never got around to saying

Gregory noted that, unfortunately, the post had to be cut short due to the deterioration of her health: “Casey wanted to end this post with a list of values ​​​​that comforted and pleased her during life, and it breaks my heart that I will never see this list”.

He imagined his wife would include their “daughter Grace, whales, ice cream, her favorite friends, being at the beach, nieces and nephews she loved dearly, reading 10 books on a weeklong vacation, her beloved parents, her sister.” and their amazing big family, swimming, the perfect roast beef sandwich and me, her sweet, sweetie.”

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He asked McEntire’s friends to comment on the comfort or joy they shared with her. The message, having received thousands of likes and hundreds of touching comments, quickly went viral.

“Oh Casey!!!! I don’t know how we’ll cope without you, but we will,” Gregory wrote.

On Wednesday, November 15, the widower updated his wife’s Instagram page with screenshots of an obituary he posted from his own account, in which he described his wife as a loved one and an “avid New Yorker.”

“She took great pleasure in publishing books for a new generation of readers and saw herself in every child sprawled on the sofa, rug or bunk bed, engrossed in their latest book obsession,” her obituary said.

A story of life, love and struggle

McEntire was born on February 1, 1985, and grew up in Upper Manhattan and Tenafly, New Jersey, before attending Agnes Scott College in Georgia.

In 2015, she and Gregory got married, and in 2019, during an in vitro fertilization procedure, she was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer.

“In January 2020, I had a major operation, during which everything that was affected by cancer was removed – a complete hysterectomy, that is, part of the spleen, part of the liver, part of the lung. That was the scariest part,” Casey said some time later.

“I feel more hopeful now. Doing IVF at the same time as cancer treatment made me realize that women go through a lot of difficult things and don’t talk about them as much.” Grace was born to the couple in April 2022.

Forever in the hearts of loved ones

Her family fondly recalled that McEntire “always knew which boutiques sold the best magazines, which restaurants were the best places to see celebrities during lunch, and gave every new New Yorker advice: be sure to buy a coat that covers your butt, because that’s where you lose a lot of heat.”

However, “her greatest gifts and joys were her generous wit, easy laugh, devotion to family and friends, and amazing determination and resilience.”

She was treated by a “top-notch” medical team in New York City, and she is especially grateful to her “nurses who, for better or worse, told her she could check in and then wait for her chemotherapy to start while dining on shrimp cocktail at PJ Clarke’s.” .

A memorial service is scheduled for Dec. 2 at the Prospect Park Boathouse. Mourners can honor McIntyre by anonymously purchasing medical debts and then paying them off anonymously through the charity RIP Medical Debt. As of November 15, more than $44,000 has been raised.