Leo Francis Mackey

On April 7, Leo Francis, Rory Marí and Danni Christine joined us on this earth. Their arrival was miraculous and beautiful, and hope and love never seemed to us so unending. On April 18, 12 days later, our little Leo, following his brave battle with a sudden and terrible intestinal infection, passed away. He had been born healthy and full of energy and life that were magnetic, and we, like the doctors and nurses, were shocked by what happened. We held him in our arms as he died, and as we had tried to say every minute of his brief life, had the privilege of telling him again we loved him. We will never forget him. Below are a few photos of him taken within a few days of his birth.

We are posting here a link to the video of the service held for Leo on April 25. Our goal with this service was to honor Leo, to provide some small measure of our love for him in a gift of remembrance that his sisters could one day view, and to stand together with our family and friends who have been so kind to us and so thoughtful of Leo, Rory and Danni throughout this tumultuous time and who themselves are mourning. The reason we videotaped this service was to share it with his sisters one day, and we post it here only for those who might value viewing it now.

Service for Leo Francis Mackey

We will never be able to thank sufficiently all those who have reached out to us with love, kindness and support. Please accept our meager thank you knowing it is far from the depth of feeling with which we express it to you. We have formed a charitable fund, the Leo Francis Mackey Memorial Fund, for those who would like to make a donation in his name. All funds will be donated to young children in need. The address and tax ID information are below.

The speakers in this service are
Timothy Dugan, Bucknell University campus chaplain and family friend
Kurt Thiede, Bucknell vice president for admissions and family friend
David Bonheimer, longtime family friend
Matt Quinn, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and family friend

We are grateful to them for the wisdom and presence of love they brought to this service.

We also are grateful to the singers, musicians and performers who beautified this service with their talents. Their names are shown in the program preceding the video. A special thanks to the Bucknell University Rooke Chapel Ringers and composer and conductor Bill Payn; Steve Gibson, a friend and colleague at Bucknell who kindly videotaped this service; and friends at Bucknell who prepared this video for viewing. Finally, our thanks to the community of Bucknell University that has reached out to us so warmly throughout these days.

The Leo Francis Mackey Memorial Fund
c/o Sam Lundquist
Office of Development
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
Tax ID (all contributions are tax deductible): 26-4738082

We will soon post on this blog photos of Rory and Danni, and have decided for the time being to continue it with updates of the progress of our daughters. Rory and Danni are doing well, and we expect to be welcoming them home from the NICU soon. Our enduring thanks to the devoted caretakers at the NICU, who have given our children such loving attention.