A Brooklyn mother announced her own death Tuesday in an Instagram post both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
Casey McIntyre, 38, a publisher at Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House, died Sunday of ovarian cancer. However, before McIntyre passed, she wrote a message for all her friends, family and followers on Instagram.
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“A note to my friends: if you’re reading this it means I have passed away,” McIntyre wrote in her post. “I’m so sorry, it’s horseshit and we both know it. The cause was a recurrence of my previously diagnosed stage four ovarian cancer.”
The heart-wrenching announcement was paired with photos of McIntyre and her family, her husband Andrew Gregory, and their 18-month-old daughter, Grace.
“I loved each and every one of you with my whole heart and I promise you, I knew how deeply I was loved,” she wrote.
The last months of McIntyre’s life were spent in home hospice, where she was able to enjoy the comfort of her family, according to her post. Despite her terminal illness, she described those last few months as “magical.”
McIntyre’s husband updated her Instagram profile with screenshots of an obituary he shared following her death. (RELATED: Tennis Legend Asks For Support As Wife Battles Life-Threatening Disease)
“She derived great joy from publishing books for a new generation of readers, and saw herself in every child sprawled out on a couch, rug, or bunk bed engrossed in their latest book obsession,” the obituary read.
McIntyre’s was supposed to be longer, but her illness prevented her from completing it. Her husband included an editor’s note:
“Casey meant to finish this post with a list of things that were a comfort & a joy to her during her life, and I am heartbroken that I will never see that list. As she grew sicker she couldn’t finish it. I imagine it would’ve included our daughter Grace, whales, ice cream, her beloved friends, being at the beach, her niece and nephews she incorrigibly doted on, reading 10 books on a weeklong vacation, her beloved parents and sister and their amazing extended family, swimming, a perfect roast beef sandwich, and me, her sweet sweet honey.”
McIntyre was born on February 1, 1985, according to the New York Post. She married Gregory in 2015 and in 2022 gave birth to their beloved daughter, Grace.
A memorial service will commence December 2 at the Prospect Park Boathouse, the outlet reported.