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Rob Delaney has said he wants to buy the house where his son died so he can die there too.
The actor and his wife Leah's two-year-old son, Henry, passed away in January 2018 at the age of two, following two years of treatment for a brain tumor.
Delaney asked the property owner to let her know if he would ever sell the house so she could buy it from him.
Speaking on Radio 4 Desert Island Discs On a television show, the American comedian said he wanted to buy the house “so that when I’m 81 I can crawl in here and die. In the same room that my son died in, that my other son was born in.”
Delaney said he and Leah told their son they were expecting another child before he died.
“He needed to know that his family who loved him was alive and growing up and that there was someone we were going to tell about him,” she said. Catastrophe said the star.
We knew they would not overlap physically on this Earth, even though Henry's younger brother was born in the same room Henry died in, our living room.”
Delaney had previously spoken about Henry's diagnosis, his time in the hospital and his death in her book, A heart that works.
Henry first showed symptoms of a brain tumor at 11 months old, when he began vomiting repeatedly.
Delaney said doctors told her they suspected she had a tumor on April 27, 2016, the day after she won a Bafta award for Catastrophe with co-writer Sharon Horgan.
Describing the day he and Leah received the MRI results, Delaney said it was “the worst pain in the world.”
“The pain sent a bus through the part of my brain where memories are stored,” Delaney said.
“After the MRI, Dr. Anson confirmed that Henry had a large tumor at the back of his head, near the brain stem. He calmly broke the news to us, and ended by saying that a pediatric neurosurgeon would be in to see us in a few hours.
“We sank inside ourselves. I felt the most intense pain in the world. I felt like I had suddenly quadrupled my weight and that a black, oily whirlpool began to spin where my heart had been.”
Henry underwent surgery to remove the tumour and was able to return home in June 2017. However, a follow-up scan in September found the cancer had returned.
Recalling the family’s final days with Henry, Delaney said, “I slept with him and Leah held him and danced with him. His brothers read to him and played with him.”
The boy passed away peacefully at home in January 2018.
“There were only five of us in the house. Five people who loved and needed each other. Henry opened his eyes and looked into Leah’s eyes around five the next morning. Then he died,” Delaney writes.
“I am so happy that Henry died at home. I am so happy that he died in the arms of his beautiful mother, who loved him desperately.
“I'm so happy that he lay down between us afterwards and we were able to kiss him, hug him and stroke his beautiful long sandy blonde hair.”
