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Haley Parke of Tolland wrote her post on Saturday, Dec. 4, two days after her 33-year-old husband JB died from complications from cancer and the birth of her second son on the same day.
The story begins when JB was admitted to Hartford Hospital and was told he had just days to live.
At the time, Parke was three weeks away from giving birth to the couple's second son.
Thinking she had to do something and saying she couldn't let her husband die without seeing their son, the young mother wrote she met with a team of intensive care doctors and the head of high-risk labor and delivery about inducing labor.
The doctors agreed, and within a matter of minutes she was whisked to an operating room, but not before she kissed her "sweet" husband goodbye and told him to hold on, "he said he would," Parke wrote.
About 20 minutes after being wheeled into the operating room, Parke wrote their son was born on Dec. 2, just hours before JB died.
Right after the delivery, “He was given to me for a quick kiss, and then a team of doctors and nurses ran him up two floors, and he was placed on his daddy’s chest,” Parke wrote. “The miracle of all this? When our baby was placed on Jb’s chest, Jb’s vitals all instantly improved.”
Following the surgery, Parke was wheeled up to her husband's room where he lay with the tiny baby on his chest.
“I spent my recovery time gazing at my husband. I was gazing at him in sadness, but in awe of his strength,” Parke wrote. “He took his last breaths with our son on his chest and my hand in his hand.”
Haley Parke wrote that delivering a baby three weeks early could have come with complications, which she was ready for, but instead, their son was delivered with fully developed lungs at 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and 20 inches long.
“I acted out of love,” Parke wrote in the Facebook post.
With her husband's illness, the couple had not picked out any baby names, but Parke wrote there was only one name for her new son John Beeson Parke, he'll be called Jb, she wrote after his father.
“Welcome to the world baby Jb,” Parke wrote. “Your story is truly a miracle.”
According to her husband's obituary, the family is asking for donations to the family, the children’s college fund, or to Simmons Kidney Cancer Research.
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