Man Dies Leaving 17-Month-Old Twins Fatherless — They Receive a Message from Him a Year Later

• After becoming a happy father of two, a man named Nick Keenan tragically passed away just over a year after his twins were born, leaving them fatherless at 17 months old.
• He was only 34 years old when he met his untimely demise.
• The devoted father of two ensured his presence would remain by leaving messages for his twins to last for years.

It was an ordinary day for the Keenan family; Victoria Keenan, 35, was at the gym, and her husband, Nick Keenan, had been on a business trip. However, Nick returned home early from his trip and announced that he was going to the hospital.

The unfortunate news he and his family received from his doctors changed their lives forever. According to his wife, Nick's doctors had located a lesion on the left side of his brain, specifically at the center of his frontal lobe, and it was the size of a tennis ball.

Victoria explained that the medical personnel tending to her husband's case told her that the lesion had been slow-growing and most likely appeared when Nick was born. Upon arriving at the hospital, Victoria recalled:

"When walked in the room and saw Nick had been crying, I knew something was wrong."

After receiving the devastating news, Nick underwent surgery then radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment, which worked successfully. Seeing this as a good sign, the couple went ahead with their plans to start a family. After going through IVF, they welcomed their twin girls. However, in December 2019, when their babies were just six months old, Nick's speech started to become slurred.

This prompted another visit to the doctor's office after celebrating Christmas. Victoria remarked that she had an eerie feeling that the 2019 holidays would be the last the family would be celebrating with Nick, so she had made quite the big event of the festive holiday.

Three months later, the family discovered Nick's tumor had developed into a glioblastoma, fast-growing and spreading cancerous cells in the brain that become extremely difficult to remove as soon as they have extended to other parts of the brain.

After being told that he would have less than a year to live, Nick underwent additional rounds of treatment and was even considered for a clinical trial before his doctors informed him that there was nothing that they could do. One night in November, Nick lost consciousness and was rushed to a hospice, where he sadly passed away the next morning. Victoria spoke of his last moments and what she did following the tragedy:

"My parents dropped everything to look after the girls... and I slept in a bed in the same room as Nick at the hospice, head to toe with his mum. I believe the last thing he remembered was being at home with his family. He never really knew he went into the hospice... I came home at 6 a.m., washed, and carried on being mummy to our 17-month-old daughters, knowing that daddy wasn't with us anymore."

The Special Surprise Nick Arranged Before His Passing

Victoria described her loving husband as a rock and a solid support system for everyone who knew him, especially for her. As an incredibly strong individual, Nick even continued to go to work throughout his radiotherapy and chemotherapy sessions.

On top of that, he managed to support Victoria during their IVF trials fully. According to his devoted wife, Nick was an incredibly selfless person who always put others first and never made anything about him, despite going through the most health-wise.

[T]hese days, when she is not busy being a devoted and loving mom to her twin daughters, Victoria focuses her efforts on helping with Brain Tumor Research's campaigns.

During the fight of his life, the remarkable man had even been the one to console others who were sad about his situation. Most importantly, Nick stopped at nothing to make sure that he found some way to be there for his babies, outside of his inability to be there physically for them. Victoria shared:

"He wrote to our girls, Rose and Sophia, birthday cards for the first 30 years of their lives. He wanted to be with them in spirit as they celebrated their birthdays without him."

Messages to Last for Years

Currently, the baby girls have opened four birthday cards out of thirty their loving father left for them. The fourth card mentions how Nick's daughters will soon be entering the stage where they start school, advising them to look after each other. According to Victoria, these cards Nick left for their daughters will keep them close to their father and allow them to know him. She added:

"It will give them a better idea of where he was at that stage in his life."

While Nick was battling his sickness, Victoria got him a Daschund puppy to help with his morale and provide him comfort. In an uncanny turn of events, the puppy, named Poppy, also passed away, six months following Nick's death, and as a result of a brain tumor too. Of the coincidence, Victoria said:

"I just couldn't believe it; they were inseparable, and I think she was sent to look after him, so [she] went with him."

These days, when she is not busy being a devoted and loving mom to her twin daughters, Victoria focuses her efforts on helping with Brain Tumor Research's campaigns. She is assisting with the organization's petition to get 100,000 signatures to increase their research funding reach in an attempt to spearhead a parliamentary debate.