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Brooklyn mom battling cancer accounces her own death on social media days before passing away at 38: ‘I’m so sorry…’
“I loved each and every one of you with my whole heart and I promise you, I knew how deeply I was loved,” Casey McIntyre wrote
A Brooklyn mom battling ovarian cancer announced her own death in a social media post that left her followers heartbroken. Days later, on November 12, 38-year-old Casey McIntyre died at her home in New York.
Posting photos of her husband and two children, Casey wrote on Instagram, “A note to my friends: if you’re reading this it means I have passed away. I’m so sorry, it’s horses*** and we both know it. The cause was a recurrence of my previously diagnosed stage four ovarian cancer.”
“I loved each and every one of you with my whole heart and I promise you, I knew how deeply I was loved,” she added. “The five months in home hospice that I got to spend with my family and friends in Virginia, Rhode Island, and New York were magical.”
‘I don’t know how we will do it without you but we will’
An editor’s note, penned by Casey’s husband Gregory, said after her death that she wanted to add a list of things she loved in the post, but her life was cut short before she could do 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,” Gregory wrote. “Oh Casey!!!! I don’t know how we will do it without you but we will.”
He added, “A memorial service & debt jubilee in Casey’s honor will take place at 3pm on Saturday, December 2nd at the Prospect Park Boathouse. We will celebrate her life by anonymously purchasing medical debt and then anonymously forgiving it, hopefully with a bonfire if they will let us. If attending, please wear something that expresses your deep sorrow at our loss, as well as something that expresses the joy you feel for having ever known Casey.”
Casey McIntyre’s obituary
Casey was a publisher at Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House. An obituary published by Publishers Weekly noted that she grew up in Manhattan, and later in Tenafly, New Jersey. She went to Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, where she studied music and creative writing. She graduated in 2007 and attended the Denver Publishing Institute. Her family said that she went for her first interview at Penguin the same year.
“McIntyre launched her children’s book career at Penguin Young Readers where she swiftly gained increasing responsibilities as she worked on campaigns and helped launch the career of bestselling author Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy) and worked with such authors as Marie Lu and Loren Long. In early 2012, McIntyre moved to HarperCollins Children’s Books as publicity manager, spearheading the campaigns for the blockbuster Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth as well as for Katherine Applegate’s 2013 Newbery-winning novel The One and Only Ivan and books by Stefan Bachmann and Terry Pratchett, among others,” the obituary added.
