A year after their devastating loss, CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and The Wall Street Journal's Rachel Ensign have welcomed a baby girl.
The couple introduced Instagram followers to "the newest member of our family," daughter Talia Davida Kaczynski, on Jan. 29, two days after her birth. As the parents explained, Talia is named after her late sister Francesca, whose nickname was Beans. "She was named with the Hebrew name of her big sister Beans," Kaczynski wrote. "We love her endlessly."
In one social media post, the journalist shared a set of side-by-side photos of Talia and Francesca. "We love how much she looks like her big sister she's named for," Kaczynski tweeted, later adding, "Thanks so much for all the kind wishes. My heart is so full knowing she's Beans' sister."
And as he put it in a separate Instagram post, "Anytime I think of Beans and look at Tallia, and I'm just filled with so much love for her and gratitude knowing how lucky I am and how precious but fleeting life can be. I feel such joy I haven't felt in so long."
Francesca died of complications from brain cancer on Dec. 24, 2020. She was 9 months old.
"In her short life, Francesca was an outgoing, bold and curious baby," Kaczynski wrote in part of her obituary. "She had huge, deep brown eyes that followed whatever her parents were doing. She loved eating and being held close, particularly in the evenings. A Brooklyn-based Sesame Street fan, Francesca enjoyed taking long walks around New York City and Boston, playing with her toys and balloons, attending speech therapy, and 'petting' (i.e. grabbing) her cat Ryland. One of her favorite activities was to practice rolling in her crib from side to side. She loved seeing her parents, Andrew Kaczynski and Rachel Ensign, and greeting them with the world's biggest smile and an excited kick when she woke up from a nap."
According to a piece Kaczynski penned for The Washington Post, Francesca was diagnosed with an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor in the fall of 2020. He noted that Francesca had six surgeries, "five on her brain and one to put in a stomach tube for feeding," and underwent chemotherapy. She ended up catching a "fungal infection that her little body couldn't fight off," Kaczynski wrote, adding, "She went into septic shock and spent her last month of life sedated on a ventilator. We couldn't hold her as she slowly succumbed to the infection. We sat next to her, holding her hand those horrible weeks."
One way Kaczynski and Ensign have continued to honor Francesca's legacy is through fundraising. Last year he ran the Boston Marathon to raise money for the new Infant Brain Tumor Program at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Kaczynski and Ensign raised more than $1,780,000 last year for the program, and Kaczynski plans on running the Boston Marathon again this year.
"Francesca won't get to grow up, but she gets to live on through this," he recently told USA Today. "Her death is always going to be the lens through which I view life. I'll never be the same."