Photo: Courtesy Lee Cooper
“All he was concerned about was meeting his little sister. Bailey knew something wasn’t right. He could feel it in himself,” Bailey’s dad, Lee Cooper, 31, tells PEOPLE. “We got told the news late August that he wasn’t going to survive. We were told it was days to weeks. We were very open with him. He was taking it in … He was thinking, ‘Oh no, I won’t meet my sister.’ ”
Just months earlier, Rachel and Lee, of Bristol, U.K., revealed to their sons, Bailey and Riley, now 7, that she was pregnant and later learned that they’d have a little sister, Millie. The news proved to be a pick-me-up for the ailing boy, who had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2016.
“When we told him, it completely lifted him. He was completely over the moon,” Lee says, adding that Bailey was an extra special part of his mother’s pregnancy.
Bailey Cooper holding sister Millie.Courtesy Lee Cooper
Bailey told his family that he’d try his hardest to live to see Millie’s birth. And he did. Millie was born on Nov. 30, 2017.
From left: Rachel, Millie, Lee and Riley.Courtesy Lee Cooper
Photos of the sweet moments showed Bailey sitting next to his little brother Riley, with Millie in his arms. Bailey spent the final month of his life as close to the little girl as possible.
Bailey died on Christmas Eve of 2017.
“It’s been really hard without Bailey. It’s been wonderful having Millie around. She’s been helping us deal with what’s happened. It was so hard for [Rachel], her daily routine had completely changed without him,” Lee says.
Lee (left), Bailey (top center), Riley (bottom center) and Rachel.Courtesy Lee Cooper
“[I miss his] presence, his cheeky banter, his jokes, the laugh, his company. It’s such a difficult time, but at the same time, you look back and we were lucky to have nine-and-a-half great years with him.”
Even though Bailey is gone, Lee says he and Rachel will do all they can to make sure Millie knows about her big brother.
“We tell her about Bailey every day. We show her pictures of him. We’ve got pictures around the house of Bailey. Every time we mention Bailey’s name she points up at a picture,” he says.
“She knows who he is already. Her face lights up every time she sees a picture of Bailey on our phones. We show her videos. There’s no way she’s ever not going to know who he is. We talk about him every day.”
source: people.com
