(LifeSiteNews) — Not long after moving to New York City from Duxbury, Massachusetts, where he and then-wife Lindsay had raised their three young children, bereaved father Patrick Clancy was faced with the unthinkable question of how to celebrate the first birthday of his slain son.

“Five weeks after I moved to New York, on May 26, I had to figure out how I’m going to celebrate Callan’s first birthday,” Patrick recounted in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS correspondent Ross Douthat. 

“How do you celebrate your son’s first birthday, months after he’s passed away?” the grieving father wondered.  

“So, I go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, I light a candle, I say, ‘I love you buddy,’ and I walk out on Fifth Avenue and I start crying my eyes out,” Patrick said.

Months after his death, Patrick Clancy says he marked his son Callan’s first birthday by lighting a candle at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

“I say, ‘I love you, buddy.’ And I walk out on Fifth Avenue, and I start crying my eyes out,” he recalls.… pic.twitter.com/dZIhyU9w6J

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 20, 2026

In January 2023, Patrick returned home from running errands and discovered his three children strangled in the basement. Cora, age 5, and Dawson, age 3, were already dead. Eight-month-old Callan was still alive and airlifted to Boston Children’s Hospital.

“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” Patrick said. He explained that, as he sped to the hospital, he kept thinking, “‘Just gimme one. Just gimme one kid,’ and I would raise him as best I could, and I would give him the best life I possibly could. I’d tell him about his brother and sister. And I was holding out hope for that. And then when I got to the hospital, I saw the doctor. I saw the look on her face, and I knew that it wasn’t going to be a good prognosis.”

Patrick said he was grateful for the four days he had with his infant son. 

With tears welling up in his eyes, he recounted saying to Callan, “I’m so sorry.”

“I got to hold him. I got to lay down next to him, and he died in my arms,” said Patrick, choking back tears. 

Patrick Clancy talks about the final days with his 8-month-old son, Callan.

“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” he tells 60 Minutes. “And remember just thinking, ‘Just gimme one. Just gimme one kid,’ and I would raise him as best I could, and I would… pic.twitter.com/5HMfnujj1d

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 20, 2026

Share