A moving story about a father of eleven children whose wife suddenly passed away this past February:

When Dan McNeill walks into his home after work, he does a mental roll call to figure out who is where. He is greeted by the little ones with hugs and kisses. The older ones wave and grab a hug in between their chores or playtime.

One recent day, 8-year-old Gerry walked in a short time after his father and said, “Look what I made for you, Dad.” It was a decorated cake. “It’s from me to you. Well, it’s really for everybody else, too, but I kind of scraped some of the icing a little bit with my finger.”

He had spent the afternoon with two cousins and his aunt, who decorates cakes.

Both his family and his wife’s family have been very supportive, making themselves available to take one or two children shopping or to drop someone off at a sports game. His sister-in-law took the baby to a photographer for baby pictures as a Father’s Day present.

Church friends are also helping. Parishioners from St. Francis DeSales Catholic Church bring dinner to the family three times a week. “We tried to cut the program after June 1st, but people complained that they hadn’t had a turn yet and others wanted to continue,” McNeill said.