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COURIER LIFE, APRIL 15-21, 2022
‘There, I get to say hello to her’
A little tree in Prospect Park honors memory of Francesca Kaczynski
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Just inside Prospect Park,
near the Third Street Playground,
there is a small, oftenvisited
sapling set inside a protective
fence. It was planted just
about a year ago in memory of
nine-month-old Francesca Kaczynski,
known as “Beans” to her
family and thousands of internet
supporters.
“Some of our friends got it for
us, and it was such a nice thing,”
said Andrew Kaczynski, Francesca’s
father and an investigative
reporter with CNN. “I try to visit
it pretty much every day, if I can.
I tidy it up, bring nice flowers. It’s
the one thing I always make sure
I at least try to do every day.”
At six months old, Francesca
was diagnosed with an atypical
teratoid rhaboid tumor — an
often deadly form of brain cancer
most often diagnosed in babies
and toddlers. She died three
months later, in December 2020.
Just about a year ago, friends
of Kaczynski and his wife, Wall
Street Journal reporter Rachel
Ensign, gifted them the tree —
a saucer magnolia, one of thousands
that bloom pink and white
across New York City every
spring — and a bench on Prospect
Park West adorned with a
plaque in Francesca’s honor.
It’s “the best bench you could
have,” Kaczynski said, tucked
against the edge of the park near
Grand Army Plaza.
“All sorts of people get to sit
on the bench and experience it,
which I really love, because this
is where our daughter lived, this
is where she grew up,” Kaczynski
said. “And I love that she gets
to sort of be part of the community,
even though she’s not here.”
The grass around the tree has
been worn down to the dirt by the
number of visitors who pause to
look at the photos of Francesca
hung on the fence, or to tuck flowers
into the wire.
Francesca died on Christmas
Eve, and, around Christmas, a
visitor strung the fence with festive
decorations — little red berries,
a wreath, and a small angel
ornament.
“It’s really special for us just
to have it, because it just, for me
at least, is such a reminder of
her, that she was here, that she
was real,” Kaczynski said. “And
to have a lot of other people be reminded
of that too.”
In January, a new visitor
joined the rotation when Kaczynski
and Ensign welcomed Francesca’s
little sister, Talia, to the
family.
“I just remember feeling such
happiness taking her,” he said.
“It was obviously very sad, too,
but I felt such a feeling of peace,
almost, bringing her there, and
happiness. And having the biggest
smile on my face, bringing
our new baby to see her sister’s
tree, and tell her about her.”
Francesca was a joyful, energetic,
attentive baby, grinning
throughout her treatment so long
as she wasn’t in the worst of the
chemotherapy cycle.
“She had these big, big deep
brown eyes that would always follow
you around, what you were
doing,” Kaczynski said. “She had
the most infectious smile, all the
doctors and nurses always said
she was their favorite patient.”
Born in March 2020, Francesca
didn’t meet many people
for the first months of her life as
New York City hunkered down
against the first, vicious wave
of the pandemic. Because of the
disease-induced isolation, no one
knew just how social she was.
“She got cancer, and met all
these new people, and was always
smiling at them,” Kaczynski
said. “Every time a new doctor
or nurse or somebody came
in, the biggest smile would just
light up on her face. She was just
very, very, very happy.”
On a visit with Talia earlier
this week, Kaczynski noticed the
tree’s first little buds sprouting
on top of a spindly branch. It may
only grow those few little flowers
this year, he said, but stopping by
brightens his day no matter the
season or the state of the leaves.
Standing in front of the tree
on a rainy spring afternoon
while he spoke with Brooklyn Paper
by phone, Kaczynski said the
flowers brighten up dim days in
the winter, standing out against
the snow or the gray sky. Sometimes,
the flowers have a special
meaning — a recent yellow bouquet
featured one red flower, in
honor of a young girl the family
knew who died from MIRAGE
syndrome, another rare pediatric
illness.
During his regular visits,
Kaczynski usually refrains from
approaching people who have
stopped to check out the photos,
he said. Most adults are “super
awkward” about talking about
Francesca and her death — more
than once, while he was leaving
flowers, passersby have assumed
he was with the Prospect Park
Alliance and asked him about
the tree.
“It makes people somewhat
uncomfortable,” he said. “Not
that I blame them, it’s really not
what people are expecting. So I
always try to give people space
when they’re at the tree.”
He attached an op-ed he wrote
about pediatric cancer to the
fence for people to read and learn
about Francesca and other children
facing the deadly disease
and the struggles patients, parents
and doctors face every day.
Research is critically underfunded,
especially for less common
cancers, and every dollar
really does count, he said. Over
the last few years, “Team Beans”
has raised hundreds of thousands
of dollars for pediatric cancer
research — including nearly
$500,000 just this year as Kaczynski
prepares to run the Boston
Marathon.
While adults clam up when
talking about Francesca or childhood
cancers, kids don’t, Kaczynski
said.
“If you go to the tree, there’s
a really nice note there that was
left by some kids who visited the
tree as a school class, who said
they always love to visit the tree
every day, and they love looking
at the photos,” he said.
He and Ensign wrote a note in
response and left it on the fence,
along with a host of new pictures.
In almost every one, Francesca
is beaming — from her stroller,
from the hospital bed, sandwiched
between her parent’s
faces.
“She was just … she was the
best,” Kaczynski said. “And we
obviously still miss her, and
that’s why I really just love going
to the tree because, it’s like, I always
feel like when I go there, I
get to say hello to her.”
Above: Andrew Kaczynski sits on a bench on Prospect Park West dedicated to
his daughter, Francesca Kaczynski (bottom right), while holding a painted portrait
of her. Top right: A tree in the same green space planted in her honor.
Andrew Kaczynski