Mum gives birth to husband’s baby a year after he passes away from cancer

A woman in the US has welcomed her second child - without her baby's father by her side.

Larissa Fletcher's husband John began to feel ill in December of 2015 and was eventually diagnosed with stage four oesophageal cancer the following March. The couple had welcomed their first child together, a girl named Emma, less than a year beforehand. They quickly realised that growing their family was a priority. "I did not ever think my first baby was going to be my only baby," she told People. "I wanted to have more.” A week before he began chemotherapy, John froze some of his sperm. With eggs harvested from Larissa's womb, embryos were created and stored. John responded well to his treatment initially but after a few months things took a turn for the worse. He passed away in October of 2016. Determined to fulfil her and John's wish of having more children, Larissa began IVF in 2017. She fell pregnant in October of that year. "That was the last plan John and I made together: We made the plan to have a second child,” she said. “It sustained me going through IVF. This was our plan. "I woke up around 24 weeks of pregnancy saying, ‘What the heck did I just do? I’m going to have these two children and it’s just me.’" Last July Larissa welcomed the couple's second daughter, Eliana Joy. She's says she's now working on a scrapbook with memories from their father. "I want my girls to know their story. To know how much I love them, and how much John loved them."