‘They are grieving’
Town shares sorrow as Clancy kids laid to rest
The Very Rev. Robert J. Deehan, pastor of Holy Family Church in Duxbury, in October baptized Callan Clancy, a baby boy who had a full life ahead of him.
Yesterday, Deehan co-led a private funeral for Callan, just 7 months old, and his older siblings, Cora, 5, and Dawson, 3, in a nearby South Shore town.
The three children died after their 32-year-old mother Lindsay Clancy allegedly strangled them inside their Duxbury home the evening of Jan. 24.
Family and invited guests gathered at St. Mary of the Nativity in Scituate on a bitterly cold day for what Deehan said was a “beautiful funeral.”
The children’s father, Patrick Clancy, wanted the funeral to be held in a familiar church — his parents are Scituate residents — and away from Duxbury “because of the memories that happened here,” Deehan told the Herald.
As Duxbury continues to grieve for the Clancys, Deehan’s church opened its doors Friday morning for 23 hours for community members to quietly reflect and pray for the family. It ends Saturday at 8 a.m.
Priests deal with births, deaths and everything in between, Deehan said, adding he never would’ve thought “there’d be a connection between the young child we baptized a few months ago to find that (he’s) now deceased.”
Callan held on for three days. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that Tuesday night after Duxbury first responders found them unconscious at the home at 47 Summer St.
Though his job is to help provide comfort to those grieving, Deehan said he’s felt “emotionally touched” since the tragedy.
“I was at breakfast and there was a 2-year-old playing with his little trucks, thinking of the children who would’ve been doing that themselves and are now gone,” he said. “There are moments when you can’t help but feel … and a lot of the times it’s triggered by young children and families that I see, it just brings it back to what isn’t anymore in the Clancy family.”
Duxbury has rallied together. Roughly 500 community members attended a vigil at Holy Family two nights after the killing. A GoFundMe has raised more than $1 million as of Friday to support the Clancys. Initially, the page had a fundraising goal of $250,000 to help Patrick Clancy pay for medical bills, funeral services and legal help.
“There was just a beautiful spirit,” Deehan said looking back at last week’s vigil. “The community, in one way, they’re reaching out and praying for the family, but also for one another and for themselves because they are grieving. Just to have this happen in this town, all things considered, it’s a peaceful town and tragedies like that don’t happen very often.”
The Clancys are Holy Family parishioners, and though Deehan said he doesn’t know them that well, he’s made it known to Patrick and Lindsay that he’s by their side.
Deehan has met with Patrick several times since that nightmare evening and met with Lindsay the day after at a Boston hospital, where at the time she was unconscious and considered in critical condition.
Lindsay’s condition has started to improve, Duxbury Police Chief Michael Carbone said Thursday. She will be arraigned in Plymouth District Court on Tuesday.
“She’s just overwhelmed by the circumstances,” Deehan said of Lindsay. “Unfortunately, her medication or whatever just didn’t (stop) whatever caused her to do what she did to her children or herself for that matter.”