Grieving Q13 News reporter Travis Mayfield shares moving tribute of love after toddler son's swift, tragic death

You haven’t seen me on Q13 News in the last few weeks.  Many of you have reached out to ask me why.  I have tried to answer each of you as honestly as I was able to at the time.

I have said that we had experienced a death in our family.  That the people of Q13 News and our parent company, Tribune Media, have been incredibly generous in allowing me to grieve our loss for as long as needed.  I have said that I believed I would return to television, but that I wasn’t sure when that would be.

(Travis shared his story on Q13 News This Morning on Thursday, May 12. Watch him tell his story in the video player above.)

Still, the time to share more about our loss has arrived.  I hope that as you read this, you might understand why we have decided to share it with each of you.

On April 9th we took our 2.5 year old son Tommy to Children’s Hospital here in Seattle.  He had had a cold for a few days, but on that day his nose had started to bleed during his nap.  After a few minutes, we realized we needed help to try and get it to stop.

Just after noon on April 10th, we held our precious baby boy in our arms in the ICU and sang him to sleep one last final time.  Our previously perfectly healthy Tommy died in the arms of his two daddies and surrounded by those who loved him most.

What exactly went so wrong in those 24 hours remains a mystery to us.  We have some medical facts in hindsight, and countless assurances that we and those who cared for Tommy did everything right and everything possible.

But "why" is an answerless question we will likely ask for the rest of our lives.

What we do know is this simple fact:  We are broken.

We will never be fixed.

We have to find a way to be broken in this new, harsher, darker and lesser world.

Yet we are determined.

We are determined to keep putting one foot in front of the other even if we cannot see where each step will land, or whether we even have the strength to stand as our footsteps fall.

We do it because we believe there is a path forward.  We believe that we must move forward so we do not forget how to move forward.  So that someday, when we can see a glimmer of light illuminating anything in front of us, we will be able to move toward it.

So I find myself here, fumbling at the keyboard to try and share news that we ourselves will never truly accept.

Our son is dead.  Our daughter is without her twin brother.  Our former lives are over.

Still, one foot in front of the other.

And to that end, I feel called to share something deeply personal with you.

I am OK at many things.  I am great at only a few things.

Being Tommy’s daddy was one of those things I was great at.

The other thing I am pretty good at is telling stories.  Telling them in words, to loved ones, to an audience.

So since I cannot continue to be a daddy to a living Tommy, I have just one thing to offer him now.  That is that I tell his story.

That is a huge task.  It will take a lifetime.  It is a task that will never be enough, but it is what I have.

So to take the next step in telling my son’s story and our family’s story I share those words I spoke at his memorial service.

I have been told they provided strength, hope and comfort to many who gathered that day.  I hope that by sharing these words beyond that day,  I might offer the same to even one more person.

---

Editor’s Note:  If you would like to share your thoughts and prayers with Travis and his family during this impossible time, we encourage you to post them to his Facebook page.  You're also welcome to send an email to condolences@q13fox.com.

Many have also asked about contributing in some way in Tommy’s memory.  With that in mind, a fund has been established in his name:

THE THOMAS MAYFIELD-MAN MEMORIAL FUND:
To contribute, please send a check to:
Thomas Mayfield-Man Memorial Fund
c/o Cade F. Mossman
601 Union St. – Suite 2500
Seattle, WA 98101
• Make checks payable to “Pershing, LLC"
• Check notes line should read: "Thomas Mayfield-Man Memorial Fund SG1-173470"