Daughter captures dad keeping her mom company from outside her room for a heartbreaking reason

Life can sometimes throw unexpected challenges our way, separating us from the people we hold dear. But love and emotional connection can overcome even the toughest barriers. Mackenna, a teenager from California, captured a deeply touching moment between her parents, one that quickly went viral. The photo shows her dad sitting outside her mom's bedroom for a heartbreaking reason.

According to TODAY, her dad Jon set up a little desk and a chair right outside Mackenna's mom's room to work from home. Her 49-year-old mom, Marci Newman, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer two years before Mackenna shared the now-deleted X post in 2017. The screenshot of the post was reshared on the X handle of @katiemuseburke. Mackenna revealed to the news outlet that her mother had a "compromised immune system" and was getting radiation treatment. As a result, Marci had to maintain her distance from other family members and stay isolated to protect herself.

But Jon wasn’t about to let his wife’s isolation keep him from being by her side. “At first he was sitting outside in the backyard in a chair and talking to her through the window,” Mackenna told the outlet. But working from a different room in the house wasn't enough for Jon so he set up his work desk right outside Marci's room. “My dad set up a desk at her door to keep her company and I’m crying,” Mackenna wrote in her deleted X post.

Jon was always by Marci’s side, whether she was going to doctor’s visits, undergoing blood tests, or receiving surgeries and chemotherapy. “I don’t think she knew the impact it would have made on everyone,” Mackenna told the outlet. “I think she realized how lucky she was to have a love like my dad.”

It’s unclear whether or not Marci beat her diagnosis. The last post on her Facebook page was back in July 2018 when she shared a selfie. Marci also took to her X profile @NewmanMarci and left one post dated August 2019 that read, "You know you’re getting old when you’re proud of yourself for figuring out how to turn off closed captioning." A friend of Marci, Robin Belfrey (@robinbelfrey on Instagram), shared a screenshot of her little chat with Marci while she was in the hospital.

"Some of you are out here running around playing volleyball, touching everything, not being as careful or taking this as seriously as you need to be. This is my friend Marci Maxine Newman! Thank you for all you’re doing! Please, if you can stay home, stay home!! We will get through this faster!! If you have to go to work please sanitize everything you touch! Your credit cards, phone, steering wheel, door handles!" the caption of Belfrey's March 2020 post read. It was from the time when the COVID pandemic was at its peak and Marci had texted Belfrey while wearing hospital garb and an N95 mask, assuring her that she was "doing okay and trying to stay safe."