It’s been almost nine years since cancer took the life of Henry Andrade at just 18 years old — only a few days after he met Devin McCourty.
The New England Patriots safety visited Andrade in the hospital and the two developed a special bond that day. So much so, that McCourty still is honoring his legacy after all these years.
“It was just so heartwarming … I couldn’t believe it,” Andrade’s mother, Carolina DaLomba, told Patriots.com’s Angelique Fiske after realizing McCourty has been wearing an orange “Team Henry” bracelet since meeting her son all this time — carrying Andrade with him through Super Bowls and even a proposal to his wife.
“I just didn’t know how to thank him for doing things like that,” DeLomba said. “The bracelet is always there. I don’t even know if he takes it off his wrist. He’s always with him.”
When DeLomba had T-shirts made recently to celebrate Andrade’s birthday, like she had almost a decade earlier with the rubber bracelets, she saw McCourty had gotten ahold of one.
“Just having fun with the boys repping my guy Henry today…we all need angels,” McCourty in a caption after Patriots defeated the Browns on Nov. 14.
McCourty has been there for the family beyond that, attending the funeral during the playoffs all those years ago and inviting Andrade’s siblings to Patriots games and family dinners.
And since losing his own daughter, Mia, in 2020, McCourty knows now more than ever what he’s done for Andrade’s family.
“I’m not a person that goes to the cemetery in grief because I truly believe that Henry’s body is resting, but he did not die,” DeLomba said. “I think his energy, his love for everything that he had, lives on this earth on someone. If he was ever to be a pro athlete, he lives in Devin. I see that every game.”
