Today Show co-anchor Carson Daly lost his father, James Daly, when he was only 5 years old. James passed away from bladder cancer. Carson has long wished for a sense of connection to his father and thus decided to recreate an old snapshot of his dad. His older sister, Quinn, helped him with the photo shoot, according to Today .
The original photo was taken in 1978, less than a year before James passed away. He can be seen standing in the kitchen in the home that Carson grew up in. With a look of concentration on his face, James held a bottle of liquor which he was pouring into a glass. Behind him were other bottles of alcohol and glasses.
Carson could not go back in time to this particular moment, but he could recreate it wearing the same UCLA sweatshirt his father had on while holding a bottle of alcohol. He was then photoshopped into the photo in his father’s place.
The original snapshot means a lot to Carson, not only because it was taken of his father, but because it was taken not long before his death, he explained.
“For me it was just cool putting on the UCLA sweatshirt because I have so few things that connect me to my biological father. To be able to re-create that photo was really cool. That dichotomy I see in Dad’s face when I look at that picture. I don’t know if he’s running from fear or head into it.”
Like many of us during these challenging times, #CarsonDaly has become nostalgic for simpler days. With the help of his sister Quinn, he set out to re-create a photo of their father, who died when Carson was 5 years old. pic.twitter.com/9q6ML4KG2F
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 21, 2020
Amid the quarantine, Carson has been thinking a lot about the past and reflecting on family memories. He has also been thinking about his father a lot. Recreating this special snapshot has, in a sense, allowed Carson to heal from the trauma of his dad’s death.
“In a weird way, it’s given me some sort of closure. It got me closer to him, and that’s something that I feel like I really have been yearning for,” he explained.
Seeing her brother embodying her father in this way meant a great deal to Quinn as well because it helped her to realize how similar the two Daly men really are.
Carson is unfortunately no stranger to loss, as The Inquisitr previously reported. His mother passed away very suddenly in 2017 due to a heart attack. He then lost his beloved stepfather just one month later. Because his birth father died so early in his life, he was quite close to his stepfather and was devastated by the loss.
