Widow Of Marine Killed In Kabul Suicide Bomber Attack Gives Birth To Baby Girl

The wife of a U.S. Marine who was killed in a suicide bomber attack during the evacuation of Kabul has given birth to their child on Monday, Sept. 13, as the family celebrates the new life that the newborn infant represents.

Jiennah Crayton, the wife of Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Levi Rylee Rose McCollum on Monday, a few weeks after her husband was tragically killed by a suicide bomber attack in Afghanistan during the frantic Kabul evacuations as the U.S. forces pulled out of the country, Task & Purpose reported.

McCollum was one of the thirteen Marines killed in the attack that was allegedly orchestrated by the Islamic State, which also killed 60 Afghans waiting to be transported out of the country, according to the Associated Press.

“She came roaring into this world and graced us all with her presence at 2:18 am this morning an [unmedicated], [lightning] quick delivery. She can already do no wrong ever in my eyes,” Jill Miller Crayton, the grandmother of Levi, said on a Facebook post.

McCollum and Crayton met in San Diego during his stay there at boot camp. They fell in love and got married on Valentine’s Day in 2021, a few months before his first deployment. They were already expecting a child together by April.

Announced online with a Reddit post, many well-wishers and statements of support were sent to the family as they remembered McCollum and his service to the country.

“It’s the most painful seeing what our heroes leave behind,” another Redditor said. “I pray for the best to the family. I also pray for all of our boys and girls overseas, at home. As their families as well.”

Over $900,000 in funds have been collected on behalf of Levi, which were taken from numerous fundraising efforts in the public.

To commemorate the event, Jim McCollum, Levi’s grandfather, posted a poem about the child.

“You bless us with light and love,” he wrote. “When you came into the world.”

Jiennah Crayton has not made a statement about Levi’s birth, but she has expressed sadness that McCollum will not be there to help raise their child together.

“[I] lost my best friend, and nothing will ever make that hurt less,” she wrote. “[He] would’ve been the best dad.”