Levy Rylee Rose McCollum is just four days old but she’s carrying the weight of her father’s legacy on her tiny shoulders. Levy is the newborn daughter of Rylee McCollum, 20, who was one of 13 U.S. servicemen and women killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan last month. Rylee’s widow, Gigi, was just three weeks shy of giving birth when he died. 

“She is beautiful!” said Rylee’s father, Jim McCollum in a text to The Gazette. “Gigi left Wyoming on Sunday and had Levy Monday morning. She barely made it to Camp Pendleton!”

Rylee, a Marine, had been stationed at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. 

Rylee McCollum, killed in Afghanistan bomb attack, returns home to Wyoming

Gigi McCollum had just returned to California from Jackson, Wyoming where, last weekend, she welcomed Rylee’s remains home. Thousands of people waving U.S. flags lined the highways and streets as a cavalcade carrying Rylee’s coffin wound it’s way from the Jackson airport to downtown Jackson.

Dignitaries including Governor Mark Gordon and Congresswoman Liz Cheney were in Jackson for the procession.

Rylee’s death was a shock to the family, who were expecting him to return to the United States to be home for the birth of his first child. Jim McCollum says he will make sure that Levy knows that her father was a hero. The family has a funeral planned for next month in Wyoming so that Levi and Gigi McCollum were well enough to attend.