Community Corner

Suburban Mother Learns She's Expecting Triplets Soon After Husband's Tragic Death

Courtney Hill of Green Oaks will soon be the mother of four. This will be her first Mother's Day without her husband.

This Mother’s Day will be Courtney Hill’s first without her husband, Brian.

Brian, a Navy veteran, was tragically killed in a crash in Oklahoma this past February. On the day of his wake, Hill took a pregnancy test and found out she was expecting. The couple, who met randomly during a snowstorm at Timothy O'Tooles in Gurnee in 2011, were already parents to 2-year-old Reagan and had been trying for another child, according to CBS Chicago.

At the wake, Hill was able to hold her late husband's hand and tell him she was pregnant. A month late she got even bigger news: She was expecting triplets.

Find out what's happening in Lake Forest-Lake Blufffor free with the latest updates from Patch.

“I’m excited to have three more smiles that remind me of him,” Hill, who recently moved from Texas to north suburban Green Oaks, told CBS Chicago.

Hill’s twin sister, Amanda Willey, lives in Libertyville and has started a GoFundMe page to help bring in money for her twin sister.

Find out what's happening in Lake Forest-Lake Blufffor free with the latest updates from Patch.

“Courtney and Brian desperately wanted more children, and this was definitely a gift from above,” Willey wrote on the GoFundMe page.

In just one month, nearly $39,000 has been donated to Courtney Hill’s growing family.

Hill’s story has garnered national attention. Most people have been supportive. But Hill said she has received criticism from online commenters who have bashed her “three buns in the oven” birth announcement and inaccurately claimed her and her husband used IVF and “had plenty of life insurance.”

Hill said she is thankful, though, for the overall generosity of those who have given to and supported her family.

"I'm so appreciative and thankful and grateful, and I'll never know who some of (the donors) are," she told Today.

Hill has started a Facebook page for her triplets where she has been providing updates. She recently found out the sex of her triplets and shared this photo as a gender reveal. 

And she has been sharing the good news that her babies are healthy.

Most recently, she shared the names she has picked out for her trio of babies that are due in October. She told TODAY her and Brian had made a long list of names when they were expecting Reagan and she planned to pick names from that list for the triplets.

The babies will be named Mile Edwards, Brady Tucker and Harper Paisley.

Get Patched In

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.