Tess Baacke's phone screensaver is a picture of herself as a young child, making a silly face next to her smiling mom, Tara. Sunflowers and cardinals are fleeting reminders of Tara's favorite flowers and birds. Tess keeps a special bracelet in her bedroom that Tara once wore.
When Tess recalls a memory of her mom, she writes it in a special file on her Notes app. Many are warm and sweet — Tara taking Tess and her friends to get stuffed animals when they were bored at her brothers' sports games, for example. But Tess also saves the difficult memories. In 2013, Tara was diagnosed with glioblastoma and battled the brain cancer for three years before passing away in 2016. Tess was seven years old.
"I even put the bad stuff, because I just want to be reminded of anything of her," Tess said. "I have a ton of different things, like the nursing home that she had to go to and all that stuff. I think it's still important to remember all that and remember how much you've overcome."
Tess is a junior at Medfield High and one of the stars on the reigning MIAA Div. 2 champion Warriors. She has now spent more than half of her life without her mom and those memories become more precious every day. Tess loves to talk about Tara's infectious energy, the way she cared for her family and how beloved she was in town.
And importantly, Tess doesn't want people to feel bad for her. This story — as much about the Baacke family and the town of Medfield as it is about Tess — has a happy ending.
"It's just so crazy the effect that she still has on me today and how much I was able to grow from it, instead of the opposite," Tess said. "I feel like it's just so easy to fall down that path and just kind of dwell on it, and everything like that. But I think because of all the support and all that, it's so much better to focus on all the positive memories that I had with her."
———
Tara was a three-sport athlete at Wellesley High growing up and soccer captain at Providence. She and Eric Baacke met in college, and later as spouses, they raised their three kids — Drew, Nate and Tess — to be active across multiple sports. Eric primarily coached baseball and basketball, and Tara stuck to the soccer field, coaching Tess in youth leagues.
Tess considers her mom her greatest athletic role model. Soccer was a way for the two girls of the household to bond, and for Tara to share her joy for the sport.
"She was so bubbly; she was always so smiley," Tess said. "In all the photos that I have of her, she just had this huge smile. I have videos — there was one soccer game where I scored a goal and she just looked so happy. I don't know how to describe it, but she was so supportive."
Doctors estimated Tara had 18 months to live when she first found out about her brain cancer. The Baacke kids were too young to fully understand the weight of the diagnosis; Tess was still in preschool. Tara would go to the doctor for a scan every month, knowing that even after they had removed her tumor, there was a high chance it would start growing back.
"My wife never wanted to face it," Eric said. "She just kind of was one of those, 'I'm putting my head down. I'm going to get through this.' ... There were no letters, there were no videos, really, it was just, 'Listen, we're gonna get through this.'"
Tara's condition started to turn for the worse a year before she passed. She started needing help with regular parts of daily life and gained weight from all of her medication. Then she transitioned to hospice care, and even the kids understood it was only a matter of time. Tara had a stroke while in hospice, and since Eric and Tess were the only ones home, Tess had to call 911.
Tess remembers the day Tara passed: April 1, 2016. Her uncle had been staying over in her room to help with everything, so she slept in another part of the house. She was getting ready for school and asked her dad if she could get clothes from her room. Eric told Tess to come downstairs to talk — and she knew why immediately.
Drew and Nate stayed home, but Tess decided to go to school. She wanted to keep up perfect attendance and needed a distraction. The Baackes were family friends with Tess' bus driver, who comforted her by giving her toys and games to play with. But it was a confusing day as seven-year-old Tess processed the tragedy while her classmates tried to play April Fool's Day pranks.
"I remember getting on the bus and people were like, 'Pull this gum,' trying to give a shock or something, and I couldn't do any of it," she said. "April Fool's Day is such a weird day in my calendar."
Tess doesn't have a vivid memory of her final moment with her mom. But one towards the end sticks out. About a year before Tara passed, she went with Tess to see Home, a Dreamworks animated movie released in 2015. It involves an alien helping a young girl find her lost mother during an invasion.
"She was trying to find her mom the entire movie. That was the last movie we watched together in theaters, and I just found that so weird," Tess said. "But that was our last memory together when she was completely normal."
———
Tess looks back at family photos from that time and can see her dad looking exhausted. Both Tess and Eric attribute the family's ability to move on, and ultimately thrive, to their community's love.
Before, during and after Tara's passing, family friends and neighbors would stop by with dinners. Her second-grade class made a blanket for her. They also gave her a teddy bear hugged by each classmate so that when Tess held the bear, she could receive a hug back from everyone. The Medfield youth baseball teams wore "TCB3" jersey patches to honor Tara and her three children.
Tess recalls that, either at the funeral or wake, there was a line of people out the door of the funeral home. One of the staff members said they hadn't seen a line this long in many years. Medfield girls basketball coach Mark Nickerson recalls a similar sight.
"I remember going to the funeral at St Edward's church in Medfield, and I'm not a huge church-goer, but it's a big church, and you couldn't find a place to sit," he said. "It was overflowing. It seemed like everybody in the town was there."
Nickerson had become good friends with Eric and the family during Tara's battle. He watched Eric take care of Tara at Super Bowl parties as her condition worsened. Also a baseball coach, Nickerson had Nate, the middle child, on some of his teams and would often help Eric with rides. Nate even traveled with Nickerson to one of their club tournaments in Nebraska.
"For the last 10 years, my family, let alone my kids, whatever — wouldn't be where we are without him," Eric said. "He's just the kind of guy who would do anything for you."
Tess had suddenly become the youngest member and only girl in her immediate family. When she came home from school the day Tara passed, Tess finally broke down crying with her aunt, Meghan Newberry, and her mom's best friend, Chrissy Robinson. They would become two of the central women in Tess' life going forward, and if Tess ever had a question about Tara, they were always happy to talk.
"You just want to know those questions, and they're always there to answer them," Tess said. "They're so understanding and it's so great to talk about my mom with them because they have such amazing memories of her."
Eric leaned on Meghan and Chrissy too as resources along with other parents. He has always tried to make sure Tess feels comfortable talking to him about anything. But every dad has learning to do. One time, Eric was at Tess' soccer game, talking with a group of mothers about haircuts. He told them he took his daughter to Supercuts.
"And two of them looked at me and said, 'Eric, you can't take a sixth-grade girl to Supercuts anymore,'" he recalled.
Tess stopped playing soccer around that time — a decision she attributes to her mom's passing. Tara and Tess used to play soccer all around the house, but after Tara's passing, Tess lost her motivation to practice. Then she felt she wasn't good enough to play.
Basketball entered Tess' life through her brothers. She saw Nate shooting around outside all the time and got curious. During COVID quarantine, Tess decided to fully commit.
"I saw how much he played, and I was just shocked. I didn't really realize that that's how often people play," she said.
Tess' innate toughness and ability to put struggle behind her showed quickly on the court. Nickerson watched Eric coach Tess on local Metro West teams; as close as the two are off the court, Eric coached his daughter very hard while on it, and when he coached Drew and Nate, Tess was often watching nearby. Tess started on the varsity high school team as a freshman for a squad that made the state semifinals before further emerging on last year's championship team. She's now part of one of the MIAA's best trios with Naya Annigeri and Izzy Kittredge.Â
Nickerson has lent Tess a shooting gun during the last two summers, and almost every time he passed by the Baacke home, he saw Tess firing away.
"There's just no quit in her," Nickerson said. "She's never satisfied with what she does. She always wants to be better."
Tess wants to play college basketball, so like most players, she and Eric are embedded in the hectic year-round schedule of school and AAU. Eric often sits on the sidelines of Tess's Bay State Jaguars and Medfield games and thinks about how much Tara would have loved the journey.
"Literally almost every game, I think about her," he said. "She would certainly cheer for Tess, but she would cheer more for the other girls —I saw her (do that) with my boys. She would have loved doing the traveling with her. She would have loved being involved with the Jags, driving to practices and stopping for ice cream after. She was just such a upbeat, energetic person."
With Drew graduated from college and Nate at Purdue, Eric is on the back end of the schedule madness of parenting. He believes that in many ways, the Baacke's busy, sports-centric upbringing helped keep Tara's passing from overwhelming them. Eric has also made it clear that any of his kids can talk to him about Tara anytime. Those in Medfield, like Nickerson, notice how he has parented the trio.
"I've never obviously talked to the kids about that, but you can truly see the appreciation on their end," Nickerson said. "As parents, we like to all think that we're doing the best that we can for our kids, but this is next-level stuff with him, and it's pretty unbelievable. He's managed to raise three really great kids that are well-adjusted and succeeding."
When Tess hangs out at her friends' houses, some of the parents will bring up their own recollections of Tara. They'll often apologize, but Tess doesn't want them to. She wants to hear as many stories of Tara as she can and continue to share her own.
Medfield's state championship triumph last season is an obvious lasting memory. But after all the tense game moments and postgame jubilation, Tess recalls a moment on the family's drive home.
"I remember coming home and my dad being like, 'Oh, mom would be so proud of you.' She would definitely be taking all the photos and all that stuff,'" Tess said. "It made me really happy."
