Walker Hayes Marks 5 Years Since The Heartbreaking Loss Of His Daughter

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Walker Hayes posted a tribute to his late daughter as the family marks five years since her loss. Hayes shared a photo on Instagram on Tuesday (June 6) of his baby’s headstone with the family gathered around her. The stone, holding vibrant flowers in a vase, includes a C.S. Lewis quote that reads, “I was made for another world.” Hayes captioned it with a single heart emoji.

Hayes and his wife, Laney Hayes, mourned Oakleigh Klover when she died shortly after her birth on June 6, 2018. The couple told their story to PEOPLE in the months following their heartbreak, explaining that they headed into an emergency surgery that Oakleigh didn’t survive, but that saved Laney.

“Laney and I have cried a lot, but one thing that makes me the happiest is how much love there has been around us,” Hayes, who debuted a tattoo in Oakleigh’s memory in June 2018, told PEOPLE in an emotional interview at that time. “We’ve had the most remarkable questions answered and advice given from people around our neighborhood and in meet and greet lines. People walk up to me and tell me their life, and it’s like, geez, thank you for sharing. I don't even know these people.”

Hayes and his wife are parents to six children: Lela, Everly, Loxley, Chapel, Baylor and Beckett. Laney previously shared with PEOPLE that her six children “are more than enough to me,” and that the whole family will navigate their grief as they miss Oakleigh: “It’s a process, and it will be forever.”


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