Video of local 23 year-old singing with her Dad in hospital goes viral

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All Around | Around Ambler Spotlight , Around the Corner , Local News ,

December 12th, 2019 | By Deana Clement

23 year-old Allie McCrea has always been interested in music, and for a long time, has used it in her Dad’s healing process. Allie has been doing music since she was three… singing in church choirs and performing in musicals. She received her bachelors degree in music, with a musical theatre concentration. Currently Allie is in her second year of her graduate degree at Boyer College of Music and Dance of Temple University studying Music Therapy. She teaches piano lessons and is also Assistant Music Director to Connie Steuer (music director at Epiphany of Our Lord Church in Plymouth Meeting) and runs the children’s choir at the church while also serving as a pianist and cantor.

Alli’s Dad, Kevin McCrea, 53, was injured in 1983 in a paratrooper training exercise and since then has been dealing with several complications from that accident. Allie adds:

Music has been a huge part of this journey for us. After he had the 2 cardiac arrests, he was so emotional. I didn’t know how to help, so I just started to play and sing songs. Sometimes I’d bring my guitar, and other days I would just play and sing recordings. When I heard the song “Up” by Thomas Rhett- I knew I had to show him. Everything about the lyrics he can relate to! My dad was a high school dropout and entered the military. He was injured as an Army paratrooper in 1983, and was honorably discharged in 1984. He went to college and law school, became an attorney, when his second injury happened. He was lifting boxes up at his law firm and went numb from his hips to his toes.

After surgeries and complications from infections, he had progressive disability over the years that eventually resulted in spinal reconstructive surgery. Three days after this 16 hour long operation (the third surgery of what was supposed to be 5) he had two cardiac arrests. Since April 25th, he has battled 2 cardiac arrests, 2 heart attacks, sepsis a few times, pneumonia over 10 times, and is currently trying to wean off the ventilator for a second time, after a major setback of pneumonia caused him to go back on the ventilator.

Allie gave us a small glimpse into how this video and this moment between her and her Dad came about:

I always feel like he was stripped of everything because of his disability- he was unable to serve in the military and because of the additional back injury as a lawyer, he was unable to practice as an attorney. Despite all of this, he has always been so positive for and supportive of my family. The positivity we’ve gotten from this video has uplifted us in a way we really needed right now, because the day before thanksgiving he was admitted to the ICU with a terrible infection in both Lungs. We were starting to feel hopeless, because he hasn’t been home for 7.5 months, but we are feeling so much hope again. He’s always been a fan of country music and Thomas Rhett, so when I was starting to feel hopeless, I tweeted that in desperation for positivity to come our way. And it came overwhelmingly!

Take a look at Allie’s video of her singing with her Dad that went viral last week…