I was responsible for this past week’s most popular story on my station’s web site, 11alive.com.
In the piece, I profiled a 4-year-old boy from east Georgia who is battling a rare cancer that cannot be cured; he has been told he may only live for a few more days.
The story has been viewed more than 10,000 times; several of my co-workers told me the following day how much it moved them.
And the most moving moment? Initially I did not know if I liked it.
Let me offer a little background. The previous Friday, I drove down to the 4,000-person town of Lyons, Ga. to meet the young boy, Silas, and his family. In his final days, Silas had started a movement for everyone to paint their nails gold to raise awareness of childhood cancer. The movement had reached 30,000 likes on Facebook, with photos of gold-painted nails pouring into the family’s inbox.
Silas’ family members welcomed me into their home for a brief time. During that time, Silas did not say too much, but he did at one point take part in a moving, heart-breaking exchange with his mother.
“I don’t know what the bad news is,” Silas said about his situation. When his mom asked, “OK, well what’s the good news?” Silas responded by saying this:
“The good news is … is … soon I’m going to heaven.”
I thought about that moment the whole way back to Atlanta. I knew it would be the centerpiece of my story, and indeed I wrote it as such the following week.
When I showed the piece to my news director, she loved it but had one major point of advice:
“You need to play that line again,” she said about Silas’ “going to heaven” line.
Play it twice?