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Mon. February 18, 2008

Amazing Grace

Mon. February 18, 2008 Being a news producer, very few stories touch me to the point of tears. After covering news for the better part of 17 years, you just become jaded and detached about a lot of the events that happen.

Before Saturday, only two stories brought me to tears...the crash of flight 427, and September 11th...

On Saturday, as I casually flipped through the obituary page, I saw an obituary for Grace Ekis of North Huntingdon Township.

She was 5 years old and had an inoperable brain tumor.

In September, on a weekend day when I worked, we did a full story on how a group called "Jamie's Dream" made Grace's dream of being a princess for a day come true. She had a police escort, a horse drawn carriage, a full princess court with her friends dressed as disney princesses, a party, dancing, the works.

I never save our "raw" video from any event, but I had saved that one, hoping to contact the family to give it to them, and I never was able to find them.

On Saturday, I broke down in tears when I saw that obituary, knowing the story we had told, how brave that little girl was.

Maybe it's because I have a daughter near that age, maybe I empathize with the parents having to go through something I hope I never have to...

I made the decision to put together a full story about Grace, based on the raw video I saved.

It's here:
http://www.wpxi.com/news/15322672/detail.html

Remember, life is precious, and we all have obstacles. But Grace showed more courage as a child than most adults do.

And as I said in the story on Saturday ... This princess is now heaven's newest angel.

comments

crazycatemorgan

2/19/2008 5:39 PM

very sweet..