The Courageous Kid
It's not often that we feature stories about funerals on News Gems, but Mike White's "Funeral for a Teen Whose Bravery Touched So Many" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette grabbed my heart. White does an amazing job of using simple words to richly describe the service for 18-year-old John Challis, whose positive attitude while battling liver cancer inspired many people. ESPN had already done a story on how John, gravely ill from his disease, had smacked a single in his only time at the plate for his high school baseball team. But what impresses me the most about White's story is how he honestly shares his own emotions, as he does in this scene:
John's parents had asked Joe Signore, a close friend of the family, to eulogize their son, but during his speech, Mr. Signore revealed that John also had asked him, before his parents did.
But John had made Mr. Signore promise he would do one thing at the funeral. Mr. Signore asked John's younger sister, Lexie, and his mother and father to leave their first-row pew and come to the front of the church.
"Lexie, Gina, Scott. John made me promise to do this," he said. "He told me that you had gotten so many people to applaud him. Now it's your turn."
At once, everyone rose and gave the Challises a standing ovation. The applause was loud. So was the crying throughout the church. Lexie cried profusely. Tears filled my eyes, too.
White then goes on to retell how he first came to admire John while writing about him:
In almost 30 years of covering high school sports for the Post-Gazette, I have had scores of parents call in wanting coverage for their child or team or to complain about a lack of coverage. But on a night in late June, I got a parent call like no other.
"Mike, neither the doctors or me think John will make it more than another week," Scott Challis said. "We want you to be the one to write John's obituary. Will you?"
John Challis affected many from different walks of life, including me. I had never met John before I wrote a story about him for the first Sunday in May. I have interviewed thousands of high school athletes, but I have never cried interviewing one -- like I did that day with John. Our photographer, Matt Freed, also cried while making a video of the interview for the Internet. John cried, too, when he asked me if I had any kids and I told him I had three sons.
Here is White's original story about Challis: www.post-gazette.com/pg/08125/878966-85.stm
A big thanks to Matt Presser for suggesting these stories.