I've written almost exclusively about trauma for the past few years, and this story was among the most difficult I've ever reported. I know it's hard to get through, especially now, but I hope you'll try. The Howards are an extraordinary family. (thread) washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…
When the doctor asked Reign, then 9, if she would donate bone marrow to her younger brother, Messiah, she wondered if that meant the doctors would have to take actual bones out of her body. It didn’t matter, Reign decided. She would still do it. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…
“Thank you for saving my life,” Messiah told his sister after the transplant.
Two weeks later, he started wheezing. On April 16, her dad got the call.
Messiah didn’t want to be put to sleep, and just before the doctors intubated him, he tried to stall.
“Wait, wait, wait. Let me tell you something,” he pleaded with his mom. She gave him a sip of water and watched his eyes fade shut. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…
Reign almost cried at his funeral, the first one she had ever attended, but forced herself not to.
“You’re so strong,” people told her, praise repeated many times in the months that followed. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…
“I couldn’t save him,” Reign said to her dad once, but every time he asked if she was all right, Reign nodded and smiled and told him she was fine. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…
This story — the last in our series — was the product of several brilliant people: editor @WPLyndaRobinson, photographer Marvin Joseph and designer @jjalcantara, among others. Thankful to each of them and everyone else who contributed.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
As I wrote this story, I heard people claim every day that the virus is a hoax, that’s it’s not as bad as reporters suggest, that it will soon be a memory.
For those people, here is what three children in Michigan have endured since March. (THREAD) wapo.st/virusorphans
The last time Nadeen saw her mother — her best friend — Nada was being lifted into an ambulance. A day later, Nadeen had to call 911 for her dad, too.
“I’ve been to this address before,” the paramedic told her.
“Yeah,” she replied. “You took my mom.” wapo.st/virusorphans
Nash — who didn't have a bank account or know what size clothes he wore — was suddenly in charge of caring for his sisters. After losing his mom, his dad wasn't expected to survive Mother's Day.
"Please not today," he prayed. His father died one day later. wapo.st/virusorphans
1/ This year, I partnered w/ @dataeditor to chronicle the many ways school shootings affect children in America. Our project, edited by the magnificent @WPLyndaRobinson, was anchored by a deep look at how the epidemic has changed students who endured them. wapo.st/2AdJyoM
2/ Our school shootings database, the most exhaustive ever built, charts incidents dating back to '99. We found that 2018 was, by every measure, the worst year in modern U.S. history.
Shootings: 25
People shot: 94
People killed: 33
Students exposed: 25,332 wapo.st/2rYyLtX
3/ Three weeks after a teenager killed 17 people in Parkland, we told the story of Jesse Osborne, a 14-year-old in South Carolina whose planning and confession provided extraordinary insight into the mind of a school shooter: wapo.st/2AhblVv
1/6 — We published six stories this year that explored how children in America contend every day with gun violence. The first featured Tyshaun, a second-grader whose father was shot outside his D.C. school: wapo.st/2pW37uf
The second followed first-graders Ava, Karson, Siena and Collin, who were on a S.C. playground when a teen shot their friend Jacob. Those kids are among more than 135,000 who've experienced a school shooting since Columbine: wapo.st/2r6jDJd
The third was about Latee, a Chicago teen who'd lost 10 people he knew to gunfire, none older than 22. After being shot at age 15, his only goal was to survive: wapo.st/2vtQGtO