Terrible things every day but when the residents of West Chester, Ohio heard that local first-grader Erik Richey was diagnosed with terminal cancer, they decided to do something about it. Within hours of hearing the tragic news, they gathered in the town square to stand around with their arms crossed saying stuff like, “Jesus Christ. Six? That’s awful. Wow. What a goddamn shame.”
Wow! You don’t hear inspiring stories like that all the time! Well, except in the comments of any local news story on Facebook.
Even more incredible, this beautiful story started with the help of one resident. Local librarian Robert Schifter said, “When I heard the news, I knew I had to do something. So I walked outside and approached everyone I saw. I said things like, ‘Damn’ and ‘Stage IV.’ Before ya know it, other people were chiming in with ‘I can’t even imagine how his mother feels right now’ and ‘Christ, the poor kid.’ After a while, we were mobilized.
The story didn’t end there! When word spread of the town coming together, opportunistic news anchor, Veronica Campbell, felt compelled to get involved. “I knew I had an obligation to use my position to get this story on TV and just say, ‘I mean fuck. Does he even understand what’s happening to him? And his sisters, they’re going to have to carry this forever. Why? Why?'”
Faith in humanity restored! When little Erik Richey heard the news of his town coming together he must have felt like the luckiest kid in the world!