Overcoming Cancer Together
The audio story that I listened to was about Jerris Marr and his daughter, Faith. Faith, who is now ten years old, had a rare form of cancer on her spine when she was four years old. Her doctors were unsure that she would survive and she had to undergo a number of surgeries and operations. Thankfully, she is doing okay now and her cancer is in remission.
I found this particular story to be compelling for a couple reasons. For one, it reminded me of a childhood friend of mine whose older brother had a cancerous brain tumor. Sadly, he passed away around 8 years ago, but Faith’s story reminded me of how my friend’s family rallied around his brother. The whole experience made my friend extremely close to his family similarly to Faith and her father. Also, Faith reminded me of my younger siblings who are 9, 8, and 7 years old. I cannot imagine any of them having to go through what she did, but Faith’s story gives me hope that, together, my family could overcome anything just like hers did.
Faith’s audio story started after her cancer was already in remission. In it, her dad and her discussed what the experience was like and how they feel about it now. As soon as it started, I felt like I had to keep listening because it was such an inspirational and touching story. You could tell from the way that Faith and her father were talking to each other that they really love each other and that this awful experience brought them closer together. As someone whose family is extremely important to them, this really resonated with me.
I think part of what made this story so emotional was the use of audio as opposed to just text. The audience probably could have gotten the gist of the story from just text, but it would not have been as powerful. Hearing Jerris and Faith’s voices and the way they talked to each other added a lot. Faith’s voice, especially, reinforced how young she was, but also how this experience made her extremely mature for her age. Reading that someone is ten years old is one thing, but hearing the voice of a child talking about how she almost died really makes it sink in.
The way the audio story was recorded made it seem like a conversation between Jerris and Faith. This made it seem very personal and emotional. You could hear the love between the two in a way that would not be the same if Faith was being asked questions by some random reporter. I believe that this format allowed the listener to really engage in the story because of how personal it was. Just a plain newspaper article would not have been nearly as compelling and absorbing as a conversation between a man and his daughter about a challenge that they had to overcome together.
Here is a link to the audio story: http://storycorps.org/listen/faith-and-jerris-marr/
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After listening to the audio story you chose, it is clear how the story depicts the emotions of both Faith and her father. When her father begins the audio story discussing Faith in her hospital room after her surgery he says, “I didn’t think it was you.” That quote gave me chills and right there I wanted to to continue listening.
It is a very casual conversation and flows naturally. I like how Jerris, Faith’s father, probes Faith to keep the conversation going and answer questions such as the one, “What do you think you’ve learned from cancer.”
The story concludes discussing how Faith has beat cancer and how inspirational her strength is to her father. The music at the end was positive and hopeful which is incredibly appropriate for the audio story.
I think the audio story was the perfect length to display what Faith has overcome and how it has strengthened her relationship with her father. The simplicity in the dialogue makes it so easy to follow along.