County Life {Marshall}
Lucky m e
Fern Greenbank
Community Storyteller
Marshall County has come out in force to support Brandon Bradley, a teenager going
through his second round of treatment for leukemia.
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When you write a story about someone, it’s a huge
privilege but also a huge responsibility. Until you have
been the subject of a story or a person involved in a published or broadcast story, you don’t really know what it
feels like to be presented through another person’s eyes.
You have no control over the words or the tone or the conclusions drawn.
Even in my hard news days, when I had to report
information that I knew could or would upset someone,
I always put myself in the shoes of others. Accuracy and
fairness are the basic tenets of journalism. As long as you
stay true to those principles, you can feel good about your
work. I’m so glad hard news days are over for me. I think
reporting news is important, but our local newspaper is
charged with doing that, so I’m in an enviable position. I
get to write about people, places, things, ideas, programs,
history and culture. But even writing about these things,
a journalist has to consider the impact of their choices,
which words to use, which parts of stories to tell, which
pictures to use and what to emphasize.
I’m so lucky. I get invited into peoples’ lives for a
brief moment. They share with me and then, I hope, trust
me to tell their stories in a way that feels right and true.
This month, I wrote about a man that wants to change the
world in some way, even if it’s just a drop in the bucket of
change needed. I wrote a story that his children will read
someday to learn about the man they call dad.
I also found myself writing about a young man faced
with immortality and it was a hard story to write. You are
limited by space. There was such depth to this story and I
knew I couldn’t do it justice. I hope to follow his journey.
I thought of all the people suffering with cancer or frightening situations alone, without a community to lift them.
This young man, at least, has an entire army of people invested in his story and his recovery. This young man has
more wisdom and maturity than most people my age. He
doesn’t know me one bit, yet I am writing about his life
and the fears his mother has that she might lose her son.
This mother gives new meaning to “mama bear.”
I got to know moms for this issue that did something
extraordinary when they did not have to do anything.
They bonded together over anguish when their children
were deployed to fight in hostile territory and they turned
that anxiety into love. They continue to support our
troops now even if they are not deployed or on the front
lines. They’ve developed a sense of purpose that not all
people find in their lives.
Even a story that seems fluffy and non-controversial, like a little market that has created a park along the
banks of the Duck River, required me to consider the impact of my work. Terry and Laura Powers have put their
life savings and their lives into the Rock Creek Market.
How I interpret their passion matters to them and their
family.
Every story I write matters to me because it matters
to the people I write about and it matters to the people
who read the stories. The approach I take, I hope, encourages people to see their neighbors and home in a positive
light that balances out the complaints we might have or
the negative direction we can all find ourselves taking
at one time or another. It’s my version of the glass half
empty or glass half full philosophy. I’m just so lucky to
have this chance to share stories that fill the glass and I’m
lucky that people trust me to tell their story accurately
and fairly with