He heard the story as soon as. It was greater than 15 years in the past. Yet, this story of affection, loss, and restoration is indelibly etched in the reminiscence of best-selling writer Jason Reynolds. He thinks about it at the least as soon as a month.
“I can remember it like yesterday,” Reynolds told 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell. “I can remember every moment.”
The story belongs to Gary Lakin, his late spouse Sonya, and her greatest good friend Allison Oleszkowicz.
In 1999, Gary, a then-Lieutenant Commander in the United States Coast Guard, met and later married Sonya Lyall. About two months after their marriage ceremony Sonya contracted a uncommon type of most cancers. The most cancers then went away after remedy.
Sonya all the time dreamt of getting a baby and in response to Gary was prepared to sacrifice her personal bodily wellbeing for the probability to turn into a mom. He recounted a painstaking technique of in vitro fertilization and the pleasure he and Sonya felt when she grew to become pregnant naturally.
On April 24, 2004, Sonya had a son named Kai. Her solely little one. Less than a yr later her most cancers returned and she succumbed to the illness.
In the weeks following Sonya’s demise, Gary was joined in Virginia Beach by Allison, who traveled from her native Canada to assist handle Kai. Their relationship blossomed and in November 2006 the pair determined to report a dialog with StoryCorps.
“It was our way to pay tribute to Sonya and tell her story which we felt was an important one,” Allison Oleszkowicz informed 60 Minutes Overtime. “Since our lives and stories were so intertwined, it also gave Gary and I a way to step forward from our grief and be hopeful about a future together.”
StoryCorps is a non-profit group based in 2003 by radio journalist Dave Isay, who had the easy but highly effective thought that everyone’s story must be listened to and preserved. Gary and Allison couldn’t know at the time the impression their session would have on the individual facilitating it. Long earlier than he grew to become a celebrated storyteller in his personal proper, Jason Reynolds labored for StoryCorps after graduating from The University of Maryland.
“You get to watch a relationship and you get to watch it change,” Reynolds informed 60 Minutes about the expertise of facilitating a StoryCorps session. “Whether… the relationship is solidifying [or] the relationship is liquefying. Either of these things can be happening, and you don’t know which one you’re going to get. And I think even that, what a gift to be allowed to watch such an incredible thing happen.”
Reynolds facilitated near 300 classes over the 18 months he labored for StoryCorps. Many tales he forgot, however Gary, Sonya, and Allison’s story stayed with him. With 60 Minutes’ cameras rolling, the award-winning writer smiled and nodded as he listened again to parts of the recording that ended at the time with a shock, for each him and Allison: Gary proposed.
Gary Lakin and Allison Oleszkowicz wed in October 2007 and have since had two extra kids they’re elevating together with Kai.
“Kai is a senior in high school getting ready to graduate and has a great relationship with both of his sisters,” Allison Oleszkowicz-Lakin informed 60 Minutes Overtime IN 2022. “It’s been a very good life. We’ve been very fortunate.”
“There is something to be said for things bending toward good,” Reynolds stated after listening to the story. “This is terrible thing happened to these people. This terrible loss. But… there’s always another chance… There’s always time for love, and time for peace, and a time to fix things… That these two people saying, ‘You know what, we lost, and we gained. We lost her, and she gifted us each other.’ And I think there’s something to that…That’s the way I want to think about my life.”
You can hear Gary and Allison’s full 2006 StoryCorps session here.
The video above was initially printed on January 9, 2022 and was produced by Keith Zubrow and Sarah Shafer Prediger. It was edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger. Keith Sharman contributed to the story.
