What if you’re a sportswriter for a major daily and you hear that two champion teen swimmers and divers had just gotten married in their parents’ front yard?
That’s just the start. And that the ceremony was put together in four days because the 18-year-old groom is dying of an incurable cancer? And that both believe that God is involved in this drama?
You hightail it over to where the couple lives and start taking notes fast. This story is what the Indianapolis Star published on Friday. Yes, this story gives the religion angle the attention it deserves, although some important details are missing.
They stood at the white altar on her parents' driveway, in the exact spot where Chase Smith had parked his truck to pick up Sadie Mills for their first date.
That spot on the driveway where the two 18-year-olds now stood to exchange their wedding vows was the same spot where six months before they'd shared their first kiss, full of sweet teenage love and new beginnings.
As Chase watched Sadie come toward him in her simple white dress, he shook his head, smiled and then started crying.
Both were — or had been — nationally ranked swimmers (him) or divers (her). They’d met just after a local swimming meet.
But then in March, the cancer that had sidetracked Chase from the pool for the past six years had shown up again in a particularly virulent form known as Ewing’s sarcoma.
More scans showed tumors all over his skull, in the fluid of the lining of his brain, surrounding the pituitary gland. With or without treatment, the prognosis for his 6-year battle with Ewing's sarcoma was the same. Chase had three to five months to live.
The wedding was planned in four days. Through tears and laughs, creating a love story for the ages, the couple kissed to seal their vows on April 299. One of their promises: to spend every moment they have left together. Another: to latch onto their faith and God more than ever.
Thus, what was a human-interest story, written by longtime sports writer Dana Hunsinger Benbow, sort of becomes a religion story.
And so each morning when they wake up next to one another, they hold hands and pray. And every night before they go to sleep, they hold hands and pray.
"We, every day, pray for a miracle together because we trust in God," said Sadie. "We pray that Chase would stay on this earth longer so we can bring more people our story of love."
If you want the religion details of this couple, such as which church they attend, what kind of spiritual sustenance they may be getting from it –- or their Christian friends -– you won’t find it here. Who performed the wedding?
Sometimes these details are missing because the subjects of a story don’t want to say much. Sometimes it’s because the reporter doesn’t know to ask.
They went to church together. To movies. They talked about life and their futures.
"He was so sweet. He's very polite. He's a good Christian boy," she said. "We just fell in love with each other's personalities. Now, he is all that matters to me."
On April 24, he got the prognosis telling him he had little time left. The doctors could do no more. The teens and their families met and decided that if the two wished to marry, their families would support them.
Left unmentioned is how Sadie must be processing this. Is she hoping that somehow her new husband, buoyed by his marriage, might survive somehow or at least gain an extra year or two? How does she cope with the thought that she could be a widow by sometime this summer?
So much was packed into this story and I’m wanting to hear more.
Before the ceremony, they stood holding hands around a corner so they couldn't see one another. They prayed and read the letters they had written to one another.
After the vows and after Chase kissed his bride, they raised their hands together to the heavens, Chase holding up one finger. Two had become one.
Actually, looking at the photo, Chase’s gesture looks more like he’s pointing toward heaven or giving a “one way Jesus” sign that became famous in the 1970s.
Anyway, the article is gracefully written, has a beautiful ending and plenty of God mentions in the piece. This blog has seen many writers ignore the obvious religion factors in a story of this kind. Thankfully, this one did not.
Obviously the article has touched many readers, according to a GoFundMe page for Chase’s medical bills. Since the article came out, some 190 people have donated toward the family’s $50,000 goal. Maybe there will be followups to this piece where the reporter can get at some of the details about the beliefs that are so obviously holding this couple together right now.