It’s tough enough to come to work at two in the morning. It’s even harder to persuade other people to get up in time for a live interview on the morning show.
But Alison Parker was persuasive and persistent.
Our desks were just a few feet apart in the WDBJ7 newsroom, and many mornings she was working the phones when I came to work, lining up stories weeks in advance. If someone turned her down, she would scowl for a minute, then pick up the phone and start over.
Alison was great with features, like the segments that put her on a stand-up paddle board, a ski slope or among the mirrors of a carnival fun house, but she had a passion for hard news.
Her work on the recent WDBJ7 special Childhood Lost is something that stands out. She worked on the program for weeks, often heading out for interviews long after her normal shift had ended. She developed a close relationship with a young survivor and her family.
Alison wasn’t trying to win an award. She wanted to make a difference with the program. And she did.
Last year on May 9th, Alison pulled me into a selfie she was taking with Adam Ward. It was her first day as WDBJ7’s new Mornin’ reporter, and the picture was her first tweet from her new twitter account. I will always treasure that snapshot, because it shows both of them exactly as I want to remember them: with broad smiles on their faces.
In the last week, friends have paid tribute to Adam by sharing some of his text messages, so I checked mine. In April, a birthday greeting in capital letters: “JOE HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM MELISS AND I.” In July, when I feared I had awakened him from a sound sleep, he sent a picture of the view from his couch, with a Bud Light and a box of Ritz Crackers in front of him on the coffee table.
I worked with Adam last Monday. Alison was off, and I joined him for live segments from the parking lot of the Roanoke Civic Center. We had fun as we always did. He gave me a high-five on camera when I got the weather quiz question right. And we talked about his plans for the future.
Knowing he was heading to Charlotte for job interviews, I asked if he was planning to apply for any positions in television. He said no, he was getting out of news. He spoke of the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16th, 2007, when scores of journalists arrived on the Blacksburg campus from around the world. He didn’t want to cover tragedies, he said, and be the guy who must turn the camera on people who are grieving.
I tell that story not because of what happened two days after our conversation, but because it says what kind of person Adam was.
One week after the deaths of Alison Parker and Adam Ward, my heart aches for their families, and for Melissa and Chris. I’m angry they were taken away from us too soon. And I can’t begin to understand the twisted logic that brought us to this moment.
But I also know we will always remember their spirit, their sense of humor, their determination to do the right thing and their love for the people around them. And we will continue to look in their direction as we try to find our better selves.
Joe Dashiel
