One benefit of being a reporter is the role of quiet observer in a community — following events but not interfering with the news as it unfolds.
A story assignment in Jasper two years ago is one such event. The experiences of one family have left a lasting impression, and I continue to follow their story.
Tayden Grohs was 4 years old when we first met.
He was throwing a football around with his various cousins on the lawn of his grandparents’ Jasper home. I was walking to my vehicle parked nearby. The annual celebration parade had just finished and I was heading home.
Tayden, on the other hand, was a ball of energy that first week in August. He brought a smile to my face as he giggled and dashed around in the grass with his cousins.
Weeks later, Tayden was diagnosed with cancer.
My first story about his courageous fight was the announcement of a fundraiser for the family. A year’s salary was raised for the family of four so Mom and Dad could spend time with Tayden and not worry about working to pay the household bills.
The fundraiser was also the topic of the second story a year later.
By then the cancer took Tayden’s ability to walk, and talking was limited to a few words. It was a drastic change from the chatty ball of energy I first met.
He died Christmas Day last December. I attended his visitation in Jasper.
Poster boards filled with hundreds of pictures lined the hallway at the church. All the pictures showed a smiling Tayden, many with his little hand in the “thumbs-up” position.
June 25 marked Tayden’s (or Tay as his family often called him) sixth birthday. His family observed the day with an uplifting message of “Tay It Forward.”
Patterned off the good deed idea of “pay it forward,” the Grohs family encouraged people last Thursday to “go out and make someone smile in honor of our little Buddy.”
Those who participated in Tay It Forward were also encouraged to share their gestures on social media.
The gestures ranged from buying donuts and breakfast pizza for co-workers to donating teddy bears to the social services office in Brookings in Tayden’s name.
Donations were given to a local fire department for Tayden’s love of fire trucks, ice cream cones were handed out along with cans of Sprite and M&M cookies, which were the little boy’s favorite.
Included with each of the smile-making gestures was a piece of paper with a picture of a smiling Tayden giving a “thumbs up” and an explanation of Tay It Forward remembrance.
The message did travel thanks to social media with reports of smiles reaching residents in Texas and Arizona.
In Texas someone wrote they tipped the waitress 100 percent of the bill.
In Arizona smiles were evoked by both parties as D.J. Jewett wrote to the Groh family, “not real original but I bought Starbucks for the lady behind me today and asked her to ‘Tay It Forward’ in his memory. I think she thought I had a bad lisp, but it made me smile thinking about your family today.”
D.J.’s story made me smile, too.
What a wonderful remembrance Tay It Forward turned out to be.