

“Be humble about your accomplishments, work harder than the man next to you, it is all right for boys to cry. There are other times when the journal gets more serious, and King gives his son beautiful life advice: Being in the eighth grade, it was a big step for me.” “I walked her home after school and she thanked me by giving me a kiss. For example, he shares personal memories from his childhood: singing in the youth choir at church, rooting for the Cleveland Browns, and the story of his first kiss. In it, she shares passages from the journal that King wrote for his son. In 2008, Dana Canedy turned her New York Times article into a memoir, A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor.
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And he believed what he was doing was right.” A Journal Full of Wisdom and Memories As quoted by Canedy in the New York Times article, he said: But such overtures probably would not have swayed King.

King, blamed himself for not urging his son to avoid unnecessary risks. “Although he was not required to join the resupply convoy in Baghdad, he believed that his soldiers needed someone experienced with them.”Īfter King’s death, his father, Charlie J. The family later learned that King had volunteered for the mission on which he died in Iraq. King missed Jordan’s birth because he refused to take leave before all of his own soldiers had a chance to go home.

“We never said aloud that the fear that he might not return was why we decided to have a child before we planned a wedding, rather than risk never having the chance.” In the lead-up to his deployment, Canedy says they talked often about the dangers he would face. On the night of the baby shower for Jordan, during his two-week leave, King spent much of the evening worrying about his soldiers in Iraq. A “gifted artist” who had trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, Canedy writes, he found fulfillment as a solider and was deeply loyal to those with whom he served. He was 48 years old, and one month away from completing his tour of duty. On October 14, 2006, 1st Sergeant Charles Monroe King was killed after an improvised explosive device detonated near his armored vehicle. “was so intoxicated by love for his son that he barely slept, instead keeping vigil over the baby.” Charles Monroe King’s Life of Service The next month, King took a two-week leave to travel home and meet Jordan, then five months old, for the first time. “shook Charles so deeply that he wanted to send it even though he had more to say.” Days prior, King recovered the body of one of his soldiers from a tank. In July of the next year, he mailed the incomplete work to her. Then, Canedy writes, King set out to work on what would become the journal for Jordan. He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital.” He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment. “drew pictures of himself with angel wings. King boarded a plane for Iraq in December 2005, and Canedy begins the article with his final actions in the United States, noting he:
#A journal for jordan movie#
Here are more details of the true story behind the movie A Journal for Jordan: Preparing For Deployment, and for the Worstĭana Canedy, an accomplished journalist who is currently an executive at Simon & Schuster, first told the story of Charles Monroe King and his journal in a 2007 article for the New York Times. King had also written a 200-page journal, full of advice and memories, for his son to have in the event that he did not return from Iraq. He left behind Dana Canedy (played by Chanté Adams), his partner of eight years, and their six-month-old son, Jordan. Jordan in the movie) was killed in action near Baghdad. In 2006, 1st Sergeant Charles Monroe King (played by Michael B. The story is so tragic and beautiful that it’s hard to believe it is based on real events. That is the evolution of A Journal for Jordan. This installment focuses on the tragic and beautiful true story behind A Journal for Jordan.Īn article, then a memoir, and now a movie directed by Denzel Washington.
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Real Stories is a column about the true stories behind movies and TV shows.
