We don’t know whether Richard Nary’s reunion with the family he abandoned 35 years ago will work out, but we do know lots of people will be interested to see.
Bee readers met Nary and his grown daughter, Krista Szymborski, through a front-page story by reporter Cynthia Hubert and photographer Renée C. Byer on Jan. 29.
The rest of the world met them later that day after Yahoo! featured the story on its news site; the story drew nearly 1.2 million page views at sacbee.com, and an accompanying photo gallery saw more than 550,000 views.
To recap briefly, Nary had been homeless in Sacramento before meeting a man named Todd Reiners, a computer specialist who works at The Bee. Reiners took Nary in, moving him out of a cardboard box near a gas station.
A Bee editor learned of the situation, and Hubert (aided by Bee researcher Sheila Kern) began reporting, checking out the backgrounds of the key players and verifying elements of the story.
Hubert and Byer were there when Szymborski arrived in Sacramento to meet the father who had left a wife and five children in upstate New York decades ago. Their story was published the next day, sharing Nary’s long struggles with alcohol abuse and the Facebook post by Szymborski that brought them back together.
“What made the story so successful, I think, is that everyone was willing to ‘play ball,’ to be honest about everything that happened and all the water under the bridge,” Hubert told me the other day in an e-mail. “There was no sugar-coating from anyone.”
Their story connected with scores of readers on a personal level. Many began their online comments by sharing experiences of their own separation from children or parents.
Others were skeptical, if not cynical, warning of dire results from the reconnection.
For me, this underscores the enduring power of a compelling story. It also shows the value of careful reporting and the importance of honesty – among story subjects and journalists.
I asked Hubert about the story’s impact. She has been a reporter for 24 years, and said this piece ranked in her Top 10 in terms of reader response.
Szymborski, meanwhile, “tells me that they never imagined such a response and that it has been mostly gratifying though they were a little disturbed by some of the comments of the ‘haters’ online,” Hubert said.
The daughter has answered all the e-mail and phone calls she has received, Hubert said, and “is hopeful that their story can inspire others to find long-lost loved ones, and to forgive the ‘sins’ of the past.”
A few days after the first story ran, Hubert followed up with a report that Nary had decided to move in with his daughter in Wisconsin. There were worries (Nary was drinking beer again), but Szymborski remained hopeful, saying, “I hope he stays with us.”
I admire this family’s candor. And like many readers, I’ll hope to hear, eventually, how things turn out.
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