[katy perry's "firework"] newscaster: zach sobeich's soul is filled with lyrics racing against time. zach sobiech with clouds. very incredible story. zach sobiech was diagnosed with a deadly form of bone cancer. katie couric: after a four year battle marked by courage and grace, zach sobiech died onmay 20th. news: his song "clouds" reached number oneon itunes. the song has raised more than five hundred thousand dollars.we will all remember zach as the young man from stillwater, minnesota who lost his battlewith osteosarcoma, which is a rare and malignant
form of bone cancer. rock the cause has thehonor of working with laura sobiech, zach's mom. one of the things you told me when yourealized that you were going to lose zach, you had to put your hope into everything thatcame after. can you talk to us about that? laura sobiech: for me, in the cancer worldwe hear the word hope, so there's hope for a cure, hope for more time, all those differentforms of hope and so i had to figure out, okay now what do i hope for. because all thoseother things were taken off the table. laura: he died on a monday and it was a saturdayand sort of had his foot in eternity's door. and so when you would watch him, he was layingon the couch and he would reach out his hand. he would act like he was throwing a baseballor football or turning the knobs on his amp.
at one point looked over and he was playingthe guitar. but there was one time where he was, like he was wanting to grab somebody'shand so i walked over and i grabbed his hand. and it was so warm and rough from the medicationhe was taking and his fingers were calloused from the guitar and he grabbed my hand reallytight. i just held it to my cheek and then he opened his eyes and i said, you don't haveto stay here. you can go, and he said "okay." [alarm ringing] rob: he died in the morning,it was like six-forty. you don't realize the emotion involved indeath until you experience it. letting go was what it is. you're letting go of the connectionwith that person, at least on this earth.
it's tough, you know, we're a very stoic familyfrom an emotion standpoint. things happen in this world that aren't always positive.and getting your mind around is it far or isn't it fair, and in the end it took me forty-nineyears to figure out that, you know what, it just happens, guys. sam: the hardest part i think, i was talking to my mom about this. the hardest part about him being gone are the moments that you forget that he's gone. those are the worst.laura: that's something that i catch myself doing too. because you get so focused on,okay the next thing that i have to do, the next thing i have to do, and then that's wheni get caught off guard and it slams me really
hard that he's gone. i was getting togethersome stuff from his bedroom, like oh i need to find that t-shirt, so i went down and iwas sorting through his stuff and it just breaks everything in me.sammy: it was just such a weird feeling like that his empty room was, like i felt likemore like i was hanging out with zach in his room and he wasn't there at all.laura: it's still such a sanctuary for us to go and just be with him. i find more ofhim there that god is great. amy: there was one night, it was sammy, zachand i and it was actually in january when he found out his cancer had grown we stayedup really late and all just kind of got really emotional and started crying and zach wentin another room and sammy and i were talking
and we're like, we're really going to needeach other. amy: sammy and i have a crazy connection wherewe can be together and talk about absolutely anything and i know that she'll always havemy back. she's like my sister! sammy: she's probably the one who gets itthe most out of all of my friends. because yes she was zach's girlfriend, but she wasalso his best friend. we're his best friends so we get it. sam: our family dynamic i would describe as kind of like, it was like a duality kind of.me and alli are really close, when grace was born, zach formed a deep bond with grace.they had some kind of weird like almost magical way of interacting with each other that ididn't quite understand.
amy: we both worry about grace so much becausewe had to go to college and kind of be away from it.sammy: a huge distraction and then grace is like going to this new school where zach wentand i just remember hearing that she was bummed not being able to like tell zach about herteachers that he had too or how classes went. grace: well, he was basically my other halfand it really sucks to have that other half ripped off of you. that's all. he was just my other half. alli: what's weird is nothing prepares youfor losing your little brother. like the hardest part was right before he died and then afterhe died it just go so much easier because i felt like i knew him in a way i have neverknown him before. like i knew his spirit.
he like creeps into my life on a daily basis,like just the way he works. one example is i had to move to virginia, i got married elevendays after he died, so that was crazy and turbulent, and i didn't really have time toprocess it, so i moved to virginia and i was sad and i would miss my family and i was depressedabout the whole thing so we decided to get a dog, a little wiener dog because zach alwayswanted a pack of wiener dogs. we got him, brought him home, and i looked at the certificateand butters, our dog's birthday is the same birthday as zach's. so it was kind of justreally bizarre coincidence. amy: this is me and a couple of zach's closestfriends. we decided to take a road trip, and we took a picture out by a lighthouse andi posted it on instagram and it was a cute
group picture and then i looked on the commentsand someone said is that a "z" in the clouds? sammy: and she goes "oh my god!"amy: because i was just on my phone, and we're walking down the streets of duluth, like noway! and then i look at the picture closely and there it was, but we never saw the cloud!we just saw it in the picture. laura: i've only had one dream, we had hisfuneral three days later and it was the night of their spring concert. so i went to it afterthe funeral and the dream that i had a couple days later was of, i was walking to the frontof that same auditorium and i turned back from the front to look at the auditorium,i was looking for zach, and he was behind somebody and he just tipped his head likethis so that i could see him,
just so i could see him,then he went back. [sammy singing "clouds"] amy: well, after he died there was just acrazy blow-up of people that heard his story. then his song spiked to number one on itunes.sammy: and i think it got to number one the day of his funeral, so it was a crazy mixof feelings. sammy: nobody knew how they were going tobe after he died, i don't think anybody thought that they would be totally, completely changed,we just didn't know how it was going to be. and now like a year later it's not like i'msurprised about how we're doing i guess because i had no expectations. i knew he was goingto die, that was certain and everything after
was just a mystery. and now i'm here and i'mokay and i'm sad a lot about it, but i'm okay. amy: one time we just talked about what itwould be like when he finally died and he just said "you're going to be okay and eventuallyyou're going to move on, but you have to promise that you're never going to settle for anyone."and he said to find someone better than him, which i don't think is possible. but i toldhim that i promised to do that. i feel so lucky, i wouldn't trade anything and as hardas it was, i'm so glad that i got to know him and be with him and be a part of this.because it's so much bigger than any of us. he was the best guy i've ever known and probablyever will know. laura: there were times throughout our experiencethat i just knew i need to write about this.
and so i did keep a journal, especially atthe end. i wasn't sure it would be a book, that was intimidating though, i didn't thinki could write a book. but i also knew i would lose those memories if i didn't write themdown. sam: i think she knew that what had transpiredover the last few years of zach's life would make a huge difference to a lot of peopleand touch a lot of hearts. and i've never seen anyone quite so driven to do something.laura: i was really grateful that i had a project like that to jump in to because tome it would have felt almost like a betrayal to go back to life the way it was, you know,and just like picking up and going on. rob: i read it from cover to cover in oneday. i had never read any of the copy of it
before and i cried, i mean, i cried.laura: it's not a story about a kid who dies, it's a story about a kid who lives and bringshope to the world just like with his song and with the video, i mean it was a big story,but there were a lot of little things that happened too and that's the story i want tobring to people. radio host: that's one of the amazing thingsabout when i first met you and zach, and i walked up and i said hey zach i'm with a label,we just got you on itunes, you're on sale in 146 countries, and his face lit up andhe said well that's really cool man." but he still wasn't grasping it. what i saw amonth later when we went to the varsity theater for the big concert for zach, which you talkabout in the book, it's a great section of
the book where zach wanted to get out andplay some live shows and twelve hundred people showed up, but seeing zach evolve into thismusician, who knew that his time was short, but he became this rockstar who knew thathe had a platform that he could change the world with through his music, that was a coolevolution to see. sam: i think above all, above all this stuffthat's happened before like you know he was a hero to a lot of people, even before anyof that, the very first thing he was to me was that he was my brother, and he was humanbeing, he was the best friend that i ever had, on a human level. grace: he always makes his way in, makes it a little better i guess he's trying to keepit like it used to be. he didn't have to do
something, he would just try to do a thingto make me happy. he just needed to be there and i guess i haven't really realized it untilnow, but he's making his way in, just sitting there quietly, waiting for me to notice him. laura: thank you guys for coming out tonight. so not long ago zach was a very average kidliving a very average, normal, teenage life. i remember one afternoon i found him lyingon our living room couch and when i walked in the room i could tell there was somethingwrong. so i sat down and i asked, "zach, what's wrong?" and that's when he started to cry.he wanted to do be doing what a normal junior in high school would be doing, but insteadhe was dealing with his pain and trying to
figure out how to do this thing, how to livewhile dying. rob: it's not about what job you're goingto get when you get older, it's not about how much money you're going to make when youget older, when you get to be seventy-five or eighty years old, if you're fortunate enoughto live that long, zach wasn't, but if you guys are, you're going to look back and saywhat good did i do for others. rob: there's this world where people go towork, they make money, they buy a car, they might buy a boat, they have kids. but there'sthe other fifty percent that involves in my mind, spirituality, connecting with people,and making a difference in the world. alli: when it comes down to it, it's the relationshipsyou have with other people that is the most
important thing, how you treat other peopleand how you love them. laura: with everything that happened aroundzach with the videos and the response to the song and all of the outpouring of people aroundthe world, i think i have a better understanding of humanity. because what i see is that weall hunger for the same thing, we are all desperate for hope and for love. if i hadto do it all over again, i wouldn't give up a moment. i am a blessed woman, i truly am, to have had that child in my life. he was a great kid.
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