He made me promise that if anything ever happened to him, I would call you and tell you that he loves you and you’re going to be okay.Ĭanedy was speechless. You don’t know me, but I was friends with Sergeant King, and he gave me your phone number. My name is Sergeant Wesley, the message said. Then she noticed the voicemail light on her phone was blinking. She called out to God for a sign, anything to show her that King was still with her. It was hard to breathe, and everything physically hurt.”Īs she walked through her front door, Canedy wasn’t sure if she could keep going. “Jordan was only six months old at the time, and I remember thinking how heavy he felt. She’d just returned to her Manhattan apartment after signing paperwork at King’s military base. She recalled that one day before King’s funeral, everything hit her harder than ever before. It was God that got Canedy through her grief after losing King. “We both just laughed and said, ‘Yep, God’s got us.’” “Denzel didn’t know about that until I told him,” she said. She told him the last time she and Jordan had visited King’s grave in Cleveland, they’d seen three deer sitting peacefully under a nearby tree. But when he called Canedy to tell her what happened, she was shocked. The director then looked up to see three deer sitting calmly under a tree nearby. After no luck in finding the right spot, Washington paused to ask King to show him where the scene should be filmed. Early one morning, Washington went to Arlington National Cemetery to scout a location for a scene at King’s grave (King is actually buried in Cleveland, Ohio).Īccording to Canedy, Washington often looked for signs from beyond during the filming process. There was even a hint at God’s hand at work during the production of the film. Jordan shares how his upbringing shaped his life. “You see in their performances a profound sense that they’re honoring Charles and his legacy.” “It was important to me that they see that there is a real Charles and a real Jordan,” she said. Jordan and Adams were both intensely moved by them. The first day she was on set, Canedy brought King’s actual journal, as well as his dog tags. Jordan or Chanté Adams, who play King and Canedy. Washington prayed with the cast and crew before some scenes and never lost sight of the fact that the story he was telling was real. “He brought his sense of spirituality and his belief in God to this,” she said. Canedy said she was thrilled when Denzel Washington came on as director. Telling that story to even more people was made possible when it was announced her book would be going to the big screen. I was meant to be Jordan’s mother and to be there at the end of Charles’ life. “I could not have known all of that, and that’s just by God’s amazing grace. Canedy initially pushed King away because she was convinced it wouldn’t work. The two came from very different backgrounds – she was an accomplished writer focused on her career, and King was a more carefree person, devoted to the military. When Canedy first met King, it was not love at first sight. Dana Canedy (Photo: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University) Canedy talked with about her relationship with King and their inspiring story. Right before his death, King sent the journal to Canedy, who held onto it so Jordan could know his father-a man of courage, compassion, and faith.
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