Christopher Reeve’s Son Lives Out What His Late Parents Taught Him
By Movieguide® Contributor
Will Reeve is sharing the way he stays connected to his late parents, actors Christopher and Dana Reeve.
“I connect with my parents, and I try to feel their presence in the way that I move through the world, the way that I interact with people, and the way that I might channel my parents in my values and my lived experience in the present moment,” he told PEOPLE.
Christopher passed away in 2004 when Will was just 12. His mother died the following year after battling lung cancer.
In an interview with USA Today, Will acknowledged that he often feels angry about the short amount of time he got with his parents but ultimately feels grateful for the time they did spend together.
“In that short window of time I got with my parents, they raised me in a normal, human, grounded way, which, mostly, gives me a sane approach to everything that life throws at you,” the ABC News correspondent explained.
Will added, “Talking about my parents keeps them with me. I’m so proud to be their son, to be part of this family. To reintroduce my parents to people who loved them, and to show off my parents to a new generation who might not be familiar with their story. Honestly, it’s just a privilege that we can carry them with us into this future that so needs heroes.”
“Those five stages of grief are there, from denial to acceptance, but the sixth stage I’ve learned is healing and we can all get there,” he concluded. “Grief is permanent but healing is possible. That is a mantra for me. I try to honor them by how I live and treat other people.”
READ MORE: HOW COMMUNITY SAVED CHRISTOPHER REEVE’S KIDS AFTER HIS, WIFE’S DEATHS
Will recently connected with his father’s memory through an ABC special, WILL REEVE: FINDING MY FATHER. In the special, Will retraces the path the SUPERMAN actor took while filming a 1995 nature documentary, IN THE WILD: GRAY WHALES WITH CHRISTOPHER REEVE.
“It has been my mission for years now to find a way to show the world the Christopher Reeve on display in that hourlong nature documentary and to use the 30-year-old film as an entry point into the void I’ve had in me since he was injured and since he’s been gone,” Will wrote in an essay for ABC.
He added, “I wanted the world to remember Christopher Reeve as a hero, sure, a super man, an advocate, activist, and author, all these things that he was. But I also wanted to bring the world with me on a literal and figurative quest to find my dad at his essence.”
READ MORE: WHY CHRISTOPHER REEVE’S SON DOESN’T PLAN ON FOLLOWING HIS DAD’S SUPERHERO FOOTSTEPS
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