Most newspaper articles recount events that have already happened. But for Kelly Estes, one article she discovered as a teenager ended up shaping her future.

At 15, Estes was rummaging through her grandmother’s belongings when she came across a newspaper clipping. It told the story of her great uncle, Sgt. Donald Fitzmaurice, who served and died in World War II at the age of 23.

Until that moment, she had never heard his story. It was something her relatives never talked about.

“It was just incredibly painful for the family,” Estes said. “He died so young and had so much promise.”

Moved by the discovery, Estes, then a high school junior, chose to center a history report around her great uncle. That report would eventually evolve into a documentary and a book titled Cost of Courage

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