TLC’s new family The Willises share their heartbreaking story (VIDEO)
If you aren’t familiar with the Willis family, this exclusive sneak peek at their new show — appropriately titled The Willis Family — makes it clear they aren’t your typical reality TV family. And the video certainly had us reaching for the tissues.
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When the Willis family first captured our hearts after making it to the final rounds of America’s Got Talent in 2014, we knew there was something special about this family, which rolls 14 deep and is headed by parents, Brenda and Toby Willis. But after watching this video, we’ve had to carve out a special place in our hearts for them.
The family’s backstory is a truly tragic one — losing six incredibly young siblings in a car crash while they were on their way to visit you is something we can’t even begin to imagine nor are we able to comprehend how Toby was able to deal with such an inexplicable loss.
But hearing some of his children talk about how Toby used poetry to express a lot of his feelings about the loss is incredibly touching, particularly because it’s so clear that the death of Toby’s siblings has had an effect on his own children, too.
“The lessons that you learn from something like that really do affect your life, and they really go with you. The idea that not just things, but people can be gone like that,” Jessica Willis explained after acknowledging that, “Everyone has things in their life that are sad.”
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And Jeremiah Willis really knocked us in the feels when he talked about his admiration for his dad. “He didn’t get to spend time with [his siblings],” he said. “He feels like he wants to make up for that with his kids and so he spends as much time as he can with us. He wants to give us what he couldn’t give to his siblings, and I am only beginning to understand how incredible that is.”
This video, while very much on the sad side, definitely gives viewers an inside look at the uplifting nature of the new show, which will follow the Willises as they produce and record their new album and tour the country while performing. The trials and tribulations of the family, particularly one this size, also promise to make for entertaining viewing.
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Based on what we’ve seen so far, it seems as though all the members of this remarkable family really love and care for one another — which might be a nice and welcome change from all the greed and maximum shock factor we seem to be seeing a lot of on TV these days.
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