NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Here at NewsChannel 5, we've been receiving mail lately from a new friend. We loved that mail so much, we figured that person must have a great story himself.
Mom Chellie and dad Eric tell us there's been a journey for their son Ezra Harris.
Watch Ezra's visit to NewsChannel 5 through his eyes in the player above.
"Ezra is 8 years old, and he was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 years old," Chellie explained.
"We didn't know what we were getting into when we got our diagnosis for autism," Eric continued.
"He's had a lot of speech therapy since he was 2 years old," Chellie said. "He was non-verbal until he was 5 years old, actually."
When Ezra started talking, Chellie and Eric noticed Ezra knew the names of everyone on NewsChannel 5.
"Bree Smith!" Ezra said, watching a NewsChannel 5 broadcast.
"It's 'hey Nikki-Dee' or 'hey Lelan,'" Chelli smiled.
"Amy Watson," Ezra said, keeping his eyes on the TV.
"What's her name?" Eric asked Ezra, the family watching a newscast.
"Brianna," Ezra answered.
"Oh, that's right. Brianna Hamlin," Eric said.
"Everything he sees, he reads it," Eric continued.
"Murfreesboro!" Ezra read from a map in a weather forecast.
There's this one thing Ezra always says when he's catching the weather.
"What's she makin?" he said, watching Heather Mathis do a weather forecast.
"He loves everybody on Channel 5," Chellie said. "We just noticed, he made all these little pictures for them."
The pictures are posters Ezra created of the NewsChannel 5 staff.
One day brought a little surprise for Ezra.
"We want to give a special shout-out to Ezra over in Hermitage!" Heather Mathis said during a 9 a.m. newscast. "We know he's watching!"
"Look at that!" Ezra said as his artwork was shown on air.
"Ezra! That's cool! You're on the news!" Eric said.
"If he actually got to meet them, he'd be excited," Cellie said.
Now, that was something we could make happen.
Ezra and his parents took a trip to NewsChannel 5 where the on-air staff was waiting to greet them.
"Ezra, good morning," anchor Amy Watson said in a recorded message shown to Ezra. "I'm working from home today. I'm sorry I missed your visit. Thank you for the beautiful picture that you put together. It's one of my favorite pictures anyone has ever drawn for us."
"Do you ever see us doing the weather?" Heather asked Ezra, walking him over to a green screen.
Now, what was that Ezra always says when he's catching the weather?
"What's she makin'!" Ezra answered.
Well, what they were making on this visit was a pretty good day on Ezra's journey.
