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1. Originally published as Fly a Little Higher and now updated and revised to coincide with the film release of Clouds, Laura Sobiech tells the amazing, true story behind the song and the movie. 'Okay, Lord, you can have him. But if he must die, I want it to be for something big. I want someone's life to be changed forever.'
2. Zach's mother, Laura Sobiech, spoke with Distractify about the film, which she said did a great job at representing the person Zach was. While the film is only based on Zach's story, meaning some of the events have been reordered or are fictional, she said overall the family felt it was a good tribute to their son.
3. I share our story in my book, Clouds: A Memoir (originally published as Fly a Little Higher and now updated and revised to coincide with the release of Clouds, an original movie on Disney+). It’s a story about a kid, my son, Zach Sobiech, his battle with bone cancer, and how his song “Clouds” changed people like, really, really changed.

CLOUDS by Laura Sobiech Chapter One by HarperAudio US published on 2020-09-21T19:56:41Z Originally published as Fly a Little Higher and now updated and revised to coincide with the film release of Clouds, Laura Sobiech tells the amazing, true story behind the song and the movie.

Photos courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment/Disney

Fin Argus as Zach Sobiech

Fin Argus as Zach Sobiech in Clouds, coming this fall to Disney+.

Laura Sobiech last held her son Zach on May 20, 2013. On that Monday, barely two weeks after his 18th birthday, the high school senior passed away due to complications from osteosarcoma at home in Lakeland. It was a bittersweet end to a divine story, and it’s why you’ll have to forgive Zach’s usually unflappable mom for breaking down years later on a movie set in Montreal.

“For the first time in my life, I sobbed in the arms of a stranger,” Laura says, describing the surreal whirlwind that blew her over when she first walked onto the set of a film about her son’s life. “Her name was Pamela. She was the makeup artist who made Fin Argus look exactly like Zach. I shipped all of Zach’s clothes up, his crutches, his beddings, the decorations in the room. And so, when Fin walked in, he’s on Zach’s crutches, he’s built like Zach, he moves like Zach. It was like seeing Zach alive again.”

And when Zach Sobiech was alive, boy, did he live. Despite aggressive bone cancer churning in Zach’s body since he was 14, anyone outside of the Sobiech house would have been hard-pressed to guess that the optimistic, always-grinning teen was sick at all. That was the side of Zach the whole world came to know when, in June 2012, the doctors told him the cancer would prevail and he had six months to a year left.

Instead of wallowing, Zach put the pedal to the metal. He and two friends formed a band, A Firm Handshake, and slid their first single, a folksy pop tune Zach wrote, “Clouds,” onto YouTube. There, the effervescent earworm, in which Zach turned staring down death into an unabashed celebration of the precious time he had left to live, changed everything. It went viral, and before long Zach was everywhere. Meanwhile, “Clouds” eased its way onto the Billboard charts—it peaked at number three on the Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart—and into regular rotation on radio stations around the country.

Truly, the last year of Zach’s life was the best and, of course, the worst. “It was kind of like running on a ball,” Laura says. “You just didn’t have time to stop. And, holy cow, it was remarkable that he was able to set his physical suffering aside and really just focus on his art and his heart. He was in the middle of being so sick when he did that.”

Zach inspired lots of folks as he squeezed every last little drop of joy out of his final days. One of the most prominent was The Office star Rainn Wilson, who wanted to include Zach in his online reality series My Last Days, which aired on Wilson’s YouTube channel, SoulPancake. Zach’s 22-minute episode netted more than 15 million views and sparked the relationship that, nearly seven years later, would bring Laura to the set of Clouds.

That’s because the director of “My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech,” Justin Baldoni, stayed close with the family. When he heard Laura was writing a memoir—Fly a Little Higher: How God Answered a Mom’s Small Prayer in a Big Way—Baldoni told her we wanted to turn it into a studio movie and to include the Sobiechs every step of the way. Laura says that included Baldoni randomly texting her to verify exactly how Zach would do or say something or the nuances of a certain moment or interaction. He even flew the family and a bunch of Zach’s friends to Montreal to be in one of the penultimate scenes in the film. Laura admits that seeing Fin Argus, the actor who plays Zach, portray the final moments of Zach’s life, take after take, while they were there, was a “weird knot of emotions,” but also that being on set was not without upside.

Laura Sobiech and Zach Sobiech

Laura Sobiech and Zach.

“Neve Campbell is me in the movie,” Laura gushes. “She’s amazing. I adore her. We had so much fun together. She’s a beautiful person.”

Warner Brothers produced the film, and the family was looking forward to a major theatrical release. But when the pandemic hit and theaters shuttered, Disney+ acquired the distribution rights and plans to release it later this fall, in conjunction with the rerelease of Laura’s memoir—now titled Clouds to match the film. For Laura, it’s just another sudden detour in a story that’s been full of them. And not only is she embracing it, she thinks that the timing of the film’s release might just be the most divine part of Zach’s story yet.

“I can’t help but think that this story was reserved for such a time as this,” she says. “We are in the thick of this pandemic; it’s an election year. There’s so much division, so much pain, and there’s so much tension and stress—and that’s what Zach had to live with that last year of his life. We’re all facing mortality in this heightened way.”

Laura pauses for a moment, clearly still in awe of how Zach approached his final days. Then, she continues. “How are we going to choose to do this?”

Regardless of how we choose to face this moment, for a couple hours soon, Laura Sobiech will once again have the privilege of watching her youngest son so courageously live his choice.

Clouds By Laura Sobiech

Look for Clouds coming to Disney+ on Oct. 16, and watch the trailer below.

Zach Sobiech Clouds