- [Narrator] "Here's the Story".

(birds chirping) (upbeat music) - Good afternoon.

Please share with me a moment of silence, not just for Tim, but for everyone that we've lost in the last year.

(gentle music) ♪ Have fun tonight ♪ ♪ Everybody Wang Chung tonight ♪ - We have a good time.

We do lots of different things.

♪ Hey now, you're a rock star ♪ ♪ Get your game on, go play ♪ ♪ Na, na, na, na, na, na ♪ - We have a good time, you know?

I think every time, it's different, and that's what makes it unique.

- Oh!

- [Steve] This was my family before COVID.

After my father died, we made it a regular practice to get together, and to laugh as much as we could when we did.

♪ Tonight, tonight, I'm on my way ♪ ♪ So set me free, home sweet home ♪ - [Steve] We played games, we told animated stories, we celebrated birthdays, all days.

We sang, we laughed.

And that's why when we had to separate during COVID, it made it especially difficult.

We were a family unaccustomed to not seeing each other.

We were also a family unaccustomed to losing members.

In fact, in the last 20 years, we had only lost my dad and my aunt.

The fun we had and the funny things we did at family gatherings became so prolific that I started documenting them with my camera, and would turn around a film every year at Christmas that chronicled our yearly exploits and parodying some famous television genres, including a laugh track sitcom and a whole episode of "60 Minutes" dedicated to my family.

- Sometimes, people build up walls not to keep away from people, but rather to see who will come and tear them down.

- The money goes into the till, not in your pocket.

♪ There she was, walking down the street, singing ♪ ♪ Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do ♪ ♪ Snappin' her fingers and shufflin' her feet ♪ ♪ Singing do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do ♪ ♪ She looked good ♪ ♪ Looked good ♪ ♪ She looked fine ♪ ♪ Looked fine ♪ ♪ She looked good, she looked fine ♪ ♪ And I nearly lost my mind ♪ (gentle music) - [Narrator] In December, 2012, cameras began rolling in an unassuming house on a suburban street in New Jersey for a show whose working title at the time was "The Rogers: An American Family".

A year later, the first episode of "The Rogers" premiered, and the rest is showbiz history.

♪ If I broke your heart ♪ - [Steve] We even crafted a phony cover of the TV guide.

What can I say?

When we do things in my family, we go all the way.

(gentle music) Our home movies equally featured each of the members of my family, as each played an integral, interesting, and truly eccentric part.

(gentle music continues) My big brother, Tim, ascended to my father's seat at the table and pursued a career in education like our parents.

From all indications, he pursued his profession smartly and intensely, just as he pursued silliness at home with equal enthusiasm.

He was a favorite character on our show and in our circle, and others as well.

- My favorite memory is when he used to come over here to my home, and on a Saturday night or a Friday night, and we would play Scrabble, we had the Scrabble board, and we had a lot of laughs.

I mean, sometimes he got a better word and sometimes I got a better word, and he would say, "Oh, Mom, you can't use that word."

And it was just a lot of fun.

We had a lot of laughs.

He was, I think, probably my best friend, and he was a very loving person.

And he'd come over here, and we'd always get snacks, and we'd start to eat the snacks as we played the game, and it just was so much fun.

I really enjoyed having him over here.

He came over a lot.

But that was one of the best times, when he would come over and play that game.

- He would leave these little packages in, like, really insignificant places.

Like, not right in the middle of my desk, but like, kind of to the left or, you know, in a place he knows I'm gonna reach for something every day.

It will be sitting next to, like, the box of oil pastels, or wherever.

And I would find it and I would just know it was from him.

I'd always leave him a thank you card in his room when he wasn't there for it, 'cause I knew he didn't want that confrontation.

Like, "Hey, thanks for the gift," you know?

"Oh, no problem," you know, "Waiting for a gift back from you."

He just didn't want that, he wanted just to share who he was.

I think he didn't need that in any way.

He just wanted to share so much of him with so many people.

He didn't need you to say, "Oh, you're just the coolest guy ever," or, "You get it," or, "You understand me," or, "You're brilliant," he didn't need pats on the back.

Like, he was the pat on the back.

- Uncle T was sometimes quiet, but sometimes very eccentric, loud, and excited guy.

Totally a family guy.

I feel like he really came alive when we all got together.

That's when we saw, like, the true version of him.

He was super smart, super intelligent, but like, you wouldn't know that unless you started to have a conversation with him, and then you would start to realize, like, just how smart and intelligent he is.

Like, book smart and, you know, he knew about how the world worked and politics.

And as a kid, you know, I didn't really understand all that, so I just thought he was so wise.

- Everybody wanted Mr. Rogers.

Everyone.

And if you didn't get him, you wanted him, you know?

I mean, he would walk down the hallway, and kids, like, he didn't even know.

It'd be like, "Mr. Rogers," you know, and everybody wanted him.

- He was a good teacher.

He made you wanna learn.

But I feel like it's the stuff going beyond that sticks out more than anything.

You know, making it more than just school.

You know, you're learning, and you're having fun with it as well.

- The day before Christmas vacation, after the holiday show that we would put on for the kids, Tim would bring me a cigar, okay?

And he would sneak it to me, and it's like, it was my Christmas cigar, okay, right?

He didn't know if I smoked cigars or whatever, and I don't, I didn't.

But I'm like, you know, one day, Tim and I are gonna, when we're not in school, we're gonna light up and we're gonna smoke a cigar together, okay?

So, I retired, so I'm home, and I get a package in the mail right around Christmas, and darn it, wasn't it a Christmas cigar?

No note, no nothing.

I knew exactly who it was from and I knew exactly what it was for.

And it just, you can't help but smile when you think of something like that.

So, this past Christmas, obviously, no cigar, but it still managed to bring a smile to my face.

I still have the last one, by the way, okay?

When I join Tim, we'll smoke 'em together.

I'll bring that with me.

(gentle music) - [Steve] When COVID hit, we distanced from each other.

I spoke with Tim on the phone, but we communicated more in that year through letters, emails.

His thoughts and perspectives, as usual, were highly detailed, entertaining, sometimes heartbreaking, but always thoughtful.

On his birthday that year, he was particularly reflective when he wrote to me.

We were just a month into COVID isolation.

It was still a bit of a horror show out there.

He concluded to me, "I had a feeling when I first realized my birthday fell on Easter this year that it would be a little messed up.

But I never would've thunk this whole scenario.

If every one of us could just stay healthy through this thing, it will be the best birthday gift ever."

- So then COVID happened and school changed for everybody.

And at the beginning of the school year, everyone had to... Nobody knew what was gonna happen.

There was just so much unknown for everyone.

But as the tech person, I was working alongside a couple other people, that we had to, like, put stuff out there for the parents.

We had to have, like, an open house video, we had to let, you know, everyone know what our roles were going to be, and we all had to make a video saying what we were doing.

(chuckles) So, I filmed him on my phone, sent it to him, and it was just... That was my last time physically being with him, I'm pretty sure.

After that, it was emails for tech help, and that was really it.

- Hi, I'm Mr. Rogers, and I'm gonna be your common area teacher this year.

This is my 24th year of teaching, and I think this is gonna be the best one ever.

See you soon.

- He would call me every morning, even when he was in school, just to find out if I was all right.

At night, he would call me and say goodnight, and his last words were always, "I love you, Mom."

So, on March 6th... Well, no, on March 5th, he really wasn't feeling well.

And I asked him to go back to the doctor, and he promised me that he would go back to the doctor on Monday.

This was a Friday.

And he said, "I'll go back to the doctor on Monday if I don't feel well, Mom."

- Mimi calls you, and she says she's freaking out, and she's like, "I can't get in touch with your brother.

I don't know what's going on.

I'm really worried."

And of course, you know, the normal, rational response that we both had was, it's probably fine, you know?

Relax, everything's gonna be fine.

He probably slept in or whatever.

And you said, "I'll go to his house."

And as the car ride went on, and it was going longer and longer from when Mimi didn't hear from him or he didn't call you back, I felt like our conversations quieted a bit, and became more and more of a sense of like, okay, something's not right, because this is weird.

And I felt like we both kind of got that, like, there was a sense of like, okay, like, we started to get closer and closer to his house.

And then we got there, and you pulled in, and you said, "I'm gonna go inside, you stay here."

And then you were in there for a few minutes, and then you came out and you looked at me, and I looked at you like, "What?"

And you shook your head.

And I remember, like, the look that you had was so awful.

I was so...

I was in such shock.

I remember just, like, everything just, like, broke.

I was like...

There was like, no way that what you were telling me could have been real.

I was like, this is like... You know, no one would've expected this.

- Steven kept calling his name, and as he went through the house, he went up to his bedroom, and the bedroom door was closed, and he went into the bedroom and he saw Tim sleeping.

And he didn't look like he was, you know, he was just sleeping the way he would ordinarily sleep.

And he went over to him and shook him, and he was cold, and he realized he was no longer with us.

- And that was a shock.

So I actually found out from a friend, and she knew my relationship with Tim, and she's like, "I just have to call you before, you know, you start seeing these emails that are gonna come out from the school."

And you know, I have to say, like, even to this point, it still doesn't even seem real to me, you know?

Like, when she was telling me, I'm like, "No, this isn't real, like, no."

- Natalie Finley called me because she knows me, and she said, she left me a message, she's like, "You have to call me back," and I said, "Okay," and that's always bad.

So, I called her back, and she said, "I need to tell you something, and I need you to sit down 'cause you just need to sit down."

And she told me, and I immediately was...

I don't know, it was just not what I thought she was gonna say.

- My wife works in the district.

She works in the business office.

And so she gets called right away when any type of news happens.

And I'll never forget it, and I'm gonna get emotional.

She said, "You're gonna need to sit down for this one, Jeff."

She goes, "Somebody passed away, and it's just gonna blow you away."

So I'm like, "Okay," and I sat down, and then she said Tim passed, and it was...

I don't even have a description for it.

It was just, "Tim?

No."

Like, "Tim?

No.

He's too young.

Like, there's no way that this is happening.

This can't be true."

And this is where I get upset.

It's like, I'm never gonna talk to him again.

I'm never gonna...

I was just saying, "I haven't seen Tim in a while, I gotta make sure, I gotta give him a call, I gotta do something."

'Cause he would check up on me and all that stuff.

It was time to get in contact with Tim again.

And then I get this news and I'm like, "God darn it."

It's like, I'm not gonna be able to talk to him again and I'm not gonna be able to bounce things off of him and whatever.

It really, it hit.

It really hit home.

- When I went in and spoke to his students, it was just complete silence.

It was just complete silence.

A lot of tears.

I just don't think anybody believed it.

Like, it was the last thing you thought was gonna happen (chuckles), you know?

So, this is why I didn't wanna do this, 'cause I'll start falling apart, but- - It's okay.

- Anyway.

I think the kids were not... No one was expecting it, but they just didn't know what to do.

Like, what do we do now?

And it was a lot of, "Well, when's he coming back?"

"He's not coming back."

"But when's he coming back?"

You know, "He's not coming back."

- I felt like he was an integral part of our family, and maybe we didn't even realize how important he was to make it all work.

But then when he was gone, things just, it wasn't the same.

Like, the dynamics were different, people seemed different, and just, we didn't have the times like we did before.

(gentle music) - Because of COVID and because my brother was a pretty solitary person, we kept his services to immediate family only.

But because of the overwhelming outpouring from friends, his students, and colleagues, we held a public life celebration.

We grew up along this lake.

I think it's a bit funny, and I think Tim would think it was funny too.

I hope so.

That his life celebration is happening between the Manahawkin Lake and the former Cranberry Bog restaurant.

That's a joke.

You can laugh.

(attendees chuckling) - My name is Alexandra Newman, and I had the pleasure of having Mr. Rogers for fifth grade in 2006.

- My name's Angela, and I was a part of Mr. Rogers' very first class of students he taught.

- I've known Tim for about 20 years, but I had the privilege of teaching with him for about five of those years.

- This is truly an honor to be here to speak about what Tim and I called each other, my school brother.

- Although my time with him was brief and so long ago, to this day, I remember vividly the fun and excitement of being in his class.

- So, it's a simple fact that there are some people in your life who will make lasting impacts on who you are and everything you hope to become.

And in the same breath, it's a simple fact for me that Mr. Rogers is one of those most very important people.

- When I entered Mr. Rogers' classroom, I was an avid reader, and he had inspired me to also look into writing as well.

He really encouraged me to get into writing poetry and short stories and, you know, he did whatever he could to really foster my growth.

- In his heart, which was fragile, he was still a kid.

I think that is why he chose to be a teacher and why he was such a good one.

He knew what kids thought and felt because he still was one, or wanted to be.

- Thank you, Mr. Rogers, for being there for me.

Thank you for inspiring me.

Thank you for making learning fun.

Thank you for my love of reading.

Thank you for teaching me so much more beyond the school curriculum and the textbooks.

Thank you for teaching me kindness.

Thank you for believing in me, and thank you for helping me realize all the gifts I already had within myself to be successful.

- Life certainly had its way with me and my family during the '08, '09 school year, as my younger sister and I lost our mother to terminal leukemia in October of that year.

While good days weren't exactly easy to come by during that period, waking up in the morning and knowing that I was going in to spend the day with my all time favorite teacher made my own personal load just a little less heavy.

Had I been placed in any other classroom than 5N that year, I'm not so sure that I could stand up here today and say the same about that period.

- Mr. Rogers didn't just help me through a hard year in my life, he left a lifelong hand print on my heart.

- He was a mentor, a cheerleader, a role model, and a friend, and I wish more than anything I could tell him that now.

I wish I kept talking to him.

I wish I wrote him more as I grew older.

And I'd love to go back in time once more to be in that classroom, writing stories for the first time with him.

I'm so grateful to be a part of this community of people and just encourage everyone, you know, if the stars are out one night, to look up and know he's watching and talking to you, if you wanna talk to him.

Thank you.

- He taught with the love and the passion, and more importantly, the respect that I know all of you are proud of.

And I am just gonna end this the way we would end our conversations.

The last few years, we would always end it like this.

I love you, my brother!

(attendees applauding) ♪ Blackbird singing in the dead of night ♪ ♪ Take these broken wings and learn to fly ♪ ♪ All your life ♪ ♪ You were only waiting for this moment to arise ♪ ♪ You were only waiting for this moment to arise ♪ ♪ You were only waiting for this moment to arise ♪ - Thank you, friends.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for coming.

Go in peace today, this is a celebration of life.

Must remember that, live our lives.

(trailer rumbling) - [Steve] After the life celebrations were over and the cards and the flowers stopped coming, we began the most unenviable task you can imagine, to sort through and clean out my brother's house.

(gentle music) It's always an emotional challenge to do so, but when the person who has passed has done so young and unexpectedly and literally overnight, here today, gone tomorrow, it takes on an even more intense feeling of melancholy, and also curiosity.

At least it did with my very personally private brother.

For starters, everything was exactly as he had left it the night before.

A coffee cup with coffee still in it and a spoon left was still sitting on the counter.

Unfinished projects and schoolwork on the dining room table.

Books left open to a certain page.

The TV remote still sitting on the couch where he had placed it the night before.

It was as if he had just stepped out and would soon return.

And if there's one thing I've learned about this postmortem process, it's that you learn more about your dearly departed while going through it than even living a lifetime knowing them.

You think you know someone?

Clean out their house after they die.

See inside all of their cabinets and drawers, all the things they made or saved, the things that were important to them.

Their stuff says as much about them or more than they ever could or did.

For my brother, Tim, there were two most surprising discoveries in his home, at least to me.

He had apparently been creating art pieces, intricate paper projects, colorful, handmade, highly detailed, curiously childlike, awe inspiring, laugh inducing, this and that.

And he made a lot of it.

And as far as we know, only sometimes shared his work, and mostly anonymously.

- Part of me isn't surprised by some things, like the artifacts of things from the people in his lives that were important to him, because I feel like I always could tell that he was a very sentimental and nostalgic person, especially towards family.

And so seeing all the birthday cards and notes and pictures in his home kind of just confirmed that for me.

And I was like, yeah, no, I knew that that was always something that was really invaluable to him.

The art, we saw some.

He would give gifts of his art.

So like, we'd see bits and pieces of these things that he was making, but I mean, the magnitude of what we discovered when we went through his house, like, he'd have a whole section of a room that was just all the same sort of art, but like all different versions that he had made.

So I think, like, none of us really knew just how much he created, and that was pretty crazy.

And I wish that we all knew more, you know, before.

(gentle music) - [Steve] And that's how I felt.

I wish I had known more before, too.

There's nothing so agonizing as learning about a great thing only after it's gone.

At that point, there's nothing else to do but to learn as much about it as you can.

So while we were in the process of emptying his house and discovering more about him, I decided to go to another source of information about my brother, his friends and former students.

(gentle music continues) - When I was younger, I was definitely, I was definitely social, but I definitely sometimes, like, because I was so shy, I definitely felt like distanced to, like, some people sometimes.

Mr. Rogers definitely helped me to kind of, like, come outta my shell.

He was really great at kind of just getting, like, people engaged.

Like, you walk in, like, first day of school, he's like, "Good morning, everybody!"

You know, "Welcome to 5P!"

And it was just like, off the bat, it was just kind of like a party.

And like I said, even in fifth grade, you know, going into it, I was so shy, but, like, his passion for students and getting people engaged really helped me to, like, come outta my shell, even before I kind of got to know him on, like, an individual basis.

Like, that was it.

He walked in in the morning.

He had this, like, just, like, fun swagger about him, and he was loud, loud in the bass way, like, clapping his hands.

He had like a meter stick that was painted like a pencil that he got from one of his students.

He was, like, cracking it at the desk, pointing at this, pointing at that.

And like, you had to try very hard to, like, not participate.

- [Steve] Alexandra Newman was a student of my brother's.

He turned her on to reading and writing.

She became a poet.

They corresponded about her writing in the years after fifth grade, after his death, she got a tattoo to make permanent the sentiment in one of his letters to her.

(gentle music) - So, like, the line from the tattoo, "This has been your gift to me," that was, like, finally when I got published in a poetry compilation book.

And of course, when I received my first copy, who else would I send it to other than Mr. Rogers, you know what I mean?

That was the only thing that made sense.

So I mailed it to the school, and it was weeks, and I didn't hear anything, and I'm just like, I'm looking for that, you know, this is feedback, and hopefully some sense of excitement.

And he wrote me this, like, beautiful letter that I still have, and I'll never lose it.

But you know, he just expressed, like, how happy he was for me, and he, you know, compared me to these, like, very, very notable, like, female writers that he grew up with.

And I remember a line in it.

He said like, "Your writing style hearkens me back to the style of, you know, many noble female writers that I grew up with."

It's like Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty.

"Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, and Alexandra Newman.

Your name is not lost among those noble woman writers.

Please keep composing and sharing with me your elegant output of feeling and emotion.

I have never had a student ever who has made me more proud than you have made me at this moment.

This has been your gift to me."

So, like, with that, with the letter, and this relating it back to the tattoo, I felt like for me, it was a symbol for myself, but also for him, just because of what I did in writing for him.

It was my gift to him, too.

'Cause at the end of the day, of course I always write for myself, but he so significantly, like, inspired and, like, supported me.

It always kind of goes back that way, you know?

- [Steve] At the time of his death, Tim was working on a piece of masonry art for his work brother, Jeff Martin.

Tim had only gotten as far as chiseling Jeff's name, but I knew he'd want to see it and to have it, because the intention was clear, even if the message wasn't.

- I think about him all the time, it's like... - Yeah.

- And I have the... Well, I'll show it to you.

I have the other thing he made for me.

That's kind of personal.

He felt bad that I retired, I kind of went out the back door, 'cause with COVID and everything, the school year kind of ended, and he goes, "You're gone?"

I'm like, "Yeah," I said.

"There was, like, no celebration or anything?"

I said, "That's okay.

I kind of came in loud, so kinda..." - Go out.

- Go out real quiet.

So I thought it was kind of cool, I thought.

So, this is really neat.

I wonder what he was gonna...

He started something else on here.

- Yeah, of course.

- Wow.

- He left a lot of room to say something, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

So I can only imagine.

- And it was something that he was working on at the end.

- Right, yeah.

- It was one of the pieces that was on his work bench.

- Wow.

Wow.

Well, when you told me, I cried.

I did, I cried.

It's like he was thinking about me, and I retired already, so it's not like I was seeing Tim on a day-to-day basis or anything.

And I don't think he was happy with me just going out the back door quietly.

I think he needed me to have some kind of celebration of my teaching career or whatever, okay?

So, you know, when you told me that, I was floored.

I was just like, "Wow," like, you know?

'Cause I think of my colleagues every day, and I was like, oh, you know, you think of Tim and other colleagues and all that, and I always wondered, well, I'm retired now, is it really outta, sight outta mind?

You know, you always wonder that.

And when you see something like this, it kinda, like, no, you know what?

Like, it isn't outta sight, outta mind.

You were significant in people's lives.

- [Steve] Does it matter to you at all that it doesn't have the additional quote?

Probably doesn't, right?

Just the fact- - No, it doesn't.

Just the fact that he was doing it and I can put any quote.

He might have just put, "Skateboards," which is a line from a Joe Jackson song.

And I would walk by the room and I'd lean and go... ♪ Skateboards ♪ And he would laugh, and I'd laugh, and I'd go on my way.

It could be anything that we would say to each other back and forth.

And he would just walk in the gym, one line hit, and walk out, and I would just, like, how cool was that?

So, the fact that there's kind of a blank tablet here, but my name's on it, it kind of leaves more to the imagination as to what he could have put down there.

- My name is Michael Raccanelli, and I'm from Manahawkin, New Jersey.

- [Steve] All right.

In Tim's house, we found a letter penned by a former student to the principal, nominating Mr. Rogers for Teacher of the Year.

And Tim had saved it all these years.

I tracked down its author to return it to him, Mike Raccanelli from Manahawkin, New Jersey.

- "Dear Mr. Wilkinson, have you ever had an extraordinary fun and caring teacher?"

Well, mine was my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Rogers.

He was a fantastic teacher and deserved Teacher of the Year.

First, Mr. Rogers always made learning and teaching fun for him and the class.

Next, Mr. Rogers could cheer up anyone, sad, upset, or even mad.

Finally, Mr. Rogers was always helping my class and myself.

Mr. Rogers made everything fun and funny for the whole class.

Mr. Rogers was always helping when you need it most.

First, when you are struggling with the subject, Mr. Rogers was always there to help.

Finally, Mr. Rogers never yelled at my class, even if one of us got an answer wrong, he would always let us try again instead until we got it right.

As stated above, Mr. Rogers is one in a million teacher, and you'll always be very lucky to have him.

I see there are many other great teachers, but none come close to Mr. Rogers because of what a great teacher he is.

I implore other students to give the Teacher of the Year Award to Mr. Rogers.

He's a great teacher and deserves Teacher of the Year Award.

Not just this year, but every year."

That's it.

- [Steve] How does it make you feel to know that among the things that he saved all these years was your letter?

- Honestly, even for sixth grade, this isn't the most well written letter.

They probably didn't see it and say, this is like, you know, the best written.

But I think it just means a lot because, I mean, he probably remembers us, you know, like, my family in general.

So, I just feel like... And to be probably like a select few people, it must have really meant a lot to him, for me to be like in sixth grade and even look back and still think that he was Teacher of the Year, I think that he kind of recognized that he made, like, an impression on us.

- [Steve] So after you moved on to seventh grade and beyond, did you ever visit him or see him again out around town or anything?

- I think that's a big regret that I have now, that I didn't, but I remember when I was in fifth grade, we had one of his former students, she came back, and she was kind of, like, helping.

I'm assuming she graduated high school.

Maybe she was helping, like, almost like as an internship, as, you know, just a helping teacher.

But that kind of just shows you, too, that she wanted to work with him.

You know, of all years that she could have went back to a teacher and helped or substituted, she chose Mr. Rogers.

But I regret not doing it myself now.

(gentle music) - [Steve] Alexandra Newman asked if she could come and visit the house where Tim lived, the woods he loved.

She expressed some sadness there about having seen a clip of Tim talking about his life.

- [Tim] I never really thought there was a moral purpose to my specific, singular life.

- [Steve] And she questioned if he knew how important he was to her and others.

- It was so significantly upsetting, and that's why after I had watched that, I kind of, you know, came to you and just wondered, you know, if he really was aware of how appreciated and valued and admired he was by all the different people in his life.

And just seeing him speak about himself in such a way really kind of made me wonder to myself, too, if he really was fully aware of the level of impact that he had on everyone around him.

And just, like, seeing that clip and kind of learning a little bit more about him after he passed away, I feel like at points, he definitely was aware of how appreciated he was, but I don't think he was fully aware.

- [Steve] Do you think Tim realized how much he was appreciated, loved, and respected?

Do you think he knew that he was important to others?

- No.

No, I don't think he realized.

In fact, he used to say things like, "Mom, I don't belong here."

And you know, he really didn't think that he was any use to anybody.

And he was very unhappy towards the end of his life, and I don't think he realized how many people and their lives he touched.

And we found that out when we had his celebration of life.

People came, and all wanted to come and get up and talk about him.

And he would come home and never tell me about all the things that he did.

And it was amazing how many people loved him and felt that he was very, very important.

You know, it was sad that he really didn't think that he was someone very special.

- I think that he knew that his family loved and adored him and valued him.

That I don't have much doubts about.

But his other world was school, and I think that, yeah, I do think he felt undervalued, as I feel many teachers unfortunately do.

But I think that he was the kind of guy that kind of went above and beyond and never really saw that effort and care that he put into what he did.

Like, recognized.

- Honestly, I think...

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

I don't think he had a chance to.

I think he would've.

I think he definitely would have.

You know, I just don't think he had time, and that's the tragedy.

- I think he might have known how much the kids did.

I think, you know, that's what made him get up every day and come in.

I think the kids really made him feel special, a lot of them, you know?

But hopefully he knows now.

Hopefully he's able to see that, you know?

And I do think he had inklings where he did know that, but he didn't really, like, feel it.

- [Steve] Most agreed that my brother, Tim, didn't understand how much he was appreciated.

But Abby Leyh, a former student, had a different opinion, and she based it in a letter that Tim, Mr. Rogers, would write to his former fifth graders each year in August.

The message of encouragement and perspective we found and reshared with her was the one he sent to her and her fellow classmates.

- I think he did.

I don't know.

You know, you never know if it's just that one interaction you personally had with him or if, you know, it was different for other people, but for me, it felt like he knew how special he was.

I don't think a teacher who thought he was unspecial would've stayed after school for hours every single day, or let a kid hang out with him during his one break of the day, which was recess and lunchtime.

(chuckles) So for me, it felt like he knew that he was a special part of our lives.

And reading the letter that you sent me, I feel like he understood that he was at such a significant point in our lives as children learning and growing and being, and he tried to take ownership of that.

"Just before the summer slips impossibly away, I wanted to remind you all of what an exceptional group of young men and women you were for me last year in the fifth grade.

I'm hopeful and expectant that you will continue to be just as phenomenal for your new sixth grade teachers.

I also want to emphasize for you that this will undoubtedly be one of the most important years in your academic career.

It will set the tone for what kind of student you will be in the years to follow, but you will also have an even greater responsibility to your parents, family, friends, and most importantly, yourselves.

You must always remember that no matter how hard you try, there will always be someone, somewhere, trying just a little harder.

Therefore, you must work to excel like it is an addiction, as if you would accept nothing other than the unequal best for yourselves.

The obligation you will have to our society to be a first class citizen will always be of paramount importance.

In the days to follow, you are going to encounter a lot of people along your journey that will not always be doing the right thing.

There will be times when what you know is wrong will appear to be right, and the duty to differentiate between the two will be completely your responsibility.

It will be up to you and only you to make the right choice.

Don't ever forget the lesson my father taught me and I told you, the time when someone in our town was seemingly getting away with something that was absolutely wrong and appeared that they were going to get off without punishment, remember?

I said to my dad, 'So, Dad, they got away with it?

They won, huh?'

Remember what my dad said?

'No, Tim, they didn't win.

People like that don't win as long as you don't grow up to be like them.'

The nation you are growing up into will require this of you.

I know you are ready to meet the challenge.

All of my best to my little fifth graders, Mr.

Rogers."

- [Steve] A year after my brother passed away, we celebrated his birthday as we always did, as a family.

It wasn't the same, obviously, but I made an effort to make his life still part of ours by creating a trivia game dedicated to him.

I wanted to see how much my family actually knew about him and to laugh over the memories.

Let's begin.

All questions related to Timothy James Rogers.

Question number one.

How did Tim get the middle name, James?

- We named him James after my dad.

- All right.

- George James Cashon.

- [Steve] What band did Tim diligently record off the radio every Sunday night?

What band did Tim diligently record off of the radio every Sunday night?

- That's a tough one.

- What was it?

- That's a tough one.

(laughs) - [Steve] That's not the answer.

You should know this, Beth.

Chris should know this.

- I don't know it.

- Oh, I remember.

- What was it?

- The Grateful Dead.

- [Steve] You wanna go with Grateful Dead?

It is the Grateful Dead.

"The Grateful Dead Hour".

He'd record it every Sunday.

(gentle music) - So, things change and continue, and I often think, I wish he knew.

I actually... A couple times, I have written emails to him, giving him an update, because I wish...

There are thing that I wish, like, I could be like, oh my gosh, like, you don't know that this happened.

Like, you know, I'm in grad school for education, and I'm teaching fifth grade right now, I'm student teaching.

Like, I wish I could tell him that.

But yeah, so things move on, things adapt and change, but he just doesn't get to come with us with that.

Sometimes there's a person or people that you don't realize how important they are when they're there, until they're not there anymore, and then you realize how impactful it was.

And, like, maybe wish that you realized that before they were gone, you know?

So you could have, like, leaned into it more.

- [Steve] Like a preoccupation, I had been exploring his life in many different ways, and I learned a lot about him.

As I said, more maybe than if he was actually still alive.

I learned he threw candy to his students when they were good, and called it candy showers.

I learned he gave out secret homemade gifts and Christmas cigars.

- I love you, my brother!

- [Steve] I learned he dressed up as Santa each year in school, and skateboarded around to the delight of his students.

(students cheering) I learned he was quietly, carefully curating mementos from the life of my family.

I learned he may have carried a couple of torches I thought had long since burned out.

He would, in his absence, introduce me to my future wife and inspire me to finally write the great story he and I had been chatting about for years.

He saved every note, drawing, card he ever got from a student.

He may not have felt appreciated by all, but he did by his students and at home with his family.

(gentle music continues) - [Tim] Come on now.

To all our active friends and relatives.

- [Steve] Active friends!

- And Julie, and Uncle Liam, and Dad.

- We love you all.

- Oh my God.

- Aunt Milly.

- We don't need a roll call all the time.

(all laughing) You don't even have to do that.

You don't even have to do that, seriously, I'm being serious here now.

But you don't have to do a roll call.

You have to every once in a while, remember them, and keep them in your thoughts.

- [Steve] All right, thanks to everyone.

- We love you all.

- [Steve] My big brother was a teacher in life, and he had become my teacher in death.

(gentle music) The complexity of his character demanded my attention and taught me perhaps the biggest lesson I learned through all of it.

We have an obligation to learn as much as we can about the people in our lives before they leave.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) It took us a year to sort through his house, to sift through the art, the unknown, the keepsakes, and some, in many ways, to mine for gold in a stream of memories that he had left behind.

And then it took me another year to begin this film.

And in the process of making it, I rediscovered a lot of video I shot of my family and of him.

And despite the fact that they often told me to turn off the camera, I'm glad now that I didn't.

- The movies really just were like a time capsule for me and for us, like, during that period of your time, that period in my life, and it's almost like you never realize, like, there's a before certain events.

Like, you'll just be living your life and it's just normal, but now I look back on those movies and it's like, before everything kind of changed, you know?

So, they're really super meaningful to me, and it, like, makes my heart so full to see us all together like that.

- [Steve] So it's a positive feeling and not necessarily a sad one.

- It's a nostalgia, it's a bittersweet, you know?

It's both.

There are times where I watch it and it's kind of emotional to watch certain parts, and then there are times where I'm like, you know, laughing out loud, remembering how it all happened.

And so it's both.

(gentle music) - No.

Nice out, actually.

The kids are up here.

I made it wider last summer so that they could sled.

Yeah, and so they were doing it, but I think that the snow got absorbed, you know, faster.

But we widened it and we made this like their landing area.

I like seeing them out here.

I have to admit that.

I don't like the path to be lonely.

I think the only way it's gonna survive is for people to use it.

So, what are we doing here?

Are we in the woods?

The forest?

- [Steve] After everything and everyone, in an effort to know my brother better even as he was going away, this last bit of video I rediscovered, my final interview with him, gives him the chance to have the last word.

- I'm trying so hard to, like, find my voice, you know?

As a writer.

- [Steve] So, how has your year been?

- I suppose it's been okay.

Pretty good.

- [Steve] Let me ask you, what do you most enjoy doing, or what do you enjoy most?

- What do I most enjoy?

I don't know.

It's funny, as I get older, I change so much.

So like, then I'll say something that people wouldn't expect.

I think right now, I enjoy painting most.

I don't know, it seems to be the thing I enjoy.

And putting things together.

- [Steve] What do you like about it?

Being able to finish it?

- Yeah, like, having something, like, a completed... Like, something is done.

Something is finished.

I don't know.

I always look at the stories that I've written, and I find them to be incomplete and lacking substance.

And at least with those kinds of projects, I can actually finish 'em, you know?

- [Steve] What is your fondest childhood memory?

Do you have one?

Does something jump out at you?

Think about... - I don't know, man.

A fondest childhood memory.

I don't know, that's a strange question, because I do have so many things that I think of as fond memories, but as I get older, again, the things I look back on that I try to, I can't return, so I try to simulate, are so common.

They're not like when we went some place magnificent or when I had something planned, it was like when we were trying to build a tree house in the backyard, in the tree, or when we were watching Marlin Perkins in "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" in the living room, even before we put the TV in the side porch.

- [Steve] What do you think people think of you?

- I would just say that I was just...

I was an upstanding guy that was straight with people, you know?

I don't like to obfuscate.

You know, I don't like to say things to try to confuse people.

I wanna tell 'em exactly how I feel.

And people don't wanna hear how you feel.

They wanna hear what they wanna hear.

- [Steve] What does the future look like for you?

- It's a good question, I guess.

I'm not so much concerned what it looks like for me, to be honest with you.

I think that I've realized that your time on the planet is so brief.

Like, I think about when I was... Well, let's say like the time I dropped the hammer on your head, that afternoon in Beach Haven West.

To me, that seems like it happened about 15 minutes ago.

And so I figure that at some point, I'm gonna make the transition to the next dimension, and expect the most important thing is that, you know, things are left a little bit better as a result of my having been there, you know?

I suppose.

I never really thought there was a moral purpose to my specific, singular life.

- [Steve] You're the only one.

Does everybody think- - I know, I just think, like, I spin in my own universe and I do what I wanna do, and I don't think it ever hurts anybody, and I just wish other people would live their lives like that, with less judgment.

That's the thing I think that hurts people the most, really, is other people's judgment.

If people were less judgmental, I think the world would be such a better place.

(gentle music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) ♪ We have exactly what you see ♪ ♪ Bruised and scraped our knees ♪ ♪ And still we find our way ♪ ♪ And some time ♪ (child yells indistinctly)