A Boy Who Said He Went to Heaven Made it Up - I'm Mad, but not at the Boy or his Family

When I first read the story below, I thought it was about he boy whose story was made into a movie last year.  Apparently, there were three books in circulation about boys who "visited heaven."

This book is titled, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven.  It is about a boy, Alex Malarkey, at the time, age 6, who said he went to heaven after a terrible car accident.  His father wrote a book, which eventually became a best-seller.

The boy, now 16, has retracted his story, saying that he made it up to get attention.

I'm writing off the cuff, now, and I feel anger, but not at the boy, nor his parents.  I can understand a six year old making this up to get attention. I can understand a father wanting to write this down and sharing what his son had said.  I read that in the book, the father wrote that he found some of the stuff his son was saying was hard to believe - so there was no intention of deceit on the part of the father - he was just writing down what his son had said.

So, who am I mad at?  Or why am I mad?  The family made no money.  The book is a New York Times Best-seller, and none of the profits trickled down to the family?  It is hard to believe.  What kind of arrangement did the father make?  Was it a one-time fee for all rights?  That's really the only way I can think of that would lead to this situation.

Bit even if his father signed away the rights to this book, the boy is severely paralyzed. It's pretty obvious that the medical bills - and bills related to healthcare are not only medical - but there are all sorts of incidentals that are not covered by insurance.  So, even though the publisher(s) may not be legally obligated to help the family, it riles me that it seems that those who profited from the book did not extend any helping hand after the book became a best seller.

From what I also understand, despite the title of the book, very little of it is the actual description of heaven. Much of it is the struggles and coping when a child is stricken with a serious injury.

If I were the parents, I would write another book with their son.  Leave out the actual descriptions of heaven, but include their spirituality, and talk about how they have coped with this situation for the last ten years - I'm sure a lot of people would still be inspired from their story, and would be interested in reading about it.

Anyway, here is the story from Daily Mail.com: "I Did Not Go to Heaven."