Family Hour is without a doubt the saddest part of the otherwise joyful THON, but it's one of the most essential. Last year, Onward State's own Stefan Choquette explained it to me best: "Such a tear jerker. If you're not a waterfall by the end of it, you're a robot."

Family Hour starts at about the forty-fifth hour, when Four Diamonds families are invited up on stage to share their emotional stories with the crowd. Some parents share stories of their children's journeys battling their cancer, eventually triumphing over the disease in the end. But some don't.