When Sheree Paolello signed a contract to be a reporter at WLWT-TV News 5 she saw Cincinnati as a stepping stone to a bigger market like Chicago or New York.

But that contract became two contracts. Then an offer to anchor came along.

So she stayed.

This month marks her 20th anniversary at WLWT. Paolello told The Enquirer's "That's So Cincinnati" podcast there's no other place she'd rather report the news.

Paolello grew up in St. Leon, in Dearborn County. She graduated from Northern Kentucky University and went on to be a crime reporter in South Bend, Indiana, Dayton and Charlotte before coming to Cincinnati.

A mother of three, Paolello found the love of her life, Mike Dardis, in the anchor chair right next to where she sits. They celebrated their third wedding anniversary a few weeks ago.

Looking back, Paolello said the big stories that resonate with viewers are, of course, the stories she remembers too. She reported live from Fountain Square in 2018 when a gunman killed three and wounded two others in the lobby of Fifth Third's headquarters. 

She covered the 2006 saga of Marcus Fiesel, a 3-year-old child who was falsely reported missing, but whose foster parents killed him.

Paolello knows her job can look glamorous, but the truth, she says, is that it usually isn't.

"When you're a young reporter," Paolello said, "I don't think you realize the gravity of the job. ... And then you meet people on the worst day of their life. And what I always say to rookie reporters and to journalism school interns, I'll say to them, 'The day you lose your compassion is the day you need to get out of this business because it a day story for us is most of the time a life-changing moment for other people."

To deal with the toughest stories she relied on Dardis' strength as her partner and the advice a priest gave her many years ago.

He told her to be compassionate and do her job the best she can, in the most compassionate way possible.

Then Dardis suggested that every night, on the way home, Paolello say a prayer for the people she's reported on.

"And that is kind of how I've gotten through it," Paolello said. "I have been doing this job for over 25 years, 20 here in Cincinnati. And that's what I do. I say a prayer for the parents whose kids were killed in a car crash or the father who lost their wife to cold blood or whatever it is.

"I try to just make it be part of my routine."