My take on the ending (with scenes from Andy's childhood)

I see a lot of people who reacted negatively to the ending saying it was unnecessary and a weak attempt to make the audience cry. I didn't think that at all and here's why I thought it actually DID add to the story and DID make sense.
First of all, Andy is dying of AIDS, it is a terrible disease that is fatal 100% of the time. If you have Aids, you gonna die. Secondly, Andy has to deal with prejudice everyday of his life, because he is gay and also because he has Aids. In nearly every scene where he is interacting with people, they are acting disgusted by him including Joe the lawyer (who has also had to deal with predjudce because he is black.)
So it comes to the movie reel at the end with old footage of Andy's babyhood days. What I got from this was that Andy was once young and innocent and nothing in the world mattered except going to the beach and being with his mom and dad. Prejudice didn't exist in his world, and neither did a deadly disease that would claim his life becuase of a mistake he had made. And that's the POINT of the movie, is that we WANT to live in a world without prejudice or hate.
Just my two cents worth on that scene and why I thought it was necessary.