The Cheerful Thread

[Polly Ticks]

Wow!

I have 5 kids, and I have always said once you get over the hump going from two kids to three, it doesn't really matter how many more you add because they already outnumber you anyway.  There's quite a bit of truth in that, but this is really pushing the limit!

God bless them.  What a wonderful family.

[thackney]

I have 5 kids, and I have always said once you get over the hump going from two kids to three, it doesn't really matter how many more you add because they already outnumber you anyway.  There's quite a bit of truth in that, but this is really pushing the limit!

God bless them.  What a wonderful family.

I had an uncle with 4 kids that said the same.  When we took on a third, I could not imagine choosing to add more.

[Silver Pines]

Just saw this on Shapiro's Twitter...it's truly great.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv8Ud-ruKrk

[EC]

Second World War vet receives love letter from late wife, 72 years later



WESTFIELD, N.J. -- A love letter lost in the walls of a New Jersey home reached a World War II veteran 72 years after it was written.

Melissa Fahy and her father found the letter in a gap under the stairs while renovating her Westfield home.

The letter, postmarked May 1945, was written by a woman named Virginia to her husband, Rolf Christoffersen. Her husband was a sailor at the time in the Norwegian Navy.

"I love you Rolf, as I love the warm sun," Virginia Christoffersen wrote. "That is what you are to my life, the sun about which everything else revolves for me."

Fahy told WNBC-TV in New York that she could not believe the love and admiration Virginia had for her husband. "It was really sweet to see that long-distance love," she said.

She decided to find the Christoffersens and deliver the letter, turning to a Facebook page for help. Facebook users located the couple's son in California hours after Fahy's post.

The son read the letter to his 96-year-old father. Virginia died six years ago this weekend.

"In a way, I guess it's his wife coming back and making her memory alive again," Fahy said.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/second-world-war-vet-receives-love-letter-from-late-wife-72-years-later-1.3408781

[Ghost Bear]

This is from yesterday:

Nation’s oldest veteran turns 111, receives permanent Austin honor

AUSTIN (KXAN) — It would be hard to believe anyone in Austin hasn’t heard of Richard Overton.

The World War II veteran’s journey through this life has been well chronicled. He’s been honored with plaques and memorial gardens. He’s visited the White House to meet President Barack Obama. Thursday, the county’s oldest living veteran will again be honored with a permanent display of recognition that anyone walking or driving through his East Austin neighborhood can see.

The city is renaming Hamilton Avenue, a street Overton has called home for over seven decades, Richard Overton Avenue.

“They’re putting the sign out here, putting the street sign all the way out there,” Overton told KXAN.

Story excerpted, more at the link: http://kxan.com/2017/05/11/austins-permanent-gift-to-richard-overton/

[Wingnut]

This is from yesterday:

Nation’s oldest veteran turns 111, receives permanent Austin honor

AUSTIN (KXAN) — It would be hard to believe anyone in Austin hasn’t heard of Richard Overton.

The World War II veteran’s journey through this life has been well chronicled. He’s been honored with plaques and memorial gardens. He’s visited the White House to meet President Barack Obama. Thursday, the county’s oldest living veteran will again be honored with a permanent display of recognition that anyone walking or driving through his East Austin neighborhood can see.

The city is renaming Hamilton Avenue, a street Overton has called home for over seven decades, Richard Overton Avenue.

“They’re putting the sign out here, putting the street sign all the way out there,” Overton told KXAN.

Story excerpted, more at the link: http://kxan.com/2017/05/11/austins-permanent-gift-to-richard-overton/

[EC]

Newlyweds reunited with lost wedding rings after Texas tornado destroyed home

 Newlyweds Ariel and Justin Duke never thought they’d find Ariel’s weddings rings again after a tornado destroyed their Canton, Texas, home on April 29.

Ariel had removed both her engagement ring and wedding band at her in-laws’ house just before the tornado ravaged the area, which scattered debris for miles.

“Literally our house was just leveled. It wasn’t destroyed, it just wasn’t there,” Justin, 27, told ABC News of the devastating aftermath. “It was a small, little yellow farmhouse on top of the hill. The perfect starter home.”

In a last-ditch effort to recover the sentimental jewelry, the couple, who has only been married for three months, posted photos of the rings to Facebook for people to share in hopes someone would find them.

Hobby metal detector Nathan Wright came across the post and knew he wanted to help.

“By the time I had come across it they had kind of given up,” Wright said. “It was about eight days since it happened and they had a bunch of people out there using rakes and doing everything they could to find it.”

More plus rather sweet video: http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/newlyweds-reunited-lost-wedding-rings-texas-tornado-destroyed/story?id=47346010

[EC]

Parent raises over $21,000 to erase all Seattle school lunch debt

SEATTLE - Jeffery Lew is a proud graduate of Seattle Schools, and now that his son is a 3rd grader he was looking for a way to give back.

He found out that some students struggle to pay for school breakfast and lunch, often not qualifying for free meals, and therefore racking up debt with the school district.  Lew had also heard nightmare stories about some school districts throwing away food in front of students or refusing to feed kids who could not afford to pay.

Lew called his son’s school.

“The entire school debt was about $97 and some change,” Lew said.

So he decided to think bigger.

“Why not just tackle the entire Seattle Public School District,” Lew said.

That turned out to be more than $20,000, so he enlisted the help of other parents via GoFundMe.

Seattle Public Schools do not shame students like some districts around the county have done.

Seattle students who have low account balances begin getting verbal warnings from the school and may get a note to take home.  If the money runs out the district provides Kindergarten through 8th grade students with emergency meals for up to three days-- consisting of graham crackers and milk for breakfast-- or fruit, vegetables and milk for lunch.

More: http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/parent-trying-to-erase-all-seattle-school-lunch-debt/522245328

Posting this in here because, irrespective of what you think about school meals and who pays, it was a fundamentally decent thing to do.

[EC]

Mama duck and a dozen ducklings rescued from 6th floor of a Library of Congress building

A dozen baby ducks and their mother were rescued Tuesday afternoon from a sixth floor balcony of a Library of Congress building with the help of the U.S. Capitol Police. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden posted a picture of the ducklings on Twitter.

On Tuesday, around 4 p.m., a Library of Congress staffer noticed the ducklings and their mother go past a window of the sixth floor balcony of the James Madison Memorial Building, which is one of the library’s facilities, said Gayle Osterberg, the library’s director of communications.

There is no water around, so it seemed a bit “out of the ordinary,” said Osterberg.

The staffer went to the librarian’s office and got the chief of staff who has access to the balcony. The two went out on the balcony and saw the ducklings and their mother. The birds were trying to get over the walls of the balcony but couldn’t, Osterberg said.

“Clearly it was not a safe environment for them,” Osterberg said.

U.S. Capitol Police were called. Officers and others were able to safely coax the ducks into two boxes, Osterberg said.

More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2017/05/17/mama-duck-and-a-dozen-ducklings-rescued-from-6th-floor-of-a-library-of-congress-building/

Don't they know Natural History is 4th floor?

[EC]

Oregon governor forgives boy for swiping hazelnut, pen

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The governor of Oregon has pardoned a fourth-grade boy who swiped a hazelnut and a pen during a recent tour of the state Capitol.

Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday tweeted out a photo of the boy's apology letter along with the hashtag #cutestmailever and the caption, 'I think we can forgive Samuel, don't you think, Oregonians?' The tweet immediately got many likes and retweets.

In the pencil-written letter, Samuel explains that he visited the Capitol Building on a classroom tour on April 19 and took the items.

"These things were not mine and it was wrong for me to take them. I'm very sorry," he wrote. "I hope you and the people of Oregon can forgive me."

More: http://www.wthr.com/article/oregon-governor-forgives-boy-for-swiping-hazelnut-pen-0

[mountaineer]

Former 'terrible racist' apologizes, gives $2K to black Greenville church
Tesalon Felicien , The Greenville News
 Published 5:11 p.m. ET May 23, 2017

A small Greenville church with a predominantly black congregation is rejoicing after receiving an anonymous $2,000 donation that also came with a unique apology.

Members of the Nicholtown Presbyterian Church, at 201 Carter St., found the typed letter along with two post office money orders, each for a $1,000, in the church's mailbox last week.

In the letter dated May 13, the donor gave two reasons for sending the money.

"First, I am white and used to be a terrible racist."

The $2,000 donation they said was a "heartfelt apology to African American Community, and a sign of God's love for you, and as a sign of my love for you as well."

The second reason was to show that "miracles, just as in Biblical times, still happen today, this is it!"

Beverly Kelly, pastor of the Mattoon Presbyterian Church and moderator of the session for Nicholtown Presbyterian Church, said the donation came at the perfect time.

"It's like a miracle," Kelly laughed.  ...

Kelly said while she's thankful for the donation, she's more thankful for the donor's transformation.

"We know that if this person has truly asked God to forgive them, we know that God has heard that confession and truly does forgive," she said. "Forgiveness means more than saying I'm sorry. Forgiveness means, that 'I am going to change, I'm going to turn around and live differently. I'm going to live as God wants me to live.'"  ... Rest of story

[Polly Ticks]

Twin sisters in Brazil will celebrate their 100th birthday later this month and to mark the momentous occasion, a photographer captured them in a whimsical photo shoot.


http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/twin-sisters-celebrate-100th-birthday-whimsical-photo-shoot/story?id=47486638

[EC]

Meet the 97-year-old heartbeat of modern dance

RICHMOND, Va. -- When it comes to modern dance, Richmond's Frances Wessells stands - or dances - apart.

She's been teaching it for 80 years. She's still at it as her 98th birthday approaches.

"I think I've spent my life explaining what modern dance was to people," she said prior to an improvisational workout with her longtime dance partner and former student, Robbie Kinter.

Wessells' gift, Kinter said, is not just in explaining it.

"Frances wasn't trying to get everyone to dance the same way," he said, "but was always interested in everybody finding their own voice, and find what it is about movement that is their own."

She's danced all over this land, from New York to Denver. She learned under modern dance co-founder Hanya Holm and has taught countless students how to reveal the dances in their hearts, Kinter said.

There are, he added, "world-famous choreographers and dancers all around the world who took Frances' improvisation classes."

Much more: http://wtvr.com/2017/05/25/the-97-year-old-heartbeat-of-modern-dance/

[verga]

Nice/heartwarming stories only, please! Consider this the counterpoint to the Ridiculous News thread.

@EC Thank you for this thread.

[mountaineer]

Meet the 97-year-old heartbeat of modern dance

RICHMOND, Va. -- When it comes to modern dance, Richmond's Frances Wessells stands - or dances - apart. ...

Reminds me of my husband's aunt, who's now around 95 and confined to a wheelchair from arthritis. She loved to dance and went to New York at age 18 to study with some famous Russian ballet dancer. When we visited her at her home before she moved into the retirement home, she told us her life story, and her eyes lit up whenever she talked about dancing. Her only daughter became a dancer, too, albeit a rather hefty one and probably not as graceful as her mother.  ^-^

[EC]

Joy for baseball-loving teenager with deformed hand caused by rare bone defect - as means he has an almost unhittable curveball

For high schoolers, the last thing they want to do is stick out.

But that wasn't an option for Dylan Rosnick, 18, due to a birth defect that was obvious every time he raised his hand in class.

The teenager from Aide, Virginia, was born with a rare genetic defect called Proteus syndrome, which causes skin, tissue and bones to overgrow.

For the baseball player this means three of his fingers on each hand are abnormally long, with his his left fingers extending six inches and around an inch wide.

But it also is a gift.

Dylan's birth defect allows him to grip the baseball in a certain way and leads to an unhittable and truly unique pitch.

More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4584732/Pitcher-s-birth-defect-causes-unhittable-balls.html

Good kid. Really good parents. 

[EC]

Windsor, Ont. pharmacist uses pool cue to fight off knife-wielding man demanding opioids

With a knife-wielding man climbing over her raised pharmacy counter and demanding drugs, Sara Etemad-Rad calmly walked into the back room of her downtown Windsor drug store, promising to comply.

But instead of returning with a stash of fentanyl patches and other opioids, she came out swinging.

With both hands wrapped around a worn pool cue she started hitting the man over the head until he ran off.

"Some people ask why I didn't point at his eyes, but I was not trying to kill him, I was just trying to make him leave," Etemad-Rad said. "So, I started beating him, basically. That's all I did."

More: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-ont-pharmacist-uses-pool-cue-to-fight-off-knife-wielding-man-demanding-opioids-1.4152911

Class act, ma'am. 

[EC]

'The Cat Man' helps save thousands of feline lives around the Valley

PHOENIX - Some say he's "the feline phenom." Others simply call him "The Cat Man." But most people know him as 82-year-old Bob Snow of Sun Lakes.

For more than 13 years, he's donated countless hours to helping the Valley with its stray cat struggle, one of the worst in the nation according to officials with the Arizona Animal Welfare League.

"Cats will only have litters when it's warm and unfortunately that's 10-11 months out of the year in Arizona," explains Michael Morefield.

That's where Snow comes in, donating his own time and money; the man sometimes goes out trapping five days a week. He then brings the cats and kittens to area shelters where they are fixed, well fed, and nursed back to health.

From there, many of them are placed into foster homes. Some of the cats are also returned back to where they were found once they are spayed or neutered.

"It's a lot of work but it's very satisfying actually because you're helping the community," Snow explains.

More: http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/the-cat-man-helps-save-thousands-of-feline-lives-around-the-valley

@Freya  Add me to the kitty ping please. 

[EC]

Cool Move By Fort Worth Officers

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Fort Worth Police officers on a call Thursday came across a 95-year-old man whose air conditioner wasn’t working.

Well, that didn’t work for them!

The officers went to Home Depot and bought Julius Hatley a brand new unit.

The gesture struck a chord with the store’s managers and employees, prompting them to put $150 of their own money towards the purchase.

Haltey said he really appreciated it.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/06/08/cool-move-fort-worth-officers/

 

[Sanguine]

Cool Move By Fort Worth Officers

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Fort Worth Police officers on a call Thursday came across a 95-year-old man whose air conditioner wasn’t working.

Well, that didn’t work for them!

The officers went to Home Depot and bought Julius Hatley a brand new unit.

The gesture struck a chord with the store’s managers and employees, prompting them to put $150 of their own money towards the purchase.

Haltey said he really appreciated it.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/06/08/cool-move-fort-worth-officers/

 

Great story! 

[EC]

Lakewood lifeguard saves toddler first day on the job

LAKEWOOD, Ohio – It started out as a day of fun in the sun at the Charles A. Foster pool in Lakewood last Thursday.

But things quickly turned dangerous in just a matter of minutes.

Lifeguard Jack Viglianco, 15, says, "I heard like a help, ah, kind of thing. And I looked over and I saw a guy who's probably like 3'6', in the 4-foot water and gasping for air."

The victim was actually a four-year-old boy at the pool for a summer camp field trip.

Viglianco says the young boy was bobbing up and down, screaming for help.

Not only was it Jack's first day on the job, it was only 20 minutes into his shift, when he had to put the lifesaving skills he had just learned to the test.

More: http://fox8.com/2017/06/12/lakewood-lifeguard-saves-toddler-first-day-on-the-job/

[EC]

This first-time dad converted his home gym into an adorable nursery

Sgt. Jim Rios has been a Newark police officer for 12 years, but he says his hardest job began Nov. 5, 2016.

That's the day he and his wife, Taquila, welcomed their firstborn, a 7-pound, 6-ounce baby girl they named Anivia.

Rios began to prepare for this new role with much thought and action. His first parental sacrifice was to replace his weight-training equipment with a crib and convert their former home gym into a nursery. The easy part was relocating workouts to another room in their five-bedroom, three-bathroom Franklin Township home.

The harder part came with installing new flooring, painting, wall-papering and wainscoting the walls, and the numerous other jobs he took on himself, sometimes with help from friends.

The biggest challenge in this paternal do-it-yourself project, however, was his wife's desire to have a bed along with the baby's crib in the 200-square-foot room. She wanted to be able to lie there on late nights when their daughter needed soothing.

Jim Rios wondered why he couldn't just put the crib in their bedroom. That idea was vetoed. His wife wanted a proper nursery for their firstborn, and it had to have a bed in it. Ultimately, it would be a hidden bed that he'd build himself. "I didn't want a bed in the nursery," he explained. "I thought it would take up too much space."

More: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/06/nj_home_makeover_franklin_township_nursery.html

[Smokin Joe]

I know Newark is a rough neighborhood, but 5 bedrooms, three bathrooms? One (new) kid? How much does a policeman with 12 years on the force make there anyway?

[mountaineer]

'I’m not going to let you go': MLB umpire saves woman from edge of Clemente Bridge

Stephen J. Nesbitt and Steph Chambers
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
8:16 PM
Jun 28, 2017

As a Major League Baseball umpire, John Tumpane often has to defuse tense situations at the ballpark.

None compared to the scene he came upon Wednesday as he walked across the Roberto Clemente Bridge around 3 p.m. on his way back from a run and lunch: A few hundred yards from PNC Park, he saw a woman climb over a railing and look toward the Allegheny River below.

“Obviously, that grabbed my attention,” Tumpane said prior to the Pirates game against the Tampa Bay Rays, in which the 34-year-old Chicago native was the home-plate umpire. “I asked a couple in front of me, ‘What’s this lady trying to do?’ and they said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

The bridge was mostly empty at that time of day. Tumpane rushed toward the woman, who appeared calm, and asking what was going on.  ...

“Oh no,” Tumpane said, hooking his arm around hers. “You don’t want to do that. It’s just as good over here. Let’s go grab some lunch and talk.”

“No, no, no,” she answered. “I’m better off on this side. Just let me go.”

“I’m not going to let you go,” he said. “Let’s talk this out. We’ll get you back over here.”

“No one wants to help me,” she repeated. “Just let me go.”

“No, we’re here to help you.”

“You’ll forget me tomorrow.”

“I’ll never forget you,” he said. “You can have my promise on that.”  ...

Read the rest of the story at Post-Gazette

Then he went to the park and umpired the Pirates-Rays game.

[mountaineer]

Tumpane comforts the would-be jumper