Do something nice for someone today. Even the smallest thing can make a difference.
Wisconsin Park Workers Shovel Snow So Elderly Man Can Reach Wife's Memorial
Rain or shine, snow or sleet, Bud Caldwell always finds a way to talk with his late wife. Sometimes, he just needs a little help.
Every day, Caldwell, 82, drives to Lakeside Park in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to visit the memorial bench he had installed to honor his wife of nearly 56 years, Betty, reports WDJT.
Caldwell says having a moment to be with his wife, even in spirit, is the best part of his day. After each visit, Caldwell leaves behind a single daisy and penny as a nod to the couple's favorite songs, "Pennies from Heaven" and "Daisy a Day."
This has been Caldwell's routine for the past two years, until weather got in the way. A few weeks ago, heavy snow blocked the man's path to the memorial. After slipping and falling last year while trying to walk through the snow to the bench, Caldwell decided to adjust his normal plan.
Instead of walking out, the devoted husband stayed in his car at Lakeside Park and spoke to Betty from there. Caldwell's change caught the attention of two park employees familiar with the elderly man's routine.
After spotting Caldwell, Jerrod Ebert and Kevin Schultz grabbed shovels and hurried to clear the path up to Betty's bench. The act brought all three of the men to tears.
"We have to make sure he can get to his bench and talk to his wife," Ebert said.
After seeing Caldwell's emotional reaction to their good deed, the pair of park workers have promised to keep the path clear throughout the entire winter.
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You're never too old to contribute
Australia's Oldest Man Spends Free Time Knitting Tiny Sweaters for Injured Penguins
Alfred "Alfie" Date, Australia's oldest living man, is putting his amazingly sharp mind and nimble hands to good use.
The 109-year-old likes to spend his free time knitting little sweaters for injured penguins from his room at a retirement home New South Wales, reports 9Stories.
Alfie picked up the hobby over 80 years, when his sister-in-law handed him a pair of needles and some wool and asked the man to knit a jumper for her baby boy.
That baby boy grew out of the jumper decades ago, but Alfie has continued to knit. The great-great-grandfather enjoys taking requests, so when two nurses asked in March if he wanted to knit sweaters for needy penguins, Alfie started stitching.
His creations were donated to Victoria's Phillip Island Penguin Foundation to help little penguins affected by an oil spill. Little penguins are a rare species only found in Australia and New Zealand, with just 32,000 living on Phillip Island.
Oil from the spill caused the penguins' feathers to stick together, allowing cold water to reach their skin. Sweaters from generous knitters like Alfie helped the birds stay warm while they waited to be cleaned up. The garments also prevented the penguins from picking at their feathers and accidentally consuming the toxic oil.
Thanks to Alfie and thousands of other knitters from around the world, Victoria's Phillip Island Penguin Foundation was overwhelmed with cozy jumpers, which allowed the foundation to fully rehabilitate many of the birds.
With this good deed done, Alfie now keeps his hands busy by knitting scarves for friends and hats for premature babies.
"It's a good way of getting along in life," Alfie said about his hobby. "You make friends all the time, but you don't make a fool of yourself either."
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Wedding stories seem to catch my eye these days for some reason
Anonymous Stranger Buys Wedding Dress for Cash-Strapped Bride-to-Be
When Elizabeth Jensen realized she couldn't afford her dream wedding dress, she probably didn't expect to have a fairy tale ending.
While the 21-year-old was admiring the dress at the pop-up shop Elizabeth Cooper Designs in Provo, Utah, last Friday, a fellow shopper and bride-to-be, who remains anonymous, offered to purchase the dress for Jensen.
"I said, 'Are you sure?' Because it's just not the norm," Carrie Ling, the bridal store owner, told the Deseret News. "I'm still flabbergasted. I don't know why she did it."
"It's unusual for a customer to walk out empty-handed, so I was shocked when I tried to help the anonymous lady pick out a dress and she instead told me that she wanted to help one of the five women in the store at the time," Ling told PEOPLE.
She pointed to Jensen and said that she wanted to help her because she was shopping alone, while the others had one or two people with them.
Jensen had her eye on the frock, but couldn't afford the dress's $480 price tag. She is currently a full-time student at Brigham Young University. Her father is also currently unemployed, making money tight for the family.
When Ling approached Jensen with the news, she immediately started crying.
"She told us her story and how grateful she was and really blessed that it happened to her," Ling said.
The store caters to brides on a budget, but none of the employees have ever seen such a sweet gesture happen out of the blue like this.
"The fact there was somebody in the store watching me and seeing how much I loved the dress and taking the time," Jensen, who is one of eight children, said. "She didn't even know me."
Jensen's fiancé, Jimmy Gillespie, proposed to her last month and they are set to wed on May 1. She wants the stranger to know that she has an open invitation to the wedding.
"We want to have our marriage built upon that principle of giving to other people," Jensen told ABC News.
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Another dogger that is an angel here on earth
Xena, Warrior Dog
She’d run out of ideas to help her special needs son.
Linda Hickey
I picked up popsicle sticks from the den floor. I’d spent all afternoon writing words on them, trying to make it fun for my younger son, Jonny, to speak...or even just to repeat the sentence that my husband, Grant, and I had been practicing with him for months: “Do you want to play?”
It didn’t work. Nothing worked. Jonny knew how to read, though not at his grade level. He knew how to speak too, but no one could get more than a word or two out of him, if that. I’d tried every idea I could think of, talked to God about it the way I talked to him about everything. But Jonny was eight years old. If he couldn’t speak in sentences and hold a conversation by now, would he ever?
It went beyond unlocking his speech. If Jonny could talk, it would open a whole world of possibilities for him. He would be able to connect with people, maybe make a friend. That was what I wanted for him more than anything.
Jonny didn’t hit the developmental milestones that our older son, Christian, had. Things that didn’t faze other kids, like picking up food with his hands or having someone stand too close to him, freaked him out.
He was two when we got the diagnosis: autism. I could hardly say the word. I avoided telling people. I didn’t want them to judge him. We tried physical, speech and occupational therapies. Special diets. Medication. Nothing changed.
Jonny was content to be with his family, but he ignored everyone else, even our two gentle old dogs. It broke my heart to see him retreat into himself, playing all alone. In some ways that was harder to take than his other behavioral extreme—uncontrollable meltdowns.
I never knew what would set him off. Once in the deli line at the supermarket, he’d started hyperventilating. Was it something he smelled? The sight of the deli meats? People crowding him? “Jonny, focus,” I said. He stared through me. Then he fell to the floor, kicking and screaming.
“Is he okay?” other customers asked. I’d hurried Jonny out of the store. I didn’t say what I was thinking. No, he’s not okay. He probably never will be.
I felt ashamed for thinking that. I hadn’t given up hope for Jonny, but I’d run out of ideas to help him. I was so discouraged, so exhausted. I flopped now onto the couch. The local news was on.
A horrifying image. A fawn-colored puppy on a veterinarian’s exam table, covered in scabs, so emaciated it was hard to believe she was alive. The reporter mentioned that the rescue group had set up a Facebook page under “Xena, the Warrior Puppy.” They were hoping she would pull through.
I grabbed my laptop and went to the page. “Xena appears to be a four-month-old Lab mix,” the post read. “Her nose scabs are likely from trying to escape a locked crate where she had no access to food. Her chances of survival are less than one percent.”
My heart went out to the little dog. “Please let Xena live,” I asked God. Like I said, I talk to him about everything.
The next morning before the boys woke up I checked Facebook. “Xena made it through the night and she’s eating!” Yes!
From then on, I checked her page several times a day. Grant teased me about my new obsession. I wasn’t the only one. Xena had more than 9,000 followers. Little by little, she grew stronger.
It might sound strange that I got emotionally invested in a dog I’d never met, but Xena was so inspiring. She’d been given almost no chance of surviving, yet here she was, thriving. A warrior, all right. I wasn’t holding out for something that miraculous for Jonny, but maybe there was hope for him yet.
I saw an update one afternoon saying there would be a meet and greet with Xena in November, about two months after I’d seen her on TV. I told Grant. “Isn’t that for people looking to adopt her?” he asked.
I nodded. “I know it’s crazy to take on another dog now,” I said. “But we would give her lots of love.”
Grant’s expression softened. “Okay,” he said. “Just don’t get your hopes up. I’ll bet tons of people want to give her a home. And there’s no guarantee she’d get along with our dogs.” He didn’t have to add, What about Jonny? There was no telling how he’d react.
A few days before the meet and greet, I found out something else that gave me pause. A Facebook update said that Xena wasn’t a Lab mix after all. She was a pit-bull mix. I’d seen scary stories on the news about pit bulls attacking people. Could they be trusted around kids, especially one as unpredictable as Jonny?
“I don’t know about this anymore,” Grant said.
“Me either,” I admitted. But then I thought about how I didn’t want people to judge Jonny because he had autism. How could I write off an entire breed of dog? “Maybe we should just see what she’s like.”
“Fine,” Grant said with a sigh.
The meet and greet was packed. People milling around, even TV news crews. I tensed. What if Jonny freaked out? “Don’t worry,” Grant said. “We won’t stay long.”
We were there maybe five minutes. Just long enough for me to thank Chrissy, the woman who had rescued Xena, for bringing me so much hope the past couple of months. And to see Xena make her entrance. She seemed totally friendly, darting up to people, unafraid despite her history of abuse. That made me want her all the more.
At home I filled out an application to adopt Xena. There were no questions about family members with disabilities. If they weren’t asking, I wasn’t telling. That night, as I made dinner, Grant turned on the news. “Linda!” he called. “It’s the meet and greet.”
I ran to the den. There was Xena. “She’s running straight to Jonny! Did he actually smile at her?”
“I can’t believe I forgot to tell you,” Grant said. “It happened so fast, and we were in such a rush to leave.”
Three months went by and I didn’t hear from the rescue group. All I could do was keep praying and checking Xena’s Facebook page.
Finally, I got a call from Chrissy. “We considered the applications carefully,” she said. “We think your family would be a good fit. Would you like to take Xena for a trial visit?”
I shouted yes so loud I think God might have needed earplugs in heaven.
Xena was dropped off that Monday morning to meet our other dogs before Jonny came home from school. The dogs sniffed each other, then ambled around the house together. Well, the other dogs ambled. Xena bounded.
Time to pick up Jonny. I opened the van door and Xena hopped right into his booster seat. “Make yourself at home,” I said, laughing.
The carpool line seemed to take forever. Finally Jonny slid open the door.
“Remember Xena?” I said.
His eyes lit up. Xena hopped out of the booster seat. Jonny got in. His seat belt clicked. Then I heard something else.
“Mom, look! She has four legs! And two eyes. And two ears. And she’s brown and white. And she has a booboo on her nose.”
My breath hitched. Did Jonny just talk? In complete sentences? How could that be? After all these years.…
“That’s right, honey,” I said.
“She needs a Band-Aid for the booboo,” Jonny declared.
Now I was the one who couldn’t speak.
Xena jumped into Jonny’s lap, crowding him. He giggled, not minding one bit.
Xena became a part of our family. She’s gotten Jonny to open up in many ways. Not only did he get over his phobia of touching food, he makes her dinner every night. He chatters nonstop and even got an award at school for his friendliness. He marches right up to people at the supermarket and says, “Give me a hug!”
I took over Xena’s Facebook page. I proudly tell thousands of people about Jonny’s autism and the incredible difference Xena has made.
“What kind of dog is Xena?” I like to ask Jonny.
“She’s a warrior, Mom!” he says.
“That’s right. Just like you.”
Miracles too, both of them. That’s what I talk to God about these days.
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