Losing a loved one can be the most difficult thing a person can ever experience, but even during the darkest of times, God finds a way to remind us that things do turn better eventually.
Courtney Hill and her husband Bryan had a perfect marriage. They were parents to a daughter and were looking forward to their life together following Bryan’s deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sadly, before they could see their daughter grow together, Bryan was killed in a car crash. This broke Courtney’s world into a million pieces, but she needed to stay strong for her daughter who lost her daddy.
As Courtney was preparing for the wake, she learned something that left her in complete shock. She was pregnant. Then, during the wake, she held Bryan’s hand and whispered in his ear, “Sweetheart, you’re going to be a dad again.”
She was now a single mother who expected a new child with the man of her life who was no longer there. But Courtney was determined to have the baby and be the best mother.
Following a doctor’s visit, Courtney learned something she never expected to. She wasn’t expecting one child, but three. “My jaw dropped. But I was excited to have three more smiles that remind me of him,” she told CBS Chicago.
Unfortunately, with multiple pregnancies there are always risks, and when Courtney had another ultrasound, she received some horrible news. One of the babies didn’t make it. Luckily, the other two, Miles and Harper, were born perfectly healthy.
Looking at her children, Courtney knew her husband would be proud of them, and she always found strength in the fact that he was looking over them from above.
When people asked her if her babies were twins, Courtney would always answer, “I call them surviving triplets.”
Thanks to the help of her family and friends, Courtney is going strong and raising her three children the best she can. She’s a proud mother who is looking forward to the future.
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For many years, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were considered one of the most famous and most powerful Hollywood couples.
They first met on the premiere of Stakeout, which Moore attended with her then-fiancé Emilio Estevez. However, the connection they felt was instant, and soon after, they started dating. In her memoir, Inside Out, Moore wrote of that serendipitous encounter. “I’d never encountered treatment like this before,” she confessed. “Bruce was so gallant- in his own boisterous way, a real gentleman. When I said it was time for me to go home, he offered to walk me to my car. He was so eager about it- Like a little boy who didn’t want to miss the ice-cream truck. When he asked for my number, I felt a wave of schoolgirl flutters.”
The couple has three daughters together, Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah.
Moore and Willis weren’t meant to stay together for life, at least as a couple. In 1989, they announced they were splitting and their divorce was finalized in 2000.
Calling their marriage quits didn’t mean the two would go into war against each other. On the contrary, they remained very close not only for the sake of their daughters but for themselves too.
Even today, they spend plenty of time together as a family.
After the divorce, Willis spoke to Rolling Stones, and admitted he didn’t know what went wrong between him and Moore.
“I still love Demi. We’re very close,” he revealed. “We have three children whom we will continue to raise together, and we’re probably as close now as we ever were. We realize we have a lifelong commitment to our kids.
“Our friendship continues. The institution has been set aside … It’s difficult to live your life and marriage under a magnifying glass, which is what happens to movie star couples.”
In her book, Moore wrote, “It’s a funny thing to say, but I’m very proud of our divorce,” adding that Willis was afraid things would turn ugly because of her “anger and whatever baggage” she had from their time together. But that wasn’t the case, neither she nor he held a grudge against each other.
When Willis married his current wife, Emma Heming, with whom he has two daughters, he and Moore still remained very close.
In 2009, the Die Hard star made a comment on their blended family, explaining how they managed to preserve such a special bond. He said, “Demi and I made a choice to put the kids first, and we’re lucky that it turns out we all have fun together.”
When Rumers took part in Dancing with the Stars, both her parents were there to cheer for her and Moore even took part at Willis’ Comedy Central Roast in 2014.
In 2022, she thanked her ex-husband for their beautiful blended family. On his birthday, she posted a message saying, “Happy Birthday, Bruce! I’m appreciative of our blended family.”
Willis’s family announced that he stepped away from the acting career that meant so much to him following the aphasia diagnosis, a condition which affects one’s ability to communicate. Later, it was revealed that he suffers from frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Rumer, who opened up about her parents’ sacrifice said she’s forever grateful her mom and dad kept her and her sister shielded from the public eye and managed to keep things between them civil.
“I don’t think I could have gotten luckier and couldn’t be more grateful for all the things that my parents have done to really make that happen,” she said in an interview with Sarah’s Backstage Pass.
“They put us first and I think that was one of the most important things that they did. I have friends whose parents can’t even be in the same room with each other and the only people that are really affected the most are the kids. It’s just sad. It’s really a bummer,” she added.
“I hope they can set an example for other families who may be going through that situation. I mean what could be better than having four parents? It’s an even bigger support system.”
Bruce and Moore have been such great parents to their kids. Their blended family is beautiful and we only wish them the best life brings.
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Being the son and the grandson of two acting legends, Michael Douglas and Kirk Douglas, has to feel special. This is the story of Dylan Douglas, who is now in his 20’s and is pursuing a completely different career than that of his famous mom, dad, and grandfather.
Dylan’ parents married in 2000. When they first started dating, the story of their romance was all over the magazines, mainly because of their age gap of 25 years. But neither Michael nor stunning Catherine Zeta-Jones cared of the opinion of the public as they knew they found their soulmate in one another. “I don’t take any of this for granted,” Zeta-Jones told People at her wedding. “When I look at Michael, I run around like a little girl. I can’t believe I came into his life and he came into mine.”
Months after they tied the knot, the pair welcomed Dylan into their life. Michael had another son from his previous marriage with Diandra Luker, Cameron. In 2003, they welcomed their daughter Carys Zeta-Douglas.
Both Michael and Catherine, who are devoted parents, wanted to raise their children away from the public eye. Being celebrities of their rank, they knew their kids would feel the pressure of having famous parents, so when Dylan was just a year old, the family moved to Bermuda. Michael’s mom was from this island and he spent his summers there when he was young so he believed it was just the place for them to be.
“Bermuda creates an environment for us away from the entertainment business, and gives our kids independence and freedom where showbiz isn’t on everybody’s lips,” Douglas said, according to the Bermuda Sun. “It’s a lovely, lovely place.”
Although they loved their life there, the family didn’t stay in Bermuda for many years. In fact, it was Dylan’s problem with dyslexia that made them return to New York. Dylan attended Windward School, which specializes in dyslexia.
Life wasn’t easy for young Dylan back then. His brother Cameron was sentenced to 5 years in prison and his father Michael was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer.
As Dylan was doing his best to settle in his new school, his dad was battling the horrible disease. Thankfully, Michael ended up winner and Dylan overcame his dyslexia all thanks to his school.
In fact, during a Windward School fundraiser, sweet Dylan used the opportunity to speak of just how much the school has done for him. He also spoke of the impact his father’s battle had on his life.
His mom shared Dylan’s speech on Instagram, and everyone realized just how kind and thoughtful Dylan has grown up to be.
“At home, I was alone, but at school I was far from lonely. At Windward I was free. It was like the Mecca of dyslexics. In 2010 everything was normal again at home, I could finally see my mum again and my dad was cancer free,” Dylan said. “Everything was beautiful again.”
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Back in 2010, Michael spoke of his kids and described them as “well-mannered, confident and worldly” young people. He said how dyslexia runs in the family and his brother has it as well, and added how he and Catherine are “old-fashioned parents who are proud of their kids.”
According to his Instagram page, Dylan is the founder of “Make Room Now” where he works as a Political & Outreach Director.
He is very interested in history, especially decolonization, freedom movements and first-time voting activism. He’s also into skydiving and other sports and similar activities.
“He just did a skydiving thing,” Michael said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “But I remember that age. It’s a hormonal thing, I think, for boys, testing yourself. I just think it — you know, what I did not like is he was the first one to jump. I said, ‘Don’t be the first one to jump!’” he continued. “Let a couple other people go off first to test it … So I said, ‘Okay, just don’t be first!’”
Dylan is a young man who is grounded, just like his parents and who loves his family. His sister, Carys is also attracting a lot of attention recently. In 2017, she had her highly anticipated debut at New York Fashion Week. Back then, she was just 15 and stayed out of the spotlight for some time until she took the stage together with her mother once again. At the New York Metropolitan Opera House, Carys and Catherine slayed the runway for Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda women’s couture and it’s safe to say that all eyes were on them. This event made everyone realize that Carys is a spitting image of her famous mom.
Actress Meg Ryan, the star of the Hollywood classics Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, gained fame during the 80’s and 90’s. She was considered America’s sweetheart and was described as a “girl next door.” Her charm and charisma, along with her awesome looks and talent, helped her rise to stardom.
However, some years ago, she decided to take some break from acting and focus all her time on her family.
Ryan was born in 1961 and grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut. Her parents divorced when she was still a teenager and that affected her life a great deal.
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Ryan studied journalism at the University of Connecticut and later at the New York University. At the time, she started doing commercials in order to earn some money, but got attracted to acting and landed a role in As the World Turns.
She had her breakthrough with the film Top Gun where she played the role of Carole Bradshaw, the wife of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw played by Anthony Edwards. During the filming, Ryan fell for her onscreen husband and the two started dating for a while. Not long after, Ryan landed a role in Innerspace where she met her future husband Dennis Quaid.
“She had already been in “Top Gun” but in a small part. She also had the lead in a picture called “Armed and Dangerous” with John Candy that had come out recently. But this was a great step up for her and of course, she was introduced to Dennis and later they got married,” the director, Joe Dante, shared with Cinema Retro.
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Ryan and Quaid tied the knot on Valentine’s Day 1991.
“It was like a thunderbolt,” Dennis said at the time. “Both of us felt, ‘This is it. We’re going to be together.’”
Their marriage lasted 10 years. At the time she and her husband announced they were splitting, rumors about her romance with her co-star Russell Crowe made headlines. Ryan and Crowe started dating while filming Proof of Life together. However, Ryan denied her romance with Crowe had anything to do with her marriage, which she claimed was already in shatters.
“It was a great story. But what wasn’t in the story was the reality of my marriage for nine years. Dennis was not faithful to me for a long time, and that was very painful. I found out more about that once I was divorced,” Meg Ryan told InStyle Magazine in 2008, eight years after her separation from Quaid.
“I think he took a big hit, but Russell didn’t break up the marriage. He was definitely there at the end, but it wasn’t his fault,” Ryan explained. “The public and the press tuned in way after. The reasons we broke up have nothing to do with another person,” she added.
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Quaid wasn’t happy with his ex’s comments. “It was eight years ago, and I find it unbelievable that Meg continues publicly to rehash and rewrite the story of our relationship,” he told the New York Daily News.
While she spoke of their marriage as of “unhealthy” one, he perceived their union quite differently. “Sure, I still love her,” Quaid told Independent. “I’m very fond of her, and we have a lot of fun. We spent 13 good years together. We had a kid together, and we shared so much: she made my life.”
Ryan and Quaid have one son together. Jack Quaid followed into his famous parents’ footsteps and played in Hunger Games among the rest.
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In 2006, as her career slowed down significantly, Ryan adopted daughter Daisy, a girl from China who was just 14 months old at the time.
“I just really wanted a baby; I was on a mission to connect with somebody, and Daisy and I got to meet each other this way at this time. We are so compatible. And also having the experience of having had Jack and now to have Daisy in a different way — there’s no difference in the love you feel,” Ryan shared with Redbook magazine in 2007.
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In recent years, Ryan who is 61, hasn’t appeared in public much. She also took some time off from the screen. However, according to her close friends, she is planning on conquering Hollywood again. Despite her age, she looks as stunning as always. We can’t wait to see her in new projects in the future.
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Among the rest, the members of the British royal family help plenty of different organizations with their work by getting involved and bringing publicity. However, as these requests are of great number, the royals limit the their patronages to a manageable number in order to give them quality time.
As well as the rest of the royals, Kate Middleton provides support to different charities. Some of them include Action for Children that helps with family support, foster care, adoption, child neglect, and disability respite therapy, and the children’s mental health charity Anna Freud National Centre For Children And Families. Further, the Princess of Wales is involved with the Evelina London Children’s Hospital and East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices.
Over the years, Kate has taken on around 20 patronages and counting.
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One of the issues she pays much attention to is the mental health of children, which led to Kate founding the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood and launching a new campaign for children’s mental health.
As expected, her husband does the same. One of the main concerns of Prince William has been the issue of homelessness which he tries to make “rare, brief and unrepeated” with his major five-year campaign to end homelessness he started in June.
“Everyone should have a safe and secure home,” Prince William said, adding that he wants to stop the “prejudice and stigma” around homelessness.
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However, as much as William does to accomplish this goal, there are always critics who doubt his intentions. One of them, among the rest, is the anti-monarchy group “Republic” member Graham Smith who believes the future King is “hypocritical.”
“The last thing we need is for William to get involved in this issue, a man who has three huge homes and a vast estate gifted to him by the state,” Smith says.
This criticism was then extended to Kate who wore a dress which cost around one thousand pounds when she attended the Order of the Garter ceremony. As everyone agreed she looked stunning in the dot polka dress, many argued that the price of it was ridiculous while many Britons struggle to make ends meet dubbing the choice of clothes a “mishap.” On top of it, she wore a very similar dress at the Royal Ascot last year.
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“This was a bit of a flop, not the outfit, the circumstances under it. It just didn’t sit well,” royal commentators Michelle Thole and Rachael Andrews said on their podcast Keeping Up With The Windsors, as reported by Express. “And this year, she had on shoes that looked very similar to ones that she’s previously worn before, but again, its a different designer, but they look almost the same.”
“She’s obviously got her favourite designers but why [is she] picking a dress that’s so similar? Why not bring out the dress you’ve previously worn? Last year the dots were a bit smaller or this year’s were, and that was about it, and the colour. Come on!” Andrews added.
According to royal expert Daniela Elser, Kate spent staggering $337,000 on her wardrobe last year.
“It’s not as if she worked that much more. In 2020 she undertook 108 engagements, in 2021, that figure was 123, and last year, 138. And yet, over the course of that same period of time, the number of new things she has worn has risen from 134 in 2020 to 204 in 2022,” she wrote. “So too has the average cost per item increased over those three years, from $1171 per item to $2007 per item.”
Princess Kate at the 2022 Royal Ascot. Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse
On her podcast, Andrews went further and said, “As she’s Princess of Wales now, it is like she has a certain uniform, and I think we are seeing that, but she had so many outfits that she could re-wear to an event like this.
“How many coat dresses has she got that she hasn’t worn more than once to a church service? Bring that out. Bring something out that you haven’t worn in eight, [or] nine years, and everyone would be like, ‘wow, she’s doing a re-wear, that’s so cool.’”
“We absolutely love Catherine and we’re normally all hot on what she wears but it just felt like a mishap this time and a lot of people felt the same.”
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These royal experts believe that since most of Kate’s outfits look pretty much the same as she’s following certain codes on how to dress, there’s no need for buying that many of them. Of course, they agree that spending that much money on clothes while her husbands is fighting homelessness is not reasonable and that it doesn’t look good for him either.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the royals should spend less on their wardrobe?
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A couple, in their seventies, didn’t show up on their 50th anniversary celebration and the reason why left their entire family shocked and heartbroken. Unfortunately, they were both found beaten and stabbed to death in their home in Newton, Massachusetts on Sunday morning. There was a third victim too, the wife’s mother who was in her nineties.
“Their 50th anniversary was to be celebrated in a blessing after communion at the 10 a.m. Mass. When they didn’t show up – I can’t go into the details about who discovered them – but we became notified, and myself and a number of the staff spent the day there,” the Rev. Dan Riley of Our Lady Help of Christians told WCVB.
The couple, Gilda D’Amore, 73, and Bruno D’Amore, 74, were about to attend their anniversary celebration, but when they failed to show up, one of their family members left the church, where guests were waiting for the couple, and went to check on them when he discovered their lifeless bodies.
“There were obvious signs of struggle in one of the bedrooms of the home, including broken furniture and a crystal paperweight covered in blood. We also found in the kitchen a knife with red, brown stains,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan revealed during a press conference.
The investigation showed forced entry along with bloody, bare footprints in the hallway. The footage of the surveillance cameras showed images of the suspect, Christopher Ferguson, 41, near the D’Amores’ home Sunday morning.
Another break-in happened near the D’Amores’ house that same morning, but there is no evidence if the two cases are related.
Ferguson was arrested Monday and charged with murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and burglary. He will face additional charges following the results of the autopsies.
We are very sorry these innocent people died in such a horrific manner. May they rest in peace.
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The news about the Texas airport worker who was killed after being sucked into a jet engine of a Delta airlines on Friday was a shocking one and made national news headlines over the weekend.
The death sparked concerns about safety procedures but The National Transportation Safety Board said it would not open an investigation into the death. According to the information the medical examiner provided them with, “there were no operational safety issues with either the airplane or the airport,” and the ground worker at the San Antonio International Airport, David Renner, had jumped into the engine.
However, The Federal Aviation Administration indicated that they would be carrying out an investigation into the death.
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The cause of death is listed as blunt and sharp force injuries and the manner of death is listed as suicide as per the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“This isn’t the first time David has tried something like this from my knowledge,” his brother Joshua Renner told the Daily Mail. “There were other times. This time I thought it was different.”
“The reason I say that is because he was almost five months clean and living every day to the fullest…there was zero indication this time,” he explained and recalled his older brother’s personality and tendency to try to make people laugh with “one joke a day.”
He added: “David had been clean for over eight months, was in therapy, [was] actively taking his prescribed medication and had finally became the David we all knew he could be.”
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Renner was employed by Unifi Aviation which Delta airlines contracts to do ground services for their fleet at San Antonio International Airport. A Unifi spokesperson said, “From our initial investigation, this incident was unrelated to Unifi’s operational processes, safety procedures and policies.”
The company shared their condolences and added they were “deeply saddened by the loss of our employee at San Antonio International Airport during a tragic incident.”
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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, they say. Well, we are all well aware that this is something better said than done, but the truth is that when we put our mind to something and work really hard for it, nothings is impossible.
Cara Brookins found herself in an abusive marriage. Being a mom of five, she knew she needed to save her children from the toxic environment they were forced to live in, so she left her husband, took her kids with her, and built herself a new home from scratch. How she did it? By drawing construction plans all by herself and watching YouTube videos that taught her how to lay a foundation, build a wall, run a gas line, and install plumbing, among other building techniques. This sounds incredible, doesn’t it?
When she thinks about it at this point, she realizes that it does seem impossible the whole way through.
At the time she started building her family’s new home in 2007, Cara, who worked as a computer programmer analyst, couldn’t afford to buy a home that would be comfortable enough for all of her children, and that’s when she came up with the idea to build it from the ground up.
“It felt like, ‘If anyone were in our situation, they would do this,’” Cara said. “No one else saw it like this, and in retrospect, I realize it sounds insane.”
She purchased a one-acre land for $20,000 and got a construction loan of roughly $150,000.
Her kids, with the oldest being 17 at the time and the youngest one just 2, got involved in the building of their 3,500-square-foot home.
Her son Drew helped her with the creation of the plans, while 11-year-old Jada used buckets to transport water from the neighbor’s pond, as there was no running water on-site. She then mixed it with 80-pound bags of concrete and formed the foundation mortar.
Every day after school, the kids would go to the site and help in the process. For the most demanding chores, this determined mother hired a part-time firefighter with building experience for $25 an hour. “In terms of knowledge, he was a step ahead of us,” she recalled.
It was on March 31, 2009 when the family finally moved to the Inkwell Manor, named in honor of Cara’s dream of becoming a writer.
“We were mortified that building our own shelter was our best alternative,” Cara said. “It wasn’t anything we were really proud of but it turned out to be the most beneficial thing I could have done for myself.”
“If I, a 110-pound computer programmer, can build an entire house,” she said, “you can do anything you set your mind to.”
She then proceeded saying, “Decide on a single aim and stick to it. Find that large thing you want to do, take tiny steps toward it, and bring along others who need to heal with you on the journey. There’s a lot of power in that.”
Isn’t this one of the most incredible stories you’ve heard in a while?
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