The moment Susan Boyle took the stage of “Britain’s Got Talent” some ten years ago, no one believed this housewife would in any form impress them. They took her for granted and the moment she opened her mouth and started singing ““I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables, people felt ashamed for misjudging her. This woman silenced whole Britain and everyone watching the show with her stunning vocals and taught us that we should always follow our dreams now matter how distant and unreachable they seem to be.
Fast forward, Susan is today a successful singer whose album “I Dreamed a Dream” has been sold in over 19 million copies. She spoke of the time she had been bullied as a child, but that life is long over and now her name resembles hope and success.
Recently, Susan has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Doctors warned her that this condition could affect her singing career in a long term and advised her to lose some weight. As performing live is her thing, Susan decided to take things in her own hands and go on a mission to transform herself.
The first thing she did was cut the sugar out of her diet and turn to a healthier lifestyle. Speaking to The Mirror, she said, “I need to stop eating sweeties and cakes. It’s the bane of my life.”
Susan’s dedication resulted in her losing 28lbs recently and she now looks like a completely new person. Well, it’s not that she didn’t look awesome before, but now, she’s not only transformed, but way healthier.
“I’m feeling a lot better now. I had moments where I needed help, and I reached out and I got the help I needed,” she told U.K. TV presenter Lorraine Kelly.
Last year, Susan took part in “America’s Got Talent: The Champions.” People were glad to see her standing where it all started. Turning to her viewers and fans, Susan said, “(I’m) a champion for those who don’t have the confidence to do things and don’t have a voice; the ones people tend to ignore. I feel like I’m a champion for them.”
For some, Susan is just another talented singer, but for many, she’s a true inspiration. Her life story is as remarkable as her singing and her self-believe makes her a role model for many.
Being TV host requires excellent verbal communication skills, flexibility, to be able to work under pressure, and a lot more. But no matter what it takes, one of the greatest TV hosts there are, Jay Leno, seems to have it all, if not more.
Leno has always seen himself as a comedian, something that remains huge part of his life even today. He was extremely good at making jokes and even doing pranks while at school, and instead of being scolded for that by his teachers, they actually encouraged him to develop that talent of his even further, something he’s always grateful for.
“If Jay spent as much time studying as he does try to be a comedian, he’d be a big star,” Leno recalled one of his teachers once wrote on his report card.
“I had wonderful teachers, I would not be in show business without them,” Leno recalled.
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“I remember Mrs. Hawke, my English teacher, who said to me, ‘You know, you’re always telling jokes in the hall, why don’t you write some of those stories down and maybe you can tell them to the class?’ It would have never occurred to me to do that because that just seemed like homework. And for the first time in my life, homework was actually enjoyable.
“I’d write something down, and then cross it out, saying now that doesn’t sound right and then write it again,” he added. “And then she’d have me stand up in front of the class and have me read these stories and I realize now that they weren’t very good, but at the time I got a few laughs and she said, ‘Maybe you could be a comedy writer or something like that.’
“It was an eye-opener. It was something I’ve always been grateful for.”
Youtube/Johnny Carson
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech therapy from the Emerson College in Boston in 1973, Leno traveled from Boston to New York where he auditioned as a comedian.
Eventually, he landed gigs in Boston before moving to the West Coast to write for the television series Good Times.
Once he established himself as a prominent comedian, Leno appeared in a number of shows, including Late Night. Then, in 1987 he became the host of The Tonight Show after Johnny Carson retired.
Speaking of his beginnings as a host, Leno told Parade, “When I first began hosting The Tonight Show, the audience didn’t exactly love me.
“I used to pack up my things every night and take them home – I didn’t know if the show would be mine the next day. I worked hard, I put my nose to the grindstone, and it was fun when we were able to turn the show around. When I finished, we were No. 1.”
NBC’s former Vice President, Rick Ludwin, spoke of the decision to chose Leno over David Letterman for the spot.
“Jay Leno had just signed a new deal that guaranteed Jay The Tonight Show, whenever Johnny [Carson] stepped down,” he told People.
“Dealing with Dave had become bothersome and draining, and he could be unnecessarily rude to network people — not just me. So did that factor into my decision as to go with Jay Leno over Dave Letterman? You bet it did.”
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Leno’s determination to succeed brought him to the top. Over the years, he made a net worth of $540 million, as per Celebrity Net Worth, before he decided to retire and focus on his private life.
Today, Leno is doing comedy again and is running charities. He has strong passion for cars and motorcycles, which led to his series Jay Leno’s Garage.
When it comes to his private life, it’s far from turbulent. Leno has been together with his wife Mavis Leno for over 40 years, and they are still going strong.
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Speaking of the time the two first met, Mavis shared with Los Angeles Times, “I don’t remember the day. But at the time I thought, ”Holy s–t! That comedian is gorgeous.’
“I had gone to the Comedy Store with my girlfriend because I was writing comedy with some partners. Friends kept saying, ‘You have to hang out at the Comedy Store and The Improv you’ll meet people who can give you jobs. The first time I went, they sat us front row center that means you’re this far from the comic. And there was Jay.”
Mavis is involved with several charities.
“I always tell people that you should marry the person you wish you could have been. That’s a pretty good goal,” Leno said about his wife in a Wall Street Journal Q&A. “The secret to a long marriage is realizing there’s nothing really worth fighting about.”
Speaking to Today, the host added, “I’m in show business, which is a selfish profession, so I married a woman that works very hard for women’s rights and other issues like that and it balances out.”
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Jay Leno doesn’t have any children, and it looks like he made this decision because he chose to prioritize his relationship with his wife, who didn’t want to have children, over having any.
Mavis spoke to The Washington Post and explained that the show The Honeymooners had a lot to do with her perception of her future.
“I would see a young woman who was very attractive and a thousand times smarter, and she’s living in this little tenement hovel with her husband, Ralph, and then this Ed Norton, who has an even hotter wife,” she said.
“These men spend all their time talking about what a drag the wives are and asking how can they get away from them. It’s perfectly obvious the women are the ones trapped.”
We are glad that Jay Leno and his wife are able to find mutual understanding when it comes to making major life decisions. They are very much in love and enjoy each others’ company every single day.
Liam Deane, 22, killed his newborn daughter in a horrific manner.
Deane’s wife went to sleep and he was left to take care of the baby girl who wouldn’t stop crying. He then turned aggressive and punched his daughter in the face. And as what he did wasn’t cruel enough, he started shaking and squeezing the 2-day-old without control.
Baby Luna was then rushed to the hospital, but doctors said she suffered “catastrophic brain injuries.” At first, Deane denied hurting his daughter, but as police questioned him, he broke down and admitted what he had done.
The killer father was then sent to prison where he was killed by the man he shared the cell with, 28-year-old John Westland, who was reportedly flanked by police officers before being presented in front of the court.
A similar incident happened some few years later, in 2020, when a 26-year-old man, Shane Goldsby, found out that the man he shared the cell with was his under aged sister’s rapist. Goldsby begged to be transferred to another cell, but his requests were denied over and over again.
This young man was serving a sentence after stealing a Kelso police patrol car and directing the state highway patrol on a lengthy chase which ended up injuring a trooper. His stay at the prison, sadly, made him a murderer.
Goldsby claimed that convicted rapist Robert Munger bragged about the girls he raped, which Goldsby couldn’t stand. “He kept … giving me details about what happened and what he did. About the photos and videos of him doing this stuff, and it was building up,” Goldsby explained.
In one of the videos which Munger shared with the inmates was Goldsby’s sister. “I was like, ‘What the f—?’… This stuff doesn’t happen. You’re talking the same institution, the same unit, the same pod in the same cell as this dude. That’s like hitting the jackpot in the casino seven times,” Goldsby shared.
Man gets 25 years for killing his underage sister’s rapist in prison https://t.co/CfqqLVNRIN
As the prison wouldn’t transfer him to another cell, Goldsby went mad and killed Munger by punching him 14 times and then stomping his head. Munger, who was 70 years old, died due to the injuries he sustained.
Goldsby was given 25 years in prison for killing his sister’s rapist. When he was taken to court, he apologized to Munger’s family. “I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose a loved one in this kind of way. To his wife and his whole family, I apologize. I am so sorry and I hope you are able to heal from what I caused,” he said.
The Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office received a call reporting drowning at the Clearwater River. They responded to the call together with the fire department and the ambulance, but nothing could be done as 18-year-old Raina Lynn Neeland from Bagley, Minnesota, was in the water for around 10 minutes. Before help arrived, bystanders performed CPR on her, but she was dead already.
Why Raina went into the water in the first place was to save her young siblings and cousins from drowning. According to the Clearwater County Sheriff, Darin Halverson, children love playing at the dam from which water flows over right into the river. “They use it as a big waterslide,” he told Star Tribune. “Kids like to do that…They use tubes or whatever. Lots of times they go over on their own.”
Source: GoFundMe
Unfortunately, they weren’t aware that due to the recent rains, the water was considerably higher that day. The moment they went swimming in the river, they got trapped by the turbulent water coming from the dam.
Without hesitating, the teen jumped in to save the young children. Witnesses say she managed to pull three children out of the water. One of her brothers was there to catch them. Unfortunately, she couldn’t save herself. The children she rescued were aged 10, 8, and 6.
The 8-year-old girl was unresponsive, but some of the bystanders performed CPR and managed to resuscitate her.
Raina Lynn Neeland, 18, rescued children from treacherous river waters below a dam in northwestern Minnesota only to lose her own life after being pulled under. https://t.co/pYNKL1eCD6
Raina’s grandmother, Lenny Neeland, said of her granddaughter: “She always wanted to help people and protect people, and that’s exactly what she did. I thank God for Raina, that she saved my other grandkids, because this could have been worse than it is now.
“I think there were a bunch of angels at that dam helping them get out of the water,” Lenny added.
The tragic incident took place last year, and this year, Raina was Posthumously Recognized by Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Her family says they are honored and thankful for all the love for their daughter.
When they decide to become parents, most people have no idea what they sign up for, because let’s be honest, parenting isn’t easy, not even a bit. No matter how much one tries to be the perfect parent and sacrifices their own time, energy, and sometimes dreams for the well-being of their kids, there will always be someone there to criticize the way they bring up their little ones.
I guess things get even harder when you are a celebrity and all eyes are on you. And no matter how much we think the life of these people is all about glamour, their kids and their parenting are always under the spotlight, which leaves room for people to judge them, praise them, and comment on the way they deal with their children.
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Nicole Kidman spoke to Vanity Fair recently and she confessed how some of her friends “criticize” her about the way she decided to raise her two beautiful daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret. To start with, the girls, which are 10 and 12 years old, are not allowed to have Instagram accounts or use any other social media sites, which is quite opposite of what many other parents do.
The Big Little Lies star says she wants to keep her girls grounded and is setting boundaries. But as it turns out, her firends tease her because of that.
She also said that she is raising her daughters to love God. Kidman herself is a devoted Catholic and she and her family go to church on Sundays.
“I had a very Catholic grandmother, and I was raised praying, so that had massive impact,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s absolutism, there’s constant questioning—I’m a willful, feisty girl. For me it’s very important that I don’t have judgment. My dad would always say, ‘Tolerance is the most important thing.’”
Kidman once considered becoming a nun, according to an interview she gave in 2018.
“I’m spiritual in that I absolutely believe in God,” she told Allure Magazine “I loved the idea of being a nun. Obviously, I did not choose to go that path, but I was very drawn to it.”
The award-winning actress says she tends to teach her children life lessons, those that aren’t taught at school.
“I was talking to Sunday about there being little girls in different parts of this world who don’t own their bodies. A man owns their body. Her eyes were like ‘What?’ We’re trying to educate about those things. But it’s giving the information gently, and then guiding.”
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We know Nicole and her husband Keith are awesome parents and have an amazing family.
Most parents describe the day they first laid eyes on their bundle of joy as the happiest of their life. The feeling of holding the little one in your arms and watch them grow in front of your eyes is a feeling second to none.
However, not every parent would do all in their power for their child’s well-being. The truth is that a number of moms and dads leave their children behind, and the reasons for that are various. Sometimes, they are simply not capable of taking care of them.
This story starts with a 90-year-old woman named Doña Ignacia who shared her son’s life story. Namely, when her baby was born, she and her husband realized something wasn’t right. The boy, Pablo Acuña, wasn’t developing as expected.
Source: YouTube/ Los Capitanes
Ignacia and her husband brought him to the hospital where they were told that his limbs won’t develop, which meant he would be practically without arms and legs. “He was in the hospital for two or three months, then he [the father] brought him back just like when they left,” she explained.
Despite the horrific diagnosis, Ignacia made sure her son was loved as much as any other child out there. Pablo needed a wheelchair in order to be able to navigate, but he learned to love his life. What’s most, he even became a father himself.
Source: YouTube/ Los Capitanes
Shorty after his second daughter was born, Pablo’s wife left him and the girls for good. Despite his condition, he never let his daughters feel their mother’s absence as he was there for them every step of the way.
One of his daughters, Elida, spoke lovingly of her father and said she is forever grateful to him for raising her and her sister.
“My dad is my world. He is my friend… he is the best dad in the world. That’s why I left my life in Argentina and came to stay,” she said.
“To be able to take care of him because, my grandmother can no longer do it because she is already old.”
Pablo is an amazing dad. His girls are happy to have him in their lives.
Killing innocent animals for fun is the ultimate act of cruelty demonstrated by humans towards the rest of the living creatures inhabiting the planet. Yet, there are a number of trophy hunters who are guilty of bringing many species on the brink of extinction. What’s most, this “sport” is not even illegal in most countries, on the contrary, governments get enormous amounts of money for letting animals like lions, elephants, cheetahs and giraffes killed.
Scott Van Zyl was a trophy hunter who took rich clients on big game hunts. What happened to him during his final hunting trip to Zimbabwe in 2017 was described by many as “karma at its finest.”
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Van Zyl, along with his dogs, went to hunt crocodiles. However, after some time, his tracker dogs returned without him and his friends assumed something turned wrong during the hunting. And their assumptions turned out to be true.
Namely, Van Zyl’s footprints were spotted near a river bank and an investigation was launched. It was later confirmed that Van Zyl was eaten by the crocodiles after remains were identified as his through DNA tests.
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Many argued how this unfortunate man got what he deserved.
One Green Planet were among those who highlighted the risks hunters are exposed to while taking the life of innocent animals. “Let’s be honest, Zyl shouldn’t have been hunting in the first place,” they wrote. “We have to ask ourselves if the ‘thrill of the hunt’ is really worth risking your own life – while deliberately taking others.”
Nowadays, most people are struggling to meet the tight schedules the modern times impose on them, and this is probably one of the reasons why we are becoming distant over time. However, the acts of kindness we do for one another are what have made humanity going strong for so long. And when this compassion comes from young people, we feel delight because we know the next generations won’t fail us.
Dontarius Caldwell is a 15-year-old boy from Cincinnati, Ohio, whose good deed for a woman in need of help have touched the hearts of people from all around the country.
Namely, as he and his sister Diamond were waiting for the school bus, they noticed an elderly lady struggling to press the button at a crosswalk.
Diamond knew something was wrong and assumed the lady could be blind so she asked from Dontarius to go and help her cross the road.
“I told Dontarius that I think she’s blind, you should get up and go help her, and he got up and went to go help her cross the street two times while I waited for the bus to come,” Diamond said.
WLWT News/YouTube
Dontarius approached the woman and asked whether she needed help, to which she answered “yes.”
He then guided her across the street not knowing his kindness had been caught on tape.
Once the video was shared on the social media, everyone praised Dontarious and his sister, saying that many young people should look up to them. The two, however, don’t think they really deserve all that praise as they were only doing the right thing and believe everyone else would do the same.
“I was just trying to help and I really didn’t think I would be on camera,” Dontarius told NBC’s WLWT5 News station.
WLWT News/YouTube
“I was just helping the elderly, giving a helping hand. The key word is helping hand. Everybody gotta get a helping hand,” he said.
“If you be kind, what happens (to them) happens to you,” Dontarius added.
The school Dontarius attends is so very proud of him that they have given him a key to the school as a reward for his kindness.
Stories like these always trigger the right emotions and make us all better people.
Please share this so that more people hear of these siblings’ kindness.
