The severe weather that swept through the southern parts of the country claimed the lives of at least two people and left many injured. Properties were torn down and families were left without a roof over their head.
One of the people who lost their houses when the tornado struck is a veteran named Frank Senn. His property in Elmore County, Alabama, was damaged, but that wasn’t the biggest loss he suffered that day. Unfortunately, Frank experienced an incredible heartbreak as he was forced to say the final goodbye to his beloved wife of 40 years, Glenda.
Around the time the tornado hit, Frank was at the hospital where he made the toughest decision in his life, to take Glenda off life support.
A few days before his entire life turned upside down, Glenda fell down the stairs and broke her neck. She was rushed to the hospital where doctors did all in their power to safe her life, but there was nothing that could be done.
“The doctor came in today and said there was nothing else they could do and took her off of life support,” heartbroken Frank shared with WSFA. “They are going to put her in a room until she passes away,” he told Fox 19. “They are going to keep her comfortable.”
During his time of grief, Frank has the support of his family, his neighbors, and the entire community, who gathered together to clear up his property. “The love and outpouring of support that’s come out to help my father and our ranch farm has been amazing,” Jon Senn, Frank’s son, said.
We are so very sad for this man’s loss. Our hearts go out to him during this difficult times.
Being there for someone during their toughest of times is the ultimate act of humanity.
Ty Jordan and Gage Smith are two football players who are part of opposing teams. While Ty plays for the West Mesquite High School, Gage is part of Sherman High School. Recently, they played against each other, and as much as they saw each other as rivals on the field, outside of it, it’s a completely different story.
Recently, Ty’s mother was diagnosed with two types of cancer, a lung cancer and a bone cancer. The diagnosis was a devastating one. Ty had a hard time accepting the reality but managed to vent his emotions through the game of football, something he loves.
Source: Takka_Jordan/Twitter
Ty told his teammates about his mom’s condition and they all have been very supportive. He also shared the news on the social media where he asked from his friends and family to send prayers.
As Gage and Ty knew each other from middle school, Gage stumbled upon Ty’s post and wanted to do something for him in order to remind him that he was there for him.
As the game was over, Gage approached Ty and shook his hand. Then, he told him he wanted to pray for his mom with him. The two then knelt down holding their hands and said a prayer.
Source: Takka_Jordan/Twitter
Everyone who witnessed Gage’s gesture was touched. Among them was Ty’s aunt Takka who took photos of the rivals praying together and shared them on Twitter. Little did she know, however, that her post would attract the attention of a huge number of people who praised Gage for his kind act.
Source: Takka_Jordan/Twitter
Gage’s coach, JD Martinez was proud of his quarterback and was glad he didn’t let the rivalry on the field be an obstacle for showing what humanity should be all about. He said he tells his team that although football is a competitive sport, they should always treat those from the other teams with respect.
We truly hope Ty’s mother would win the battle against cancer.
Adalynn is a six-year-old girl whose biggest wish was to be a big sister. There wasn’t a day that she wouldn’t ask from her parents to give her a sibling. She wanted that so badly that she even asked one as a Christmas present.
Her mom and dad explained to her that babies aren’t simply bought at a store but it takes time for them to arrive.
One day, Adalynn finally heard the news she was longing for. She was going to have a sibling. She was over the moon, to say the least, and the only thing that interrupted her happiness was the fact that she still needed to wait 9 months.
Source: Dale Benson/Facebook
During the pregnancy, Adalynn made mom Erin and dad Dale buy a bunch of clothes and baby stuff for the bundle of joy. More great news came after an ultrasound which revealed the baby’s gender. It was going to be a girl, just like Adalynn hoped for.
The family even organized a gender reveal party just for Adalynn, who couldn’t stop her tears of joy when she learned she was going to have a baby sister.
Source: Dale Benson/Facebook
Everything was ready for the big arrival and everyone was aware of Adalynn’s high levels of anticipation, but no one knew that the sisters’ first encounter would melt thousands of hearts from all around the country and beyond.
On the day Erin went into labor, sweet Adalynn got up and saw her grandma in the house, and her mom and dad were nowhere to be seen. That’s when she realized her sister was finally coming into her life.
Source: Dale Benson/Facebook
The first encounter was magical, and we are so happy dad Dale caught it on tape. The moment Adalynn laid eyes on the little one, her first words were “I’m gonna cry!” as she clasped her hands to her chest. The amount of love Adalynn felt was so overwhelming that she did start to cry tears of joy. She couldn’t stop starring at her sister Madeline, or Maddy, as her family calls her.
Source: Dale Benson/Facebook
One thing is certain, Maddy would be the happiest girl in the world to have a big sister as loving and as caring as Adalynn.
Source: Dale Benson/Facebook
The video of the two beauties has been seen more than 400k times and received almost 400 comments. If you want to see it yourself watch it below.
The story of a five-year-old boy with Down syndrome who wondered off while his mom was asleep is just another proof that dogs are man’s best friend.
As little Jose decided to leave his home, the family dog, Alejandro, decided to follow him in order to make sure nothing bad would happen to him.
When the two friends were spotted walking down the rails, they were already over a mile away from home. The Houston Police Department rushed towards where Jose and Alejandro were reported to be seen.
Twitter/@OfficerSalas
“Witnesses told me the dog was with the little boy when they found him. As I walked away with the boy, the dog followed,” Sgt. Salas wrote on Twitter. “This dog was his protector and his angel.”
“It seems like that the dog knew something was up, he knew that the child wasn’t supposed to be wandering off and he ended up following him,” he told the Houston Chronicle. “He was very protective and would not take his eyes off the child.”
Twitter/@OfficerSalas
When Sgt. Salas took Jose to his car, Alejandro jumped in as well. “The dog was following basically everywhere I went. It wasn’t barking, it wasn’t intimidated,” he said.
Shortly after they were found, the police alerted Jose’s mother that her son was safe and sound. She explained that she and Jose took a nap, but when she woke up, he was nowhere to be seen. She added that she was happy the dog didn’t leave her son alone.
Twitter/@OfficerSalas
“Alejandro has always been a very overprotective dog since we got him, we got him when he was a baby. I was not surprised when they said he was walking with him the whole entire time,” Jose’s sister, Samantha Muñoz, told Click 2 Houston.
We are very happy this story turned out to be a happy one. For more go to the video below.
Those people who open the doors to their hearts and their homes for children in need are the greatest of all.
Pam and Gary are an incredible couple who have been registered as foster parents and have taken care for many children during the years. They have five children on their own, but that never stopped them from welcoming more kids in their life and providing them with love and security.
However, now that their biological kids are all grown up, Pam and Gary did something truly amazing. They adopted seven siblings who were left orphans recently.
The story of the children, Adelino, the oldest of the seven, Azaura, 11, Aleecia and Antonio, 6, Aubrey, 4, Angel, 3, and Alexander, 2, is heartbreaking. They, along with their parents, were involved in a car accident in which their mom and dad lost their lives.
After that life-changing incident, the siblings were taken to a foster family but were in search for a forever family. Finding someone who would be willing to give permanent home to all seven of them seemed like a mission impossible, although it was everything those kids ever wanted.
Azaura told CBS8 News in 2018, “I’m happy that all of us are together and that we’re all alive,” adding, “I want a family that’s fun, joyful, and who takes you out places.”
Little did she know at the time that her wish would soon turn into reality all thanks to the Willis family.
Speaking of their decision to adopt the children, Pam said how she simply knew those kids belonged in their family the moment they came across their story on Facebook.
“I saw how much these kids needed someone to love them because they had no one else to go to. I called the adoption service every week to show them how much I wanted to help these children,” Pam told Metro News.
“From the moment we first met them it was instant love. I looked at Gary and we both could see they are really great kids and knew we were doing the right thing.”
The siblings are very satisfied with their new life. They have a great relationship with Willis’ biological children and all of them make one huge and happy family.
Pam and Gary even have 8 great children, so when the whole family gathers together it is definitely crowded, but they all love being by each other’s side and sharing precious moments together.
“I have noticed how incredibly happy they are and that makes me so happy too, because that’s all we ask for. The oldest of the seven, Adelino, said to me recently ‘thank you for giving us this life’ and there is no other feeling like that. The kids are great kids and we love having them around,” said Pam.
Nicole and Matthew Seismer couldn’t wait for their bundle of joy to be born. They prepared everything for the big arrival, but what happened on the delivery day left everyone stunned.
The couple prayed and hoped for their baby to be born healthy, and that is exactly what happened. When baby girl Blakely was welcomed into the world, the new mom and dad were overjoyed. However, Nicole knew something was wrong as she kept experiencing contractions and felt like she was still in labor. Doctors told her it was sort of normal to feel that way, but soon, they realized there was more to the pain she was feeling.
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As they were getting ready to take out the placenta, the doctors decided to do an ultrasound and that’s when they were all left in a complete shock. There was another baby getting ready to be born.
Nicole visited the doctor only once during her pregnancy and was hoping to give birth at home, but as her water broke at 36 weeks, she was forced to go to the hospital after spending 40 hours at home without painkillers. During that single ultrasound she had while pregnant, doctors saw one baby only. The other one, Cade, who was born 59 minutes after his sister, was probably “hiding,” so Nicole had no idea she was carrying twins.
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“We thought the biggest surprise would be the sex of the baby, but we were wrong. It was terrible when they said there was something else in me.
“When [the doctor] said we were having another baby, I literally asked him if he was lying,” the mom said. “I couldn’t digest it all because I was in a lot of pain.”
Cade had trouble breathing when he was born so he needed to spend some time at NICU. Luckily, a few days later, he was allowed to be taken home to his family and twin sister.
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“It was funny,” the 31-year-old mom said. “We were happy, but it was really shocking. But now I can’t imagine having an only child. It seems they are destined to be together.”
The happy parents now needed to get another pair of everything they had already bought for the single child they expected.
It truly was a beautiful surprise, don’t you think so? We wish them all a happy and healthy life.
The life story of lawyer and actress Kim McGuire, best known for her iconic role of Mona “Hatchet-Face” Malnorowski from the musical Cry-Baby, is touching, to say the least.
Born on December 1, 1955, in New Orleans, to a father who was a successful lawyer, Kim showed interested in law as a teenager. She also loved dancing and acting, so she chose to pursue two different careers. She earned a master’s degree in theater and dance from the University of New Orleans, and later, she graduated from Loyola Law School and became a lawyer.
Kim came to prominence with the role of Mona “Hatchet-Face” Malnorowski, a member of the grotesque teenage gang led by Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker portrayed by Johnny Depp.
Kim McGuire and date attend the “Wild at Heart” Universal City Premiere in 1990 / Getty Images
When casting for the movie, John Walters had a clear image of what he was looking for from the actress that was supposed to portray Mona “Hatchet-Face” Malnorowski because he had wrote a script for a movie titled Hatchet-Face some years before, but the movie was never released. “Hatchet-Face” would have ”the body of Jayne Mansfield and the face of Margaret Hamilton … [and] nobody, but nobody, gives her grief,” according to Walters.
“Wanted: Girl with a good body and an alarming face who is proud of it,” the ad for the role said.
“I had just randomly sent my picture to six casting directors that week. I sent it to [casting director] Paula Herold, who was casting for a film called Reversal of Fortune, which I had no idea what it was about. And I guess I had a reversal of fortune, because they called me in for Cry-Baby,” Kim said in It Came From Baltimore, a special feature on the director’s cut DVD of Cry Baby.
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For the movie, Kim’s already distinguished facial features were overly exaggerated and she didn’t resemble herself. “That face that she wears in the movie is certainly make-up; Kim has a very blank face in real life,” Walters later said.
“When people see me after seeing that, they think I look really good,” Kim told TheAtlanta Journal in 1991.
Cry Baby became a Hollywood classic. It was so well-accepted that it was turned into a Broadway musical which opened at the Marquis Theater in New York City in 2008. It ran for 68 performances and was nominated at the Tony Awards for the Best Musical, Book, and Score.
After the movie, Kim appeared in other projects, including Acting on Impulse, Serial Mom, and an episode of New York Undercover, which was her last TV appearance.
In 1994, Kim married Gene Piotrowsky. They moved to New York but ended up unemployed after 9/11 so they decided to move to Biloxi, a Mississippi city on the Gulf of Mexico, where they both started working for the Mississippi Repertory Theater Company.
Unfortunately, in 2005, their home and all of their belongings were completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. They barely made it alive as Gene was forced to carry her on his back to a safer place where they faced the hurricane for eight hours before help arrived and evacuated them.
The couple was forced into homelessness. They lived in shelters before they moved to New Orleans in November 2005.
“We wound up having to go into Section 8 housing. A real change. In L.A., both of us were pretty high economically. I was wearing $ 1,200 dresses. From that, to nothing. Living in Beverly Hills, to nothing. It was just a big change of lifestyle. It’s not just material things. It’s losing roots. I have not seen my parents in three years, which is just horrible,” Kim said in 2015.
Kim McGuire / Facebook
Over the course of 10 years, they moved places five times but had a hard time overcoming the trauma the hurricane left in their lives.
“Though they plan and equip themselves for something like this, it’s never enough. We ought to know: We lived in LA during the 1994 earthquake, we were visiting New York on 9/11, and now we lived through this. I told a friend about all of that and he said, ‘Do me a favor and tell me where you’re moving to next…,'” Gene told the San Diego Union Tribune after the disaster.
Kim McGuire / Facebook
Finally, after ten long years, Kim and Gene seemed to settle in Florida where she continued helping vulnerable women and victims of the hurricane. Sadly, in 2016, Kim experienced severe pneumonia and was admitted to the ICU at Physicians Regional Hospital in Naples, Florida. Unfortunately, she didn’t respond to the treatments and died of cardiac arrest. She was 60 years old at the time of her passing.
“The outpouring of love and prayers for Kim from her family, friends and fans has been overwhelming and most comforting. Kim’s parents and sister thank you very much. Kim was a dancer, choreographer, actor, attorney and author and credited her dear father for instilling in her a love of learning,” Kim’s obituary said.
We are so sorry Kim was forced to go through so much during her life. Her incredible acting in Cry Baby left a mark we will never forget.
Becoming popular at very young age can be either a curse or a blessing. Many child stars miss on their childhood and are unable to cope with their fame, so a lot of them turn to drugs and alcohol and ruin their lives.
Unfortunately, one of those child celebrities who couldn’t find their place under the Hollywood sky and felt defeated and disappointed by the way their career unfolded is Shaun Weiss, the chubby goalie from The Mighty Ducks.
Landing the role of Greg Goldberg seemed like the perfect start to a successful career in the film industry, but things went south for Weiss when he started having problems with law enforcement.
Shaun Weiss was born in 1978 in Detroit. He was part of a number of commercials from early age and landed a role in Pee-wee’s Playhouse. However, he had his big breakthrough with the legendary film The Mighty Ducks. He was also part of Heavyweights in which he played the role of Josh Birnbaum, one of the kids who ended up in a fat camp. Other films and project Weiss was part of, among the rest, was the NBC drama Freaks and Geek.
Unfortunately, Weiss started getting in trouble after he was arrested in 2017 and was sentenced to 150 days in the Los Angeles County Jail. However, he only spent 12 days there before he was released due to overcrowding. Shortly after this incident, Weiss was arrested once again for possession of illegal substances. It was very much obvious that the child star lost control of his life.
Shaun in ‘Pee Wee’s Playhouse’ (Getty Images)
The good thing was that he was aware he needed professional help in order to get on track. In a Facebook post, Weiss wrote how he “surrendered to the reality that without immediate treatment my life is in eminant (sic) danger.”
The wide public became aware of the severity of Weiss’ condition after the police released a mugshot of him in 2020 in which he was completely unrecognizable.
He was reported for shattering a car’s window and sitting inside the vehicle.
Many of Weiss’ friends were desperate to help him get a new lease on life and even started a fundraiser in order for him to be able to receive professional help and go to rehab. Luckily, that turned out to be just what Weiss needed so badly.
Shaun Weiss, Vincent La Russo, Brandon Quintin Adams and Matt Doherty from the movie “The Mighty Ducks” (WireImage)
“Shaun demonstrated perseverance during his recovery complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. He had to move treatment and transitional programs on several occasions. He underwent dental reconstructive surgery, and had a close family member suffer a serious accident during his treatment,” the Yuba County District Attorney Office said, according to The Sacramento Bee. “Shaun regained employment and has been traveling across the country making guest appearances and signing autographs,” they added.
Recently, Weiss shared before-and-after photos of him which show the progress he made during a year of sobriety. It looks like they show two completely different people.
”A journey of a thousand miles begins with 12 amazing steps,” he wrote and thanked everyone for their support.
”Moving to sober living was nerve-racking as there are a lot of roommates constantly on top of each other. But he’s thriving in his growth and making the best of it,” his friend and advocate, Drew Gallagher, told People in 2020.
His former co-workers, among which Emilio Estevez who played the coach in The Mighty Ducks, say they are proud of Weiss who managed to regain control on his life again. Estevez, who is now part of the series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, said he and the team behind the project would be happy if anyone from the former cast join them.
We are very happy and proud of Shaun Weiss. We hope he gets back to filming again.
