During our lifetime we hear of people who do deeds so daring and noble that they don’t deserve anything less than to be hailed heroes. Army Spc. Ezra Maes is one of them. This young man’s bravery touched the hearts of many and what he did for his crewmates became a symbol of compassion and sacrifice.
It was back in 2018 when Maes served in Poland along with some of his friends. During an overnight training exercise, the tank in which he and his fellow mates stayed suddenly started rolling down the hill.
Maes was convinced it was part of the exercise or maybe some sort of prank and yelled to the driver to step on the brakes. But when the driver replied that it wasn’t him, Maes realized they were all in big trouble.
Perseverance and resilience 💪@USArmy Spc. Ezra Maes undergoes physical rehabilitation at the Center for the Intrepid, Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Read his inspiring story of determination and how he plans to keep moving forward: https://t.co/WtjP2B5MV6#KnowYourMilpic.twitter.com/KJOi4wigsF
The tank was moving with 90 miles and hour and stopping it was impossible.
“We realized there was nothing else we could do and just held on,” Maes said about the accident.
After a number of sharp bumps, the tank crashed into an embankment. Maes flew across the machinery and his leg got caught in the turret gear.
Initially, he believed his leg was just broken and seeing his friends being severely injured with one breaking his back and another one bleeding profusely from a deep cut on her thigh, Maes started twisting and turning his leg desperately trying to release himself so he could offer them help. In the next moment, he was free, but he lost his leg.
He explained: “I pushed and pulled at my leg as hard as I could to get loose and felt a sharp tear. I thought I had dislodged my leg, but when I moved away, my leg was completely gone.”
.@USArmy Spc. Ezra Maes spent four months in intensive care undergoing near daily surgeries and battling an infection. He’s now assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion and undergoing physical and occupational therapy. https://t.co/Zu59r6y1Zq
Despite losing a lot of blood that was pouring from his leg heavily, this brave soldier managed to get to the medical kit and grab a tourniquet.
He couldn’t think of the pain or the leg he lost as the lives of the fellow soldiers rested on his shoulders.
“All I could think about was no one knows we’re down here,” he continued. “Either I step up or we all die.”
Luckily, one of the phones was still working and Maes was able to call for help that soon came to the place of the accident.
Maes was quickly rushed to the nearest hospital and later transferred to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
After an Abrams tank crashed into an embankment, Spc. Ezra Maes noticed his leg was stuck in the turret gear.
He later amputated his own leg and used a belt for a tourniquet to free himself and help two other injured soldiers.https://t.co/lP14A8K3Nz
— ConnectingVets (@ConnectingVets) October 8, 2019
“I feel super lucky,” he said. “My crew all does. So many things could have gone wrong. Besides my leg, we all walked away pretty much unscathed.”
Sgt. Maes is an exceptional person who sacrificed losing a part of his body for the sake of his fellow soldiers’ lives. He deserves the whole country’s deepest respect!
Dreams do come true, although sometimes it takes way too long for something like that to happen. When 94-year-old Martha Mae Ophelia Moon Tucker got married back in 1952, she didn’t wear a wedding gown because the racial segregation laws practiced at the time didn’t allow her to enter a bridal boutique.
Instead, with the help of the woman she worked for at the time, Martha was only able to buy a navy-blue dress that would later come to be known as a “Carmen Jones” dress. Saying “I do” to her now late husband Lehman Tucker Sr. was all that was important, but still, not being allowed to wear a wedding dress was something that stayed with Martha more than 70 years.
Last year, however, all thanks to her granddaughter Angela, that all changed and Martha was finally able to try a real wedding gown on.
Martha Mae Ophelia Moon Tucker, who was married in 1952, always wanted to wear a wedding dress. But at the time Black women weren’t allowed in bridal shops.
Speaking to Insider, Angela said how she and her grandma were watching “Coming to America” when Martha leaned on Angela’s shoulder and said: “I’ve always wanted to try on a wedding dress. I didn’t have one when I married.”
Seeing the devastation in her dear grandma’s eyes, Angela decided to surprise her by taking her to a wedding-dress fitting at David’s Bridal boutique in Hoover Alabama. Martha had no idea her wish of many years would finally turn into a reality. Angela even hired a makeup artist who gave sweet Martha a beautiful makeover.
“She’s always made sacrifices to give from her heart,” Angela said. “So to return a gift from my heart to her was priceless.”
Martha said she couldn’t believe how far things got from the time she got married. Racism is slowly, but surely, becoming part of the past.
What’s most, she loves all the attention she’s getting. Angela even joked, saying of her granny: “Now she’s saying, ‘Do you think Oprah may call me?’ I said, ‘I don’t think so Grandma.’”
Frances Kompus turned 100 years old in November 2021. Many of the people who are important to her, such us her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were there to wish her a happy birthday. Well, although it’s rare for someone to reach this milestone, it’s not unusual. What is in fact unusual in this story is that among Frances’ guests were her two older sisters, Lucy Pochop, who is 102 years old, and Julia Korpiva, who is 104.
The three sisters were born in Kansas where they lived in a farm with their parents. The sisters’ father died at the age of 98, so it’s safe to say that longevity runs in the family.
As we grow older, we lose more and more people that are close to us. However, a lady from Kansas, USA, still has sisters by her side despite their old age.
Speaking of the possible reasons they all reached their milestone birthdays, the sisters say that the secret is in eating well. They remember the times when they were making their own bread and didn’t consume ready-made or bought food.
“We always had homemade bread, just plain potatoes, and gravy and meat. With those cookstoves, that was hard to bake. The temperature was hard to keep. Even if it didn’t come out good, we still ate it,” Julia said laughing. “I am thankful for us girls being together all the time, my parents and my faith,” she added.
They even have some useful advice for the young people and say that what kept them vital is regular exercise as well as faith.
“Walk a lot,” Frances said, before Julia added: “I think faith comes first – and thank your parents and grandparents.”
What is interesting about these sisters is that they all live independently. While Julia and Lucy’s apartments are right next to one another, Francis lives few blocks away, which means they get to spend quality time together.
Happy birthday, Francis, you are lucky to still have your sisters in your life.
Jacqueline “Jackie” Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was a supremely stylish and eloquent young woman who brought optimism to the White House after becoming First Lady.
She captivated the entire country the moment she was first spotted in the company of her husband John Kennedy on the campaign trail. The two married shortly after they were first introduced to each other by a mutual friend. At the time they tied the knot, JFK was a senator and she worked as a reporter-photographer at the Washington Herald, which was her first job following her graduation from the George Washington University.
Jackie’s father was a stock broker and a wealthy man so she had the chance to get education at prestigious private schools and travel the world.
As a young child, she was described by one of her teachers, Miss Platt, as “a darling child, the prettiest little girl, very clever, very artistic, and full of the devil.”
Youtube/HelmerReenberg
People close to JFK and Jackie spoke of the instant connection they both felt the moment they were both invited to a dinner party in Georgetown. “She knew instantly that he would have a profound, perhaps disturbing, influence on her life,” Jackie’s family friend Molly Thayer said, as quoted in America’s Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
“My brother really was smitten with her right from the very beginning when he first met her at dinner,” JFK’s brother, Ted Kennedy, claimed.
JFK and Jackie married on September 12, 1953, at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island. Following their honeymoon in Mexico, he was recovering from a back injury and she encouraged him to write a biography, Profiles in Courage, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize.
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Seven years after tying the knot, John F. Kennedy became the youngest president of The United States of America. His youth was felt as a pleasant change in the political scene and he and his wife made a perfect team whose main goal became the well-being of the American people.
JFK and Jackie welcomed four children together, Caroline Kennedy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr, and two other children who both died shortly after birth.
Since they had toddlers, Jackie went on a mission to restore and preserve the White House as well as turn it into more children-friendly place with a tree-house and swings.
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Unfortunately, Jackie’s life changed forever when President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas Texas. In his honor, she created the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
She was left heartbroken. The fairytale ended and she decided to stay out of the spotlight. Then, in 1968, Jackie married Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis. In 1975, Onassis passed away, and Jackie was left a widow again.
Until her passing in May, 1994, the former First Lady worked as an editor. She was laid to rest next to JFK at the Arlington National Cemetery, outside of Washington D.C.
Youtube/National Geographic Society
Jackie was a woman adored by millions. Always soft-spoken and grounded, she is until this day considered a very important historical figure.
Those close to her describe her as a loving human being. Her former bodyguard Clint Hill revealed details of the former First Lady’s private life which make us love her even more.
Hill said that when he was assigned to protect Jackie, he wasn’t happy at all because he expected to accompany her to ballet, fashion shows, and tea parties. But it didn’t take much for him to realize that she wasn’t a typical First Lady.
“She wanted the children to be brought up as normal children. Nothing special. The agents were to treat them as if they were just one of their own. If the kids fell down, they got up. You didn’t help them. They had to learn all this stuff on their own. She wanted to avoid as much publicity as she could for the children and for herself,” he explained.
“Oh, she was a great mother. She was very concerned about them, about their education. She formed a school there in the White House so that Caroline could go to school and had a bunch of several young classmates brought in from outside, from all walks of life. And it was right up on the third floor of the White House, had two teachers. They used to play out on the south grounds,” he added.
Youtube/Movieclips
One time, while she was on holiday at Squaw Island, she realized that Hill’s two children were around the same age as her children. Although he had taken the family with him while protecting Jackie, he wasn’t able to spend time with them. Jackie then told him to bring his kids and let them play with her children. He quite liked the idea, but he had to say no.
“I finally convinced her; I said, ‘This just isn’t a good idea. I’m a government employee. You’re the wife of the president. They’re the president’s children. I don’t think it’d be a very good idea for my two children to be playing with your two children, and something should happen.’ She finally understood the problem and said, ‘Okay.’”
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
When President Kennedy was shot, Hill was the one who climbed onto the car and made sure no photographs were taken of the killing. He then drove Jackie to the hospital. She was utterly heartbroken and confused, but she still found the strength to speak to Hill.
“She said, ‘Oh, what’s going to happen to you now, Mr. Hill?’ She was so much more concerned about my wellbeing and that of the other agents that were involved, that she wanted to make sure that we were going to be okay,” Hill shared with JFK Library.
“And I told her, ‘I’ll be okay, Mrs. Kennedy. I’ll be okay.’ She hadn’t changed clothes. She hadn’t cleaned up. She hadn’t done anything, she just was in shock. And she was more concerned about us than she was about herself.”
Sutterstock/ieronymos
We love you, Jackie, and we are forever thankful for everything you did for the country as a First Lady.
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, the host of the most-watched cable news show in the United States, Tucker Carlson Tonight, has gained over 3.7 million followers on Twitter. He has worked as a political analyst for Fox News since 2009, both as a guest and a guest host, before he launched his own show that attracted millions of Americans.
Wikipedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
Becoming more and more popular with each episode of his show, people became more and more interested in his personal life. If you are eager to learn more about this successful journalist, author, political commentator and columnist, stay with us.
When he was just 6 years old, Tucker’s mother, Lisa McNear Lombardi, who was an artist, divorced his father and left the family, so he and his brother grew up with their dad.
In fact, it was his father, Dick Carlson, who suggested Tucker should try himself as a journalist because he was a famous journalist and the director of Voice of America himself, so wanting his son to follow into his footsteps wasn’t surprising.
Tucker, however, graduated from Trinity College of Connecticut in 1991, with a BA in History. Before that, he studied in Switzerland, at the elite college at Lac Leman from where he was kicked out for reasons still unknown after which he attended boarding school St. George’s School, in Middletown, Road Island.
After finishing college, Tucker dreamed of becoming part of the CIA, but failed to get the job. It was then that his father said to him, “You should consider journalism. They’ll take anybody,” according to Columbia Journalism Review. This didn’t seem like a bad idea and Tucked took his dad’s advice which later turned to be the best thing to do having in mind the popularity he enjoys nowadays.
His first job as a journalist was that of a fact-reviewer in Policy Review.
“Tucker was an enterprising, hard-working shoe-leather reporter,” his former colleague, Adam Myerson, said.
Wikipedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
During his early days on TV, Tucker’s “trademark” were his colorful bow ties, he later ditched. “If you wear a bow tie, it’s like [wearing] a middle finger around your neck; you’re just inviting scorn and ridicule… the number of people screaming the F-word at me… it wore me down after a while so I gave in and became conventional,” he said.
People’s favorite host has been married to the love of his life, Susan Andrews, for almost 30 years. What is interesting is that the two met when they were both just 15 years old. Speaking of those days, Tucker told People how Susan was “the cutest 10th grader in America.”
Hope Gregory
Before proposing to her, Tucker asked Susan’s dad, who was a respected man, for her hand in marriage. Today, he says he simply can’t imagine his life without her. Honestly, the two make a truly charming couple.
Tucker and Susan are parents of four daughters and a son.
Facebook / Fox and friends
His children, whom Tucker calls his “little angels” keep a low profile. Tucker wrote about his son once in a column, but avoids to speak of them. However, he confesses how he “forbids” his son from watching Oprah Winfrey because he believes her beliefs are anti-male and can affect his self-confidence. “When I had a son, I stopped watching Oprah because it was just too anti-male, and I felt like I did not want to bring him up in a home where Oprah was constantly attacking men,” he said.
“And remember, keep your boys away from Oprah or it will make them feel bad about being male. It’s absolutely true. Keep your girls away from rap, keep your boys away from Oprah. And everybody will be fine,” Tucker added.
The FOX News‘ primetime anchor is supporting the charity Horton’s Kids, which helps young people at risk from Washington D.C.
An event which took place back in 2000 could easily ruin the host’s career and marriage after a woman accused him of rape. Shortly after, he was cleared of the accusations as it was determined he wasn’t at the Kentucky hamburger restaurant where the alleged rape took place. The woman later confessed that she was suffering from schizophrenia and was delusional.
Youtube/BenAffleckisAnOkayActor
In 2018, the family went through another unpleasant event when someone tried breaking into their home. At the time, Tucker’s wife was home alone. She locked herself in the pantry and called 911 as the attacker was throwing himself at the front door and cracked it.
Speaking of the incident, Tucker described it as a treat and told Washington Post: “They weren’t asking me to change anything, they weren’t protesting a policy or advocating for legislation. They were threatening me and my family and telling me to leave my own neighborhood in the city that I grew up in.”
Tucker has a picture perfect life with his children and his loving wife of more than 30 years by his side.
With all the shows about doctors, lawyers, and cops, Baywatch, the iconic show depicting the everyday adventures of a group of lifeguards was a true refreshment back in the day.
Among all the characters we all loved so much was the beautiful blonde lifeguard Shauni McClain played by actress Erika Eleniak. When she appeared on the show, she took everyone’s breath away thus producers decided to upgrade her role and her character was taken under the wing of Jill Riley, played by Shawn Weatherley.
However, once the show took a bit of a different direction and Pamela Anderson became part of the cats, Erika believed she should take a break and eventually leave it.
Speaking of Baywatch, Erika said in a recent interview: “I loved being there, and I loved the role, especially the second season. I got some great storylines. I really got to dig my chops into some good acting roles. We did Baywatch to be a serious look at lifeguarding.”
Over time, she somehow started feeling uncomfortable being part of the show and said, “For me, as soon as it became even sexier, when it became syndicated, it was definitely not comfortable. It ended up being a bit of a push and pull between myself and the producer sometimes. So when Pamela came on, it was just the perfect fit for Baywatch – she was definitely footloose and fancy-free and loved being more of an exhibitionist than I did.”
Erika was part of other series and films as well, including E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, where she starred at the age of just 12, the horror film The Blob, the 1993 film adaption of The Beverly Hillbillies, and more.
Today, the beautiful actress is out of the spotlight and doesn’t appear on screen, but she’s active running her podcast The Spiritual Alchemy Podcast. She’s also very active on Instagram where she posts photos of her and her family.
This year, Erika, who is happily married to key grip Roch Daigle with whom she has a daughter, is 52 years old. Honestly, based on her looks, we would never guess it. She defies age and looks absolutely stunning.
Bringing up little ones is a hard time, between the tantrums and the crying and screaming that naturally occurs when they test how far they can go, even a little arguing as they grow up is all in with the growing up deal!
A child making a scene is for sure what no one wants to deal with in public though. In this case, a young single mom from England called Sammie Welch, learned very fast that keeping her little boy occupied is the very best method to avoid all the problems and the frustration!
Screenshot via YouTube
Sammie with her three years old son Rylan at her side and a stranger right next to her, absolutely did her best to keep her little boy occupied during the long train ride. She didn’t want Rylan being naughty or having a temper tantrum during the journey.
To make the best of the situation Sammie played games with her little boy and asked him about his day and even gave him a quiet little lesson about manners in public and especially on places like the train!
In fact, the more they chatted together the more comfortable they were together and relaxed. He was an absolute little angel thanks to his mom’s actions!
Before the train reached her stop the guy next to her got up to leave the train, but as he got up he handed her something, it was a moment before Sammie realized what it was, it was a note wrapped around a five-pound note!!
Quietly she read the note to herself:
“Have a drink on me, you’re a credit to your generation, polite and teaching the little boy good manners.”
The guy had also written in the back of the note too!
Facebook/Silver Surfers
The lovely word he had written on the back of the note was:
“P.S. I have a daughter your age, someone did the same for her once. Hope when she has children she is as good a mother as you.”
It was such a lovely note and a great compliment too, the best compliment anyone could give to Sammie, she really pours her heart and soul into raising her little boy, and the note made her feel completely awesome!
Sammie broke into tears; such was her emotional response to the letter she read. She felt so inspired by the note and the kind gesture by this guy she didn’t know. She didn’t want this guy’s kind actions to go without thanks!
She posted to Facebook with photos of the note and even asked local newspapers to help her find him to say thanks. Her determination paid off and finally, she found him.
The wonderful stranger was Ken Saunders, 50-year-old, who worked as a project manager, and as his note had said he was a father to a woman about Sammie’s age too!
It was super lucky that Ken saw in his newspaper, one glorious morning, the story about his note, he asked the paper to put Sammie and him in touch with each other!
He described to the newspaper that moment when he realized that this small action in his note and the small gift of money mean something so big to single mothers!
He said:
“I just couldn’t believe it. There was this massive story. It was quite surreal and I texted my daughter Romani to warn her I’d done something embarrassing yet again.”
Sammie, Rylan, and Ken were at last reunited, Sammie had the chance to say thank you properly and she could explain in her own words.
She said:
“I worry I’m not doing a good job with Rylan all the time – all the time. I worry, am I too hard on him? Am I too soft on him? I try so hard to get it right. So for someone to say I’m doing a good job means everything.”
Ken just showed us all that even a tiny little gesture can have a lasting and profound effect on someone. Sammie feels confident about her parenting with Rylan, something that most mothers really strive hard to achieve.
Facebook/nieuwsblad.be
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Please share to inspire others to show their appreciation for those who risk their lives every day to keep us safe.
Ivone Weldon’s name first appeared in the media after the premiere of The Expendables 2 when her striking looks attracted the attention of many. In fact, when she walked on the red carpet, many confused her with Sylvester Stallone’s mother, Jackie Stallone.
As the cast members were spotted on the premiere in the company of their families, magazines reported that Sylvester Stallone was also accompanied by his loved ones, wife Jennifer Flavin and daughters Scarlet, Sophia, and Sistine. Of course, media outlets wrote that then 91-year-old Jackie was also there to support her son.
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Well, Jackie was always someone who made headlines because of many reasons. Despite being Sly’s mom, she was also an astrologer who never hesitated to scold her ex-husbands publicly on various TV shows. She always spoke her mind when it came to Sly’s girlfriends too and wasn’t afraid to tell everyone around why she wasn’t fond of them. Jackie was also involved in the beauty industry with her lines of face masks and other beauty products.
However, what Jackie was probably most known for were the many plastic surgeries she went through during her life. One thing is certain, her obsession with the surgeries did help her defy her age.
When the media spotted the elderly woman with a large trout pout and slim figure on TheExpendables 2 premiere, they couldn’t help but believe that was Jackie herself. The woman did look quite younger than Sly’s mother, but everyone believed she had simply undergone another surgery.
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
However, after the stir the photos caused, it was revealed that the woman who was a spitting image of Jackie Stallone was Ivone Weldon.
On the day of the premiere, Jackie stayed home to take care of her daughter who felt ill. ”I’d actually been on the phone to the paramedics that night because she was so bad. There was no question of me ever going to that premiere. I’d told Sylvester that I wasn’t going to be able to make it because I had to be with his sister,” Jackie told Daily Mail.
Speaking of Sly’s reaction, Jackie added: ”He got the shock of his life when he got told that his mother was up ahead of him, making a spectacle of herself. That’s the last place I would have been.”
Jackie Stallone during 2005 British Comedy Awards – Arrivals at London Television Studios in London, Great Britain. (Photo by Fred Duval/FilmMagic)
After the social media was flooded with photos of Ivone, Jackie wasn’t happy.
“What an ugly woman. Fat arms. Trout pout. Horse face. I thought a face like that went out with the Ice Age. And those bandy legs! If I had a kid with those legs, I would break them and have them put in braces,” she told Daily Mail of her lookalike and continued: “If I had a face like that I wouldn’t leave the house — or at least not without a paper bag over my head. In fact, if I had a face like that I’d probably shoot myself. To be honest, in the end — after I got over the shock — I found it funny. I haven’t had a lot to laugh about recently.”
As everyone though that this confusion with the photos of Ivone was behind, they started reappearing online once again following Jackie’s passing in 2020. The news of her death was announced with photos of Ivone by some media outlets.
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
Although not much is known about Ivone, at least the public got to learn what this woman was doing at the premiere. It turned out that she is the mother of one of the producers of the action film, Les Weldon, whose writing and producing credits include more than 70 films.
