Not all heroes wear capes. Many come in the form of ordinary people with a heart of gold who are brave enough to step in for someone in need.
The story of one gas station worker’s heroic act went viral some time ago and people couldn’t help but praise his bravery. Manveer Komer was doing his job when he noticed a man and a woman trying to withdraw cash from the ATM at the gas station where he worked. The woman was in distress and Komer knew something wasn’t right.
When they failed to get the money from the machine, the man and the woman entered the place and came to the front desk. The man then tried to buy cigarettes with the woman’s credit card while she was looking at him with fear.
Komer approached the woman and told her to stay inside the store while he got outside to confront the man who turned out to be an abductor. “You come stand behind my back,” Komer told the woman, as per ABC News. “I’ll help you, no problem.”
As it turned out, the man carjacked the woman’s vehicle and drove her around in an attempt to steal her money.
When Komer confronted him, he pretended to have a gun in his pocket, but once he realized Komer would stop at nothing to help the trembling woman, the kidnapper jumped into the car and sped off. Luckily, authorities managed catch him by tracking down the signal from the woman’s phone which the kidnapper was using.
The entire incident was caught on camera and later shared online by news stations and news outlets.
“Manveer Komer, I hope you see all the wonderful comments about you on this thread. What you did is beyond commendable. Thank you for not turning a blind eye, and thank you for helping a woman you did not even know. You are one in a million, Mr. Komer,” one person wrote about this clerk’s bravery.
“Thank you for paying attention and stepping up to save this lady. I don’t know how you knew but I’m glad you where there,” another person added.
You can watch the shocking surveillance tape footage below.
A teacher is usually the second most important adult in a child’s life.
Nancy Bleur is a lovely and caring 54-year-old kindergarten teacher from Iowa. She absolutely adores her students and goes out of her way to make them happy.
One day she noticed that 4-year-old Camden in her class wasn’t his usual self. She decided to have a little chat with him to see what was up. That’s when the boy started telling her about his father… and it made her heart sink. She felt like she had to do something – and fast.
Turns out Camden’s father, 34-year-old Darreld Petersen, was very sick. When Nancy realised just how bad, it made her even more worried as she couldn’t bare the thought of how it was affecting little Camden. That’s when she decided to call the dad up.
There was something seriously wrong with Darreld’s kidneys that made them function at just 20 percent of their capacity. During his dialysis treatment, he looked so sick that poor Camden was terrified when he saw his daddy.
Nancy decided she wanted to help the family in any way she could. You might think she offered to babysit, help with the groceries, cook or any other daily chore – but Nancy went much further than that in lending her hand.
Facebook/Nancy Bleuer
She offered Darreld one of her kidneys.
Miraculously, she happened to be a perfect match, meaning all she had to do was to quickly fill in some paper work.
“I was really excited about it. I was ecstatic. I don’t know what I would’ve done for closure if I wasn’t [a match],” she says.
Camden’s dad was shocked and delighted with Nancy’s extraordinary offer. She would be saving his life.
“It’s just amazing. There are people waiting every day for a kidney, for an organ in general. I wish there were more people like her. She’s giving me a second chance at life,” Darreld told ABC News.
Facebook/Nancy Bleuer
When the family found out that Nancy’s kidney was a match with Darreld’s, they decided to surprise her with flowers at school. Camden couldn’t be happier about the fact that his teacher is helping save his father’s life.
The world is full of good people! If everyone were as selfless as Nancy, the world would be a better place. Now let’s hope that the operation runs smoothly and that they both have a speedy recovery
Please share this article if you were also touched by Nancy’s lovely gift to Camden’s dad.
Life can be hard at times, and things get challenging, and the only thing we can do is fight our battles and hope for a better future.
Things are even harder for those with disabilities because people can be cruel and instead of offering acceptance, they see those individuals as different.
Alison Lapper was born without limbs and doctors were certain she wouldn’t make it too far, but she proved everyone wrong. However, Alison had a rough childhood and was taken away from her mother when she was just few weeks old because as they claimed, the state would take better care of her.
At the place where she grew up, Alison and those who were disabled in one way or another were referred to as “strange little creatures.” However, no matter how hard thing got, she thrived.
Alison even became an accomplished artist and made incredibly beautiful paintings using her mouth.
This brave woman who never gave up fighting for a better life had one wish. She wanted to become a mother, but that represented a difficulty too. Unfortunately, she experienced several miscarriages when she was young.
“I had been pregnant in my 20s, had miscarried four times and had always assumed that becoming a mother was not a possibility for me. But when I became pregnant again in April 1999 I knew I wasn’t going to miscarry. I was very fit and healthy and everything in my body and brain felt right,” she told The Guardian.
Alison got the attention of the public after she posed naked for a statue when eight months pregnant. That Marc Quinn statue stood in Trafalgar Square for two years, according to the Independent.
Shortly before she was supposed to give birth, Alison’s partner left her. She was all by herself but she knew she would be a great mother. Then, her son Parys was born. “He was healthy, he was cute, he was a blessed miracle,” she said.
“When I saw him, I just cried and cried,” she said, as quoted by Mail Online. “The emotions I felt were indescribable. I had never imagined I was going to be a mother, never thought it could be possible. But when they placed him on my shoulder and I gave him a little kiss on his head and said ‘hello’, I was overwhelmed.”
When her son was five years old, this single mother said, “My disability hasn’t ever created a barrier between us, but if the children at school tease him or make negative comments about his mother he may find it hard to deal with.
“…we’ve been through a lot together. I am the only person who has been constantly in his life since he was born.”
Parys was often severely bullied because of his mother’s looks, and that affected him deeply.
When he turned 19, Parys died due to a supposed overdose. Alison’s heart was shattered into a million pieces, Her “greatest piece of artwork,” as she called him, was now gone.
“Alison Lapper spent eight hours beside him, crying, hugging him and kissing his hair,” The Times quoted.
We are deeply saddened by this loss. Alison was an awesome mother and her son was snitched from her because of bullying. May he rest in peace.
When little bundles of joy are welcomed into the world, they become the center of their parents’ lives and everything revolves around them from that moment on. Moms and dads out there put their personal needs on the bottom of the list of priorities as their children’s needs become their number one concern.
Unfortunately, sometimes, no matter how hard they try, parents are powerless to help their children. Tragedies struck and their world bursts into pieces, like a shattered glass. The pain of losing a child never fades away and things don’t get easier as time passes by, they just learn how to live with their grief.
Jessica Brandes is an Oregon-based naturopathic doctor who has a heartbreaking story to share. She’s a mom of twins, Oliver and Wiley. Unfortunately, Wiley died in his sleep in 2019 as a result of what his parents believe to be SUDEP (Sudden Unexplained Death of Epilepsy).
The heartbroken mother shared her story on her LinkedIn account in hopes of making other parents realize just how important it is to make their children number one priority in life and spend most of their time by their side.
Courtesy of Dr. Jessica Brandes
“I am a mother to 8-year-old twin boys, Oliver and Wiley. I am bound to this identity the same as I am wife, doctor, daughter, female. Things that are unchangeable in my mind.
Our son, Wiley, recently died. Our culture is trained to give people space around an event like this. It’s considered rude to ask what happened and why and so the only words left are ‘I’m so sorry.’ We are grieving intensely, but one of the best things we can do is share our story with you. If you can handle it, please ask us about our son’s life and his death. We heal in small bits while talking about it. If you haven’t had a chance to meet with us in person, then read his story here,” Jessica started her post.
“In general, he was happy and healthy and had been to his pediatrician, eye doctor and dentist all within one month of his death. He was smart, artistic, ambitious and funny, an incredible dancer, excellent taste in music and movies. He had the most gorgeous blue eyes; was tall with huge feet and seemed to be outgrowing everything within 2 weeks. He was mature and understood complex world concepts like religions and different forms of politics. He had been to 10 countries and had lived in London for 18 months of his life. He had driven a car and kissed girls and fell in love with one. He never knew heartbreak and while we will forever know that pain, I think it’s incredible that he loved and never experienced the pain of romantic rejection,” the heartbroken mother continued.
Courtesy of Dr. Jessica Brandes
Jessica then described a situation when she learned her son had some health issues. During a trip, he was asleep, and suddenly fell down experiencing a seizure.
She and her husband took him to the doctor who ordered an EEG. After they ran a number of tests, Wiley was diagnosed with Rolandic Epilepsy. The good thing was that his condition would be outgrown over time. He wasn’t given any medications and the only thing Jessica and her husband were advised to do was to keep his quantity of sleep as regular as possible as his condition was triggered by his sleeping cycles.
Family and friends were alerted of Wiley’s condition and they all knew what to do in case of a seizure.
Courtesy of Dr. Jessica Brandes
“9 months later, Wiley seemed to be sleeping quite late. I looked in on him and saw a peacefully sleeping child cozy in his bed after a long day of summer fun. He was not sick. There was no indication he was even slightly unwell. He went to bed tired and happy, well-fed having eaten his favorite meal and was sleeping next to his best friend,” Jessica wrote.
In the morning, when she realized Wiley had been sleeping for too long already, she went to check on him. Oliver was playing on his iPad while Wiley “was under a blanket and his feet appeared mottled.”
“That was the moment. The moment I knew what was coming next. My eyes tracked up his legs as I pulled the blanket back and I traced the deep purple color of lividity. This extreme color change indicated to me my son had been dead for at least 8 hours. I felt for a pulse and somehow felt surprised by the cold skin I touched. There was no emergency, no opportunity for intervention where I could have changed the outcome. He was gone and I knew events would move very quickly. I started to call 911, but hung up because there was a more important call I needed to make.”
Courtesy of Dr. Jessica Brandes
Jessica called her husband J.R. and said the words: “Wiley’s dead.” In the next moment, she told Oliver that his friend was dead and people gathered in the house, after which the sirens followed.
First responders arrived with their equipment, but Jessica knew there was nothing to be done.
Because Wiley was a minor, police arrived and blocked the path to his room. When Jessica’s husband arrived home, he wasn’t allowed to enter and see his son. It took 2.5 hours for the police to investigate the place.
“J.R. walked our son out of the house with the Medical Examiner and then one by one, the cars all drove away just as quickly as they had arrived leaving J.R., Oliver and I standing in our driveway in a completely different world then the one we had woken up to,” Jessica wrote.
“If you think of brains as being the computers of the body, Wiley’s just turned off. No known trigger, no warning. It just shut down and without a brain, there is nothing. Wiley’s cause of death will take approximately 4 months to officially declare. There is no proof of SUDEP and so everything else even remotely possible must be ruled out. I take solace in the fact that it was peaceful. Wiley was warm and happy and asleep in his favorite place next to someone who loved him. If I were to design my own death, it would be exactly that.”
Courtesy of Dr. Jessica Brandes
The family of four is now learning how to be a family of three, and that’s heartbreaking. However, Jessica says their family and friends shouldn’t be afraid of mentioning Wiley whenever they want.
“If we’ve learned anything at all, it’s that life is fragile, and time really can be so cruelly short. We wish a lot of things were different, but mostly, we wish we’d had more time. If you are a parent and have any capacity to spend more time with your kids, do. When it ends, there’s just photos and leftover things and time is no longer available to you. It is priceless and should not be squandered. Take your vacation days and sabbaticals and go be with them. You will not regret the emails you forgot to send. From now on, if you email or text me and my reply takes longer than expected, know that I am with the people I love sharing my time, creating my new identity, and I encourage you to do the same,” this brave mom ended her touching post.
Malcolm in the Middle was quite a show. It brought so much laughter to so many people that we can’t help but feel nostalgic when thinking about it. It first premiered some 21 years ago, and each of the 151 episodes had been watched by an average of 15 million people. Well, these numbers don’t come as a surprise knowing how fun the show was.
It revolved around 14-year-old Malcolm, the third of four boys in the family. Malcolm was the smartest person in the house, with an IQ of 165, but he wasn’t quite understood by the rest of the members of his family.
The creator behind the show was Linwood Boomer, who said he got the inspiration from his personal life. “I was in the middle,” Boomer told the Los Angeles Times. “We were rotten kids. After my mom saw the pilot her main comment was, ‘I’m not going to tell you [what] your IQ was, but it sure heck wasn’t 165.’”
The idea of making the series wasn’t embraced with arms wide open by people at Fox, but Fox president Doug Herzog really loved it. He thought it had potential because it was unlike any other show airing at the time. He not only decided to give it a go, but spent huge amounts on money promoting it. It turned out his gut about how successful Malcolm in the Middle could be was on point.
Source: Youtube/Tvoldy23
The show helped many members of the cast make a name for themselves. And that included not only young Frankie Muniz, who played Malcolm, but also Bryan Cranston who played Malcolm’s father Hal, Christopher Masterson in the role of the eldest brother Francis, Jane Frances Kaczmarek as Lois, and Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey.
Malcolm in the Middle received seven Golden Globe nominations and 33 Emmy nominations, winning seven of them.
Source: Youtube/BeforeTheyWereFamous
After the show was over, some of the actors went on to other film projects and others decided to try themselves in different professions.
Actor Eric Per Sullivan was just 9 years old when the series started. He starred in each of the episodes and often times stole the show with his incredible acting. Today, he’s trying to lead a normal life and tends to stay out of the spotlight.
Among the rest, after the series was over, Eric starred in the 2002 film Unfaithful and Christmas With the Kranks. He also worked as a voice actor on Finding Nemo and Arthur and the Invisibles. After that, he didn’t do any acting, according to IMBD.
Eric studied at Mount Saint Charles Academy in Rhode Island, but later transferred to the Phillips Exeter Academy. He studied at the University of Southern California (USC) between 2009 and 2010.
Thinking of his role as Dewey and looking at photos of him from recent years, we can agree that Eric looks totally different today. He’s all grown up but he didn’t lost his charm we all loved him for.
Being kind is the best policy. It is because of people who are willing to go an extra mile for the well-being of others that this world is a better place.
A photo from the Florida State University football game which took place in November of last years has gone viral for all the right reasons.
A woman named Britney Howard was a spectator at the game. She was hoping to have some enjoyable time, but ended up getting even more than just a fun day at the game. At one moment, Howard noticed an incredible sight. A young woman was having troubles climbing the steps and finding her seat, but an angel in the form of an officer stepped in.
Deputy C. Hall approached the girl’s mother and asked if it was okay for him to carry her daughter to her seat.
“I just wanted to take a minute and recognize Deputy C. Hall that was working the Florida State football game Saturday night. This young girl that has difficulty walking was struggling to get up the steps to her seat so he asked her and her mother if they would be okay with him carrying her. He walked at least 30 rows up to her seat and did not hesitate one bit in offering to do so,” Howard wrote along with the photo she shared on Facebook.
The Leon County Sheriff’s Office was proud of the deputy’s kind deed and praised his action.
Thank you, Deputy C. Hall. People like you restore our faith in humanity.
Not many people get to live to be 100, but Nat Ross, an Auschwitz survivor, is one the few lucky ones.
This brave man celebrated his milestone birthday surrounded by those who mean the world to him; his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Ross has been through so much in his life. When he was around 20 years old, the German Nazis took him to a concentration camp as he was one of the many Polish Jews the Nazis launched a campaign of terror against following the German military defeat of Poland in September 1939. Those were days filled with horror, but one particular incident has hunted Ross his entire life.
Fox 10 News/ Facebook
He was ordered to build a sewer system. While working on it, he came across some potato scraps which he tried to hide and eat in order to survive, but then the Nazis caught him stealing the scraps and punished him in the worst possible way.
Ross’ granddaughter, Dana Arschin-Kraslow, went into details of this awful and scary event and explained: “Every few weeks the Germans forced the prisoners to throw their clothes into a pot of boiling water to disinfect the clothing they were wearing, and my grandfather found a way to throw in a few scraps of rotten potatoes that he found. He sewed it into his uniform and that’s how he got nourishment.”
Fox 10 News/ Facebook
After realizing what Ross did, they forced him to dig his own grave.
“When he was almost done digging, they asked him to lay down on the ground to see if his body fit,” Dana told Fox 10 Phoenix. “When he did, the guards told him to keep digging. And there was a gun to his head this whole time.”
As he was kept at gun point, a prisoner collapsed. One of the Nazis turned to the man, killed him, and told Ross: “isn’t today, your lucky day.”
“That grave was 100 percent intended for my grandfather, but the rest of his life he had to live with that guilt that it ended up being for someone else,” Diana added.
Speaking to Fox 10 Phoenix, Ross said that he witnessed few prisoners taking their own lives because of the horrors they suffered, but he had a strong will to continue living. “I wanted to live because I wanted to tell the story,” he said. “Of how humans can suffer. I wanted to live through it.”
Luckily, all that is far behind him. After he was released from the concentration camp, Ross has lived a happy life. He lived in New York for many years before he moved to Florida where he worked and resides even today.
“Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring – quite often the hard way.” – Pamela Dugdale.
There’s no bigger blessing in life than having a brother or a sister you can lean on whenever things get hard. What makes siblings special is that we get to share with them out happiness and our sadness, but most of all our childhood, the most special period of everyone’s life.
Brianna and Carlos Colon are twins from Massachusetts. What is special about these two is that they were welcomed into the world at 24 weeks, weighing a pound and a half each. While this didn’t affect Brianna in any way, it caused health issues to Carlos who was left blind. At the same time Carlos has autism, but that didn’t prevent him from fulfilling his dream of graduating from high school.
Brianna on the other hand, graduated a year earlier and is now attending Bryant College.
She has always been very supportive of her brother, and she proved that once again on his prom night. As it turned out, Carlos didn’t have a date and was likely to miss the most important night of his life. Brianna, whose prom was canceled because of the pandemic last year, offered to be Carlos’ date.
“I’m lucky to have experienced it this time with him and somebody that I love very much,” she told Boston 25 News.
Needless to say, Carlos was over the moon and had the time of his life.
“Just because he’s blind and autistic doesn’t mean he can’t have fun. I’m glad he got to experience it and he danced a lot, so I’m really glad he went and all that,” his loving sister said.
It’s truly amazing to see how much Carlos has accomplished. He thrives and has a fulfilling life because he’s surrounded with special people who are there for him every step of the way.
However, although he graduated from high school, he’ll stay at the school until he’s 22 to be part of the Life Skills Program. His dream is to attend the Perkins School For The Blind. With the help and the support from his loved ones, especially his twin sister, Carlos will certainly accomplish everything he sets his mind to.
The role of Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie remains until this day one of the greatest father roles in the history of film. The series itself taught people how to live humble life as “it is the simple things that matter most.”
However, before this iconic role, the actor behind it, Michael Landon, landed another role in a long-running series that would help him make a name for himself, that of Little Jose Cartwright in the western show Bonanza.
Landon was much loved by fans for what he had to show on the screen and his talent earned him a number of awards, including a Golden Globe nomination in 1979 for Best actor in a television drama series for Little House on the Prairie. The show won 4 Emmys and additional 16 nominations. That spoke a lot of the popularity of the show and the cast who became America’s sweethearts practically overnight and kept the status even 37 years after the final episode aired.
LittleHouseonthePraire.com
What is very interesting about Landon is the story of how he found himself in the acting business. As a pretty handsome young man, he worked at a gas station near the Warner Bros Studios in Los Angeles where he caught the attention of a talent agent, Bob Raison. However, before he got inside the studio to film his debut TV series Telephone Time, this young man, whose original name was Eugene Orowitz changed it to whom we know today as Michael Landon.
Landon played plenty of roles in famous movies, including Highway to Heaven, and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984.
The heartthrob tied the knot three times, but it was his third wife Cindy Landon whom he called the love of his life. The two remained together until Landon’s tragic death in 1991 at the age of 54. Landon was a father of nine children and all of them agree he was the dad everyone would ask for, caring and loving, a true interpretation of Charles Ingalls.
After his passing, Cindy spoke of his battle with pancreatic cancer and how he turned to the nature and changed his lifestyle thus became a vegetarian. He was also undergoing chemotherapy sessions, but his tumor doubled in a short amount of time and spread to his liver, so not much could be done.
“I could feel every nerve in my body,” Chris, one of his sons with Cheryl Lynn, said in an interview with People in 1992. “Like it was all lit up. I was the father, and he was the son, I had to help him up the stairs. I am sad sometimes…when I think that I never said. ‘Sorry.’ I never looked at him and told him that I was sorry he was losing his life.”
Landon was a very considerate man and he was aware he was losing the battle so he and his wife made sure they prepared the kids for what was coming. It was reported that he read them a book titled Butterflies and explained how his body would be like a cacoon and his spirit would be a butterfly looking down on them.
During his last minutes on Earth, Cindy was by Landon’s side and she recalls his lasts words were “I love you!”
“I think it was watching him go through the whole process that prepared her”, LeslieLandon, daughter of Lynn Noe said in an interview with People.
Cindy spoke of the time she first laid eyes on Landon during the set of The Loneliest Runner where he was the star and she was an extra. ”I looked at this man and I just thought he was the most extraordinary man I had ever seen,” she said in 1998. ”It was not just his look, but there was something about his personality, about how he carried himself. There was a charisma about him and a strength that was just incredible.”
“People thought he was extremely serious, but that wasn’t Michael at all,” Cindy told Closer Weekly in 2019. “He was excited about his work, but he always came home happy. He was a fantastic father who was curious about everything and loved to teach the children.”
One of his daughters, Jennifer, who followed into his footsteps, recalls how Landon was very much respected by everyone in the family and how there was “a tremendous amount of discipline implemented in the house,” but yet, her dad always made things fun.
“He had this ability to make you feel like something magical could happen or that you were on the edge of a discovery,” she said speaking to Closer Weekly.
Today, Cindy is the president of the Michael and Cindy Landon Foundation. She has been involved in events for Doctors without Borders, Free Arts for Abused Children and is an advocate for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. She also works as a director and producer.
Cindy is a huge animal lover and has a number of rescue dogs she takes care of and a 250-pound Mexican hairless pig saved from a lab.
In February, she posted a photo of her dear husband taken years ago and wrote, “Wow I took this photo many years ago.. I found it going through my storage .. it ended up in a coffee table book.” In July, paid him another tribute, “July 1 we said goodbye to you. You left us way to soon. You will always and forever be in our hearts. Memories last a lifetime.”
Determination is a trait very few people possess. The truth is that not everyone can achieve their goals and dreams, and the reason why is the lack of motivation and giving up easily. However, once one changes their mindset, the sky is the limit.
Lexi and Danny, a couple from Terre Haute, Indiana, had been friends for around ten years before they started dating. At the time they tied the knot, Lexi weighted 480lbs, and Denny was 279lbs.
Although he weighted less than her, Danny didn’t lead a healthy lifestyle and he only gained more and more weight over the years.
“He never saw me as my size, asked me to change, or made me feel as anything other than beautiful,” Lexi wrote on Instagram. She, however, admitted that she has always been an emotional eater, and the two ate over 4,000 calories a day, mostly through fried food.
Danny admitted that vegetable was almost never part of their meals.
Source: fatgirlfedup/Instagram
Then, back in 2016, they both decided enough was enough. One situation made Lexi aware of her current situation. She was obese and she wasn’t healthy, and that needed to change. “I had long been looking forward to going to an amusement park and riding the roller coaster,” Lexi recalled. “But when I got to the beginning of the queue, I was told I was too heavy. I couldn’t go. It was so incredibly embarrassing.”
This was her wake-up call. She knew her life was in her hands and that she needed to make a change. Of course, both her and Danny were aware that change doesn’t happen over night, but they were willing to do whatever it takes in order to lose weight.
Source: fatgirlfedup/Instagram
Speaking of their unhealthy eating habits, the couple revealed, “We often went to Asian eat-all-you-can-buffets. Then we went home and ordered more fast food.”
In order not to give up, Lexi decided to document her journey on her Instagram account “Fat Girl Fed Up.” At the beginning, not many people followed her, but now, in 2021, she has over 1.2 million followers who admire her determination and praise her hard work.
Source: fatgirlfedup/Instagram
Another thing that made this couple change their lives for the better was the fact that they struggled having a family considering their weight.
“We were fed up with the life that we were living and all the things that we weren’t able to do together as a couple. We also feared if we didn’t get our health under control, we would never be able to start a family,” Lexi said.
The first step towards a healthier lifestyle was hitting the gym. Going there wasn’t easy for Lexi, but nothing could stop her at that point. “I started going there when I got a free trial and — since it was never really crowded, my machine faced the wall (so I didn’t feel like everyone was watching me), and I found a machine called the CrossRamp that didn’t hurt my joints at 485 pounds — I fell in love with it.”
Lexi and Denny made a rule they swore to follow. “No eating out, no soda, no alcohol, no cheat meals, and working out for 30 minutes five times a week.” Initially, this rule was only supposed to be followed for a month, but once they started eating healthy, there was no going back.
Source: fatgirlfedup/Instagram
Believe it or not, both Lexi and Denny look like completely different people today. They have always been happy, but now they are also healthy.
“Danny and I are still working very hard every day to achieve our goal,” Lexi says proudly. “We’re not there yet, but, still, I’d never thought that we’d even get this far. It’s just incredible. Many small steps can go a long way.”
Source: fatgirlfedup/Instagram
Their journey serves as inspiration for many. The couple appears on shows every now and then where they speak of their achievements and what it takes to not give up.
“Every day is a non-scale victory and a reminder of how far I’ve come. Like, I loved myself even at 485 pounds, but just to be able to wake up and do whatever I want to do and go wherever I want to go… I don’t feel like I’m a prisoner in my own body anymore,” Lexi says.
“Start small — small changes add up to big results — and focus on each day, not how far you have to go,” she adds.
Source: fatgirlfedup/Instagram
We are so happy and proud of this couple. They are a proof that hard work always pays off.
Few actors would ever reach the fame of Michael Landon, truly one of the greatest actors who have ever walked this Earth.
Best known for his roles in the iconic TV series Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie, Landon was much appreciated by audiences from all over the world. His role of Charles Ingalls made him the most famous American TV dad ever.
It is because of him that many actors who were part of the series made names for themselves.
Besides being a huge name in the film industry, Landon was also a father to nine children whom he had with three different wives.
When he and his second wife of 19 years, Lynn Noe, announced they were splitting, the news came as a shock to many, including his children and co-workers, especially because the reason for the split was Landon’s infidelity. While still married to Noe, he started dating Cindy Clerico, who would become his third wife.
Speaking of Landon’s divorce, one of his fellow colleagues, Mellisa Sue Anderson, who played the role of Mary Ingalls and was still a child at the time, told Outsider, “For us, as kids, it was a real blow. Although we knew he could be difficult at times and had his flaws, we never dreamed he was capable of inflicting that kind of pain on his real family. For me personally, I had held him up to a higher moral standard. He had really let me down.”
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
In an 1985 interview with People Magazine, Landon was sort of forced to open up about his personal life and his wife Cindy who was 20 years his junior.
“You don’t dissolve a relationship to go to bed with someone 20 years younger. You have to have major differences and a deep-rooted need to stop a relationship after as many years as I was married,” he explained.
“I would have done anything to make that relationship continue, but I could not. It’s not just difficult for the wife. It is painful for the husband too. But it is far better than letting it stay the way it was.”
In 1991, Landon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and died just three months later at the age of 54. He had undergone chemo treatments and turned to vegetarian diet, but the tumor grew bigger and spread to his liver.
He and Cindy prepared the children for his passing. They started reading a book titled Butterflies and he explained to them that just like the cocoon, his spirit would turn into a butterfly and he would watch over them from above.
Before he passed away, he whispered “I love you” to his wife.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Landon’s funeral was attended by over 500 people, among which former president Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan.
According to Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie on Little House, Landon wanted his funeral to be the time during which his family and friends cherish the time spent with him instead of grieving.
“Michael had insisted his funeral be funny, and he got his wish,” she wrote in her book Confessions of a Prairie B*tch.
“Some people had wondered if Michael would have a religious funeral when he died. He did. It was Jewish.
“But even the rabbi made fun of him: ‘Michael was not religious, in the traditional sense of the word,’” she added. “He spoke of Michael’s response when the doctors told him that the chemo treatments would destroy his beautiful mane of hair. He said, ‘I’m rich, I’ll buy a hat.’”
Youtube/SueAnn Bellucci
The funeral was held on July 5, 1991, at the Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Culver City, California.
However, one of the people who weren’t among the attendees was his ex-wife Lynn Noe.
Back in the day, Noe spoke of her relationship with Landon and of the time he left her for Cindy.
“I was too busy being the kind of wife he wanted me to be. I lost myself little by little, I made Michael my god,” she said during an occasion.
“We speak without talking. Our conversation consists of, ‘When will you pick up the children?” Noe added, saying that she wasn’t angry with Cindy. “If it hadn’t been Cindy, it would have been somebody. He had reached that point in his life.”
It was reported by IMDB that the reason why Noe didn’t attend Landon’s funeral was that her divorce from him “had already been like a death to her.”
Dick Van Dyke might be 96 but he’s still as active as ever. This incredible man who has given us much fun over the years with the musicals he was part of, including Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, keeps dancing through life and knows how to have fun.
Over the course of his long and very successful career, Van Dyke earned plenty awards as well as recognition for his contribution in the world of dancing and film.
He is a recipient of five Prime-time Emmy awards, a Tony, and a Grammy Award. In 1995, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and received the Screen Actors Guild’s highest honor, the SAG Life Achievement Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, among the rest. In 2021, Van Dyke was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors.
This time, he stole our hearts yet again with an enchantingly beautiful video of a performance he did along with The Vantastix, a group Van Dyke put together in 2020, and his amazing wife Arlene Silver. The members of the group are Eric Bradley, Bryan Chadima, Mike Mendyke, and Van Dyke himself.
According to the video description, it was filmed last Valentine’s day but was released on February 14 of this year. In fact, the video was made to honor Van Dyke and Arlene’s 10th wedding anniversary.
Back in the day when the two started dating, people talked about their age gap. Arlene is 46 years his junior, but from what we can see, he doesn’t have a problem keeping up with her.
The song they chose for their lovely performance is “Everybody Loves a Lover.” Their voices blend in perfect harmony and their dancing is out-of-this-world. Jazz trumpeter Tony Guerrero adds to the enchanting melody and it looks like everyone is having fun.
The video has been seen by more than 790K so far and the comments brighten up our day as much as the video itself.
“That little sidestep at the end is what he used to do on the opening credits of the Dick Van Dyke show. He really is a joy!” one person wrote. “This was so tastefully done, everything from the decor, wonderful singing, dancing & humor, absolutely love it,” another person added. “Great job! You can see Dick’s joy of life and sense of humor that has kept him young at heart. Here’s to 100+!” someone else wrote.
Different people cope with their stress differently. While some tend to do relaxing things such as taking long walks or chatting with friends in order to redirect their thoughts and distract their mind from their problems, others turn to destructive measures, such as overeating.
It’s not uncommon for people to find comfort in their food, but sadly, as much as it cheers them up for some time, it has long-term negative effects on their overall health.
Source: Youtube/ My 600-lb-life
27-year-old Ashley Bratcher of Texas, who is a wife and a mother, gained excessive weight as a result of eating unhealthy food whenever she wanted to run away from the pain she felt after her mother abandoned her and her siblings when they were still very young.
”If my mother had been paying attention I think she could’ve changed a lot of stuff that was going on. As the oldest one, I felt like I had to protect my brother and sister because they were really little. So I let it happen to me, so it wouldn’t happen to them,” she explained.
Source: Youtube/ My 600-lb-life
When she finally told herself enough is enough, Ashley weighted 725 pounds. In hopes of finding a way out of her situation, she applied for the TLC’s show My 600-Lb Life and got in touch with one of the best weight loss surgeons there are, Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, who has helped hundreds of people gain control over their eating habits and their lives.
The first thing Ashley was told was that if she continued with her lifestyle, she wouldn’t live past 30. It was the wake-up call she needed in order to take things into her own hands and start her change.
Ashley wasn’t able to do even the simplest things. Instead, her 5-year-old son did everything for her. ”He’s my legs, he helps me with just about everything. Without him, I’d be lost,” she said back in 2016 when she entered the show.
As much she was doing that for her, she was also doing that for her son.
Source: Youtube/ My 600-lb-life
Before Dr. Now approved of her gastric bypass surgery, Ashley was put on a calorie-restricted weight loss program. To everyone’s surprise, she managed to lose whopping 123 pounds. Her surgery was a huge success. Ashley lost 255 pounds and was finally able to get control of her life. “This whole journey has been not only a physical rollercoaster, it’s been very a much an emotional rollercoaster,” she told People.
In 2018, Ashley appeared in the show My 600-Lb Life – Where are they now?
She shared with the viewers that she weighted under 300 pounds and didn’t use food as comfort any longer. She regained her self-confidence and was able to do all the things she couldn’t do in the past, like going shopping, and taking long showers.
Source: Facebook / Ashley Bratcher
Ashley shares photos of herself on her Instagram account. She has a lot of followers who admire her dedication and hard work. “Surgery is just a tool. It does not change your mindset,” she says.
Ashley’s husband, Jack, with whom she recently celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary is her huge support.
The story of a young man named Rehan Staton is a story of not giving up and working hard to make your dreams come true.
When he was just eight years old, Rehan’s mom abandoned him and his brother so his dad was left to raise his boys on his own. He was forced to work three jobs in order to be able to put food on the table.
Speaking to NBC News of that period of his life, Rehan said: “We went through extreme poverty, there were times when we just couldn’t eat.”
NBC News
However, no matter the circumstances and the number of obstacles, Rehan never gave up his dream of graduating high school and attending college. In fact, he worked as a sanitation worker along with his brother to be able to continue with his education.
“When you’re out in the street and you see a dumpster that looks really bad, I’m the guy who’s going to make it look very good,” he told NBC News.
In order for Rehan to be able to study, his brother dropped out of college. “The thing about my brother, he literally picked a profession where people looked down on him so that others could look up to me, and he knew that,” Rehan said.
NBC News
Many times, he was forced to go to classes right after finishing work so he didn’t even have the time to take a shower. “I would have to sit on the side of class and try not to bother anybody with my scent that day.”
Luckily, the hard work paid off and Rehan got accepted into Harvard Law School.
NBC News
In his graduation speech, this dedicated young man said: “And as Terps, we are champions because we pick each other up. The only reason that I made it to where I’m at is because people helped me out of the kindness of their heart.”
Rehan is thankful to everyone who believed in him and is planning to pay that kindness forward by offering free tutoring classes to struggling students.
NBC News
Congratulations, Rehan. We wish you success in the years to come.
A woman named Tiffany who has finally gathered the courage to leave her abusive partner shares her life story and reminds others of the signs of an unhealthy relationship.
She starts her story by writing how she and her future husband met at an event where her presence was mandatory because of the job she worked back then. One thing led to another and they went on a date. He paid for what he had and she paid her share for the dinner. This was the first sign that the relationship was going nowhere, according to her, but she decided to ignore it.
“Slowly, he started doing things that should have made me run and run fast. But guess what, I stayed. I don’t think I ever questioned the warning signs until I left the relationship. May sound strange to those who haven’t experienced what I have, but it’s true. The way he spoke to me, the way he pushed his way into MY space and made it HIS. The way he made it seem like he wanted to hang out with me alone but really was making sure I had less contact with my family and friends,” the woman wrote.
Instagram/@tiff_uhnay
The first time he hit her was while he was pregnant with their first child. He was punching her, chocking her, and abused her both physically and emotionally. One time, he even stabbed her in her hand.
Two years after welcoming her son, Tiffany had twin girls with the man who abused her. Taking care of three children wasn’t easy, especially because he was never around and never helped with anything. During those times he was present in his children’s lives, he would hit her over and over again.
Instagram/@tiff_uhnay
Not wanting her kids to witness the toxic relationship any longer, she finally decided to leave him.
“When people ask me what I did to survive, I really don’t know the answer. I just know three beautiful babies thought I was amazing, and I needed to keep going. I also took time to heal myself. I wanted to heal and start loving myself. If I didn’t love me, no one else would. I wasn’t interested in dating anyone. I wanted to heal so if I ever met anyone, I would be ready and in a good spot emotionally and mentally,” she explained.
Instagram/@tiff_uhnay
At the time she was trying to start her life over, she worked at a behavioral school and had a crush on one of her coworkers, Brian. She knew that if she tell him the truth, he would probably run away. Anyway, on their first date, she poured her heart out to him and told him everything thinking he would never call her again. But she was wrong.
They got serious and she introduced him to the kids who were 4 and 2 at the time. One day, as she realized he wasn’t going anywhere but was there to stay, she told him that after giving birth to the twins she had her tubes tied. He didn’t have children on his own and she was aware that he could decide to leave her. But he looked her into the eyes and said: “I want you, that’s not changing anything.”
“Brian got me. His love was so sincere and, most of all, he made us feel safe. During the beginning year of our relationship, my abuser stopped seeing the kids. This was a very tough time, and I couldn’t understand how someone could do that to their children. So, Brian was thrown into parenthood very quickly. That didn’t stop him from loving us,” Tiffany wrote.
Instagram/@tiff_uhnay
Tiffany and Brian married in March, 2018, and he wanted to adopt the kids officially. The adoption took place in January 2019. Finally, everything felt complete.
“The court made the day super special for the kids. The judge thanked Brian for what he was doing. He thanked him for the decision he has made to step up and give this love to the kids and that is when I lost it. I started thanking God for blessing me with this love. To this day, it still feels surreal it all happened. The love I found in Brian and the love that the kids found in him also. I could not hold back my tears because this story is literally so rare and amazing. When I was in my abusive relationship with their biological father, he would tell me I would never find anyone who would love me and three children. As I sat in court I thought how foolish I was to actually believe that.”
Tiffany’s son, Noah, looked Brian in the eyes and said to him: “I like you around my mommy. You love her and make her smile, and you do not yell and scream at her.”
Instagram/@tiff_uhnay
“Brian has been amazing. He never once thought this was way too hard and gave up. He never made me feel like I came with too much baggage. He looks at me like I’m an angel here on earth. He doesn’t know he is truly an angel. Brian is everything I ever dreamed of. He laughs at my jokes, we laugh so much together, he cries with me when we talk about important moments in our lives, the list can go on. What’s most important is when I have terrible dreams about my abuse, he wakes up with me and talks me through them. He is never annoyed. That’s so important,” Tiffany wrote.
This woman wanted everyone to know that it is possible to experience happiness after going through trauma.
Instagram/@tiff_uhnay
She concluded her post writing: “To anyone struggling with domestic violence, you’re not alone. Leaving is the hardest thing to do, but you can get through it. I know how scary that move is, and it’s not easy. But you’re not alone! I wish someone would have told me that while I was going through my battles. I am so glad fairy tales aren’t just for the movies; I’m living it, in a small town in Antioch, IL. Open your heart and heal. There is light at the end of the tunnel.”
For some couples, pregnancy occurs easily, others on the other hand experience parenthood the harder way. Miranda and Josh, who both work as nurses, have always dreamed of having many children. But that didn’t happen the way they expected. Miranda was told she couldn’t conceive naturally and that she had to undergo IVF treatments if she wanted to become a mother. And so she did.
Luckily, the first treatment was a success and the couple welcomed their first child into the world.
Some time later, they believed it was the time for them to try and have another child, so Miranda went through another IVF treatment. This treatment, just like their first, went well and the couple were told they were having twins this time. Both Miranda and Josh were over the moon as it looked like their wish of a huge family was about to become a reality. However, what they didn’t know was that they would get more than what they hoped for.
Six weeks into pregnancy, Miranda got some unexpected news, she did carry twins, but two sets of them, each identical. This kind of pregnancy is considered a miracle, to say the least, because it is very rare.
“Embryo splitting occurs approximately in one out of 100 embryo transfers. The chance of this outcome is approximately one in 10,000. This could also occur in a natural conception, but the chance of that is much rarer,” Dr. James Grifo said.
With the excitement came a dose of fear. Miranda worried whether the pregnancy would be without any problems. But as it turned out, she didn’t have to worry because her babies, Mia, Madison, Jackson and James, were delivered six weeks premature but they were all perfectly healthy.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to have a miscarriage, and I was always thinking that I could go into preterm labor at any moment,” Miranda says.
At one point, they were even asked whether they wanted to abort one set of twins, but they never considered that as an option regardless of the risks of carrying quadruplets.
Today, the twins and their big sister Joslyn are all grown up and love playing together. What a big and happy family.
You can check the whole story in the video below. Don’t forget to share it with your friends.
Actress Joan Van Ark has had a long and very successful career in Hollywood but it is her role of Valene Ewing on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing that helped her made a name for herself and cement her place in the film industry.
Born on June 16, 1943, in New York City, New York, to parents who were not in any way related to television, Joan always knew she belonged in Hollywood. She started performing when she was still very young and during a performance in Denver she met the person who would influence her life and career a great deal, actress Julie Harris. It was Harris who persuaded Joan to attend the well-respected Yale Drama School. She even helped her get a scholarship, making Joan the second woman to enroll into the school at the time.
“She [Harris] wrote to the dean and asked him to meet me. Long story short, my parents drove me to New Haven, Connecticut, to meet the dean, who gave me a scholarship,” Joan recalled.” It was meant to be.”
Ron Eisenberg/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
After being part of the theater for some years, Joan turned to television. She appeared on television series including Temperature’s Rising, Spider-Woman, and Days of Our Lives and even in one episode of Bonanza. Then, in 1978, she made several appearances as Valene Ewing on Dallas, which later turned into the most significant role she has ever played. As Dallas became a huge hit, the network decided to film its spin-off Knots Landing in which Joan reprised her role of Valene Ewing. In fact, Knots Landing was written before Dallas, but as producers needed to decided which show to work on they chose Dallas because they wanted a “big rich family” show.
Joan was a leading character for 13 seasons in Knots Landing and it was her husband who persuaded her to accept the role. At the time she was offered to be part of the series, Joan was already working on two other projects.
Shutterstock/s_bukley
At one point, when the character of Valene Ewing’s mother was about to be introduced to the show, Joan could never imagine the role of her TV mother would be given to the person who meant the world to her; none other than Julie Harris.
“When the producers told me they had finally last someone to play my mother, I held my breath,” she recalled in a 1984 interview with Florida Today.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, are they going to say Phyllis Diller or Zsa Zsa Gabor, or who?’ Then they said it was Julie Harris, and I went right through the roof. I couldn’t believe they had picked her to be my mother. They didn’t even know we were friends.”
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After 13 seasons and 327 episodes, Joan left Knots Landing and the show was canceled a season later. Joan was aware she was the one to be blamed for the cancellation, but she though she needed to try on new challenges.
“I have loved more than life the 13 years I’ve had on that show,” she said. “[Knots Landing creator] David Jacobs is a great influence on my life, has taught me so much about so many things. Ted [Shackelford] is the other half of every breath I take on the show, and personally, he’s a large part of my heart. The people are my family–we have shared marriages, deaths, divorces. It’s far more difficult to leave than I thought.”
Charley Gallay/Getty Images
Joan appeared in a number of others series, including The Young and The Restless in which she portrayed the role of Gloria Fisher.
Unlike many celebs, who marry other famous people, Joan married her high-school sweetheart John Marshall with whom she has daughter Vanessa Marshall who is also part of the entertainment business.
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Joan is 78 years old but looks as stunningly beautiful as ever. She has a net worth of around $10 million.
Betty White was adored by millions of people. She wasn’t only an incredible actress and host, but a huge animal lover, too. Over the course of her life, White spent a great portion of her fortune for a number of causes involving animals’ well-being.
From the moment she first appeared on TV, people got enchanted by both her beauty and talent. In 1951, White was nominated for her first Emmy for Best Actress. This nomination was groundbreaking since it was the first-ever category to recognize the achievements of women at the Emmy Awards.
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White was married three times. Her third husband, Allen Ludden, was the great love of her life. The two first met in 1960, on the game show Password, but it wasn’t until 1963 that they tied the knot. He proposed even before that, but White hesitated because she didn’t want to leave California where she resided at the time and move to New York. Later, however, she said that the biggest regret in her life was not saying ‘yes’ to Ludden the first time he asked her to marry him.
“I spent a whole year, wasted a whole year that Allen and I could have had together, saying, ‘No, I wouldn’t marry him. No, I won’t, No, I won’t leave California. No, I won’t move to New York,’” White recalled in an interview with Oprah. “I wasted a whole year we could have had together.”
Sadly, Ludden passed away in 1981 and White never remarried.
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Best known for her roles in the Hollywood classics The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Golden Girls, among the rest, White had a remarkable career. Just weeks before what was supposed to be her milestone birthday, White said she was looking forward to her birthday party. Unfortunately, she passed away only weeks short of her 100th birthday. On December 31, 2021, Hollywood lost a legend.
Betty was considered a fun person who was loved by millions, and her co-star in Hot in Cleveland, actress Valerie Bertinelli, confirmed that.
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Bertinelli had the honor to work alongside White for six seasons. In 2011, the show and its cast were nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. It looked like the actresses had as much fun filming the series as we had watching it.
When White died, Bertinelli took to social media to express her sadness over the loss of such a bright star as Betty White. “Rest in peace, sweet Betty. My God, how bright heaven must be right now,” Bertinelli wrote on Instagram.
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage
In an interview with The Rachel Ray Show, Bertinelli shared how important White was for her. “To be able to experience five years of working with Betty White…who gets that lucky?! Beyond her talent and how impeccable she was with timing and watching her work ethic, she was just one of those super ridiculously kind people,” the actress said. “It just oozed out of her. I tell people that this woman glowed because she did. She walked into a room – not making an entrance at all, she just walked into a room – and you knew she was there. There was just a light around her because she was so kind and grateful for her life. And it was a huge lesson to be able to watch that and watch her just live in gratitude.”
In her memoir, Enough Already, Bertinelli wrote that Betty White was “exactly the way people imagine – funny and quick-witted, with an outlook that inspired me every day I was around her.”
Dogs are the most special creatures that have ever walked into humans’ lives. For one, they are friendly and loyal, and what’s most, they are great around children. In fact, the relationship between canines and kids is the purest and most beautiful one there is.
Bonnie Michalek and her husband have a bullmastiff named Brutus whom they love unconditionally. They adore their four-legged pet so much that they refer to him as of their “first baby.”
When Bonnie got pregnant, Brutus knew that before anybody else. All of a sudden, he became overly protective and wouldn’t leave her side. “Brutus knew I was pregnant before I did — he definitely sensed it before I knew,” Bonnie shared with The Dodo.
Both she and her husband were 100% positive that Brutus would be an awesome brother to their baby because he would always get excited whenever he would hear children playing outside.
When she gave birth to baby Kayden, everyone was eager to see Brutus’ reaction of meeting the newest member of the family. When the dog first saw his human brother, he approached near and licked the baby’s face as though he was trying to say ‘hello.’
Brutus understood his new role was to take care of the baby and make sure the little one stays safe and sound and he showed that when he offered his favorite toy to Kayden when he started crying.
Bonnie says that none of Brutus’ toys last more than five minutes, except for the yellow plush toy that he loves the most. He never lets anyone touch it but he’s more than happy to give it to Kayden. “Every time Kayden cries, Brutus finds his fluff ball and tries to bring it to [him],” Bonnie wrote on Instagram. “So cute.”
When the staff at North Shore Animal League America got a call about a stray pit bull mix, they decided to step in. However, as the dog whom they named Maggie was way too young to be put up for adoption, the workers at the organization decided to place her at a foster home.
One thing led to another, and soon after, Maggie found herself in the home of the Duncan family from Louisiana.
Maggie loved her new place and everyone in the house, especially the family’s six-year-old son Roman. The two bonded instantly and spent every minute of every day together. Roman’s mom and dad knew that their son could get overly attached to the dog so they made sure he understood she was there only temporarily, or until the organization found her a forever home.
North Shore Animal League America
Roman taught Maggie a bunch of things. She got potty trained and learned how to play fetch. She also enjoyed the walks to the park and the attention this family showered her with.
Some time passed by and the workers at NSALA contacted the Duncan family and told them how they were taking Maggie back to New York and to her new home.
Saying goodbye to her was tough for Roman who made sure Maggie’s forever family knew just how special she was. He sneaked a few handwritten letters in which he praised Maggie’s beautiful personality, calling her the “best dog you could ever ask for.” He also wrote about the things Maggie loved doing, like playing and being around other dogs.
North Shore Animal League America
When the managers at NSALA saw the letters, they were touched to the core. “I was so touched,” Karla Agostinello, rescue team manager with NSALA, told Today. “It’s hard (for fosters) to put the animals on the truck. So I do get a lot of letters from adults — but children, not many. So this is why it touched my heart so much.”
Maggie is doing great with her forever family all thanks to spending months with her foster family who showed her love and taught her a lot of things.
North Shore Animal League America
“Her time with this family was very beneficial to her,” she said. “Foster families are so important because they’re the pet’s first stop … they’re instilling a foundation of love and care.”
Agostinello hopes that this beautiful story would raise awareness about the importance of foster families and would encourage more people to apply to become one.
Little House on the Prairie was a series which marked an important period of Hollywood history. A huge number of people were in anticipation to see each new episode which portrayed the life of the Ingalls family. The series was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s best-selling series of Little House books and explored many different themes including frequently portrayed ones of adoption, alcoholism, faith, poverty, blindness, and prejudice.
Michael Landon, who directed the plot and a large number of the episodes, played the role of Charles Ingalls. He was the heart and soul of Little House, and together with the rest of the actors, they made the perfect crew. Honestly, we can never imagine other actors portraying the roles of Laura Ingalls, Caroline Ingalls, and Mary Ingalls, among the rest, other than Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle, and Melissa Sue Anderson.
Karen Grassle played Caroline Ingalls, who is until this day remembered as one of the best mother roles there are.
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How Grassle got the role is story of serendipity. She was about to travel to LA and act in an independent movie, but there were no airplane tickets available when she went to the airport. “I’d sublet my apartment, and my boyfriend was [with me], so I wrote a bad check to get one. But when I got to LA, the movie fell through,” Grassle recalled. Her agent then called her with a proposition to audition for another project, Little House on the Prairie, along Michael Landon. As she wasn’t a huge TV watcher, she knew Landon as “that guy from Bonanza.“
“They’d seen everyone in Hollywood who was right for the part. They were down to the wire because they cast everyone else. After I read my second scene with Mike, he leaped up like a jack-in-the-box and said, ‘Bring her to wardrobe!’ But NBC had to approve me, so he interviewed for executives on closed-circuit TV,” the actress said.
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Filming the series, which became a huge hit, was fun and fulfilling for Grassle. She formed a strong bond with the rest of the crew, especially the actors who played her children. She got along with Landon as well until a point when the two had an argument over Grassle’s request to receive bigger paycheck. The two stopped talking to each other, but later in life, shortly before Landon’s passing, the two started talking and became close again.
“I didn’t speak up publicly at the time,” she said. “Unless the fact that I continued to negotiate meant that Mike might have said things about me that could have been detrimental,” she explained in the past.
Youtube/Melissa Sue Anderson Fan
Once the series was over, Grassle moved on to other significant projects. She became the co-founder and artistic director of Santa Fe’s Resource Theater Company. “Being in TV in Los Angeles made it hard to have a family life, while Santa Fe allowed time to study, live, work and play,” she told The Santa Fe Reporter.
“It’s very tough here professionally,” she said about running her theater company in 1992. “Part of what I’ve been dedicated to is to raise the standard of theatrical experiences for the local actor, to put them on a more professional basis. A lot of them were working for zero dollars.”
Michael Bezjian/WireImage
Grassle was married three times and is a mother of two adopted children, as well as a stepmother of her second husband’s three children. She married her first husband Leon Russom in 1966 but the two divorced three years later.
In 1982, she tied the knot with James Radford with whom she adopted two children, daughter Lily and son Zach. She also had a great relationship with Radford’s biological children from his previous marriage.
Speaking of the decision not to have biological children, Grassle said it had to do with the tragedies her mother suffered before having her. “I finally decided that maybe a baby is never going to happen to me,” Grassle said. “My mother lost five before she had me. She had about given up when I was born. When I married Allen, I kept thinking, pretty soon, we’d have a baby together. We couldn’t get on a list for adoption because we’re too old.”
Luckily, they were able to adopt Lily when she was born. Grassle was present during Lily’s birth and she even got to cut the umbilical cord.
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“We wanted to have a child, and we’d been having some difficulties. We were on the verge of beginning fertility treatment and started contacting people we knew about adoption,” she said about how Zach came into their family.
“A friend said, ‘You have to call this woman.’ She referred me to her [adoption] attorney [who knew of] a young woman looking for a couple to adopt her child. It really felt like destiny.”
Grassle married her third husband, Dr. Scott Stutherland in 1991 and divorced him six years later. Today, the 80-year-old actress is single and she loves it.
Cher’s singing career started back in the day, but she still remains one of the most popular female singers that have ever walked this Earth.
Considered the “Goddess of Pop” by the media, this incredibly versatile woman has had her fair share in a number of different areas of entertainment. She has adopted a variety of styles and appearances throughout her six-decade-long career and stunned her fans over and over again.
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Cher’s private life and her numerous romances with celebrities is as impressive as her professional life.
At the age of just 16, she married her first husband, Sonny Bono, with whom she stayed together for six years before calling their marriage quits. Cher welcomed daughter Chasity Bono who transitioned into a man later in life.
Just four days after she officially divorce Sonny, Cher married her second husband, Gregg Allman, with whom she has son Elijah Blue Allman, professionally known as P. Exeter Blue, the lead vocalist, guitarist and lyricist of the industrial metal band Deadsy.
Wikipedia
Once her second marriage ended in 1979, Cher was romantically involved with other people, among which actor Tom Cruise. She first spoke of her relationship with the Mission Impossible star back in 2013. Then, in 2018, she opened up about Cruise once again when she revealed in an interview with Daily Mail that he was “just the most adorable man you can imagine.”
Apparently, the two first met at Madonna and Sean Penn’s wedding in 1985 and bonded over their mutual learning disorder, dyslexia. “It was pretty hot and heavy for a little minute,” she told Watch What Happens Live.
Wikipedia
After their first encounter they met again at the White House. “Then, a bunch of people who were dyslexic were invited to the White House, and Tom and I are both dyslexic. We didn’t go out ’til way later, but there definitely was a connection there.”
Cher was obviously enchanted with Cruise and even put him of the list of her all-time top five lovers. Other celebs who got on that list were Warren Beatty, Richie Sambora, Gene Simmons and Val Kilmer.
She added that at the time they dated, Cruise wasn’t involved with Scientology.
However, as she felt comfortable sharing details of their romance, Cruise wasn’t happy she spoke about him publicly. According to Mirror, a source said about the actor: ”Everyone knows he was not happy – it seemed to be a sensitive topic.”
The holiday cheer turned into tragedy in Waukesha after an SUV plowed through a crowd during the Christmas Parade. Five people died at the scene, and the sixth victim, 8-year-old Jackson Spark, died at hospital due to the severity of the injuries he sustained. Four of the people who lost their lives were members of the amateur dance group “Milwaukee Dancing Grannies.”
It has been reported that the number of people who were injured is around 60. Thirteen of them are children, and six remain in critical condition.
The person charged for this utterly tragic incident is registered sex offender Darrell Brooks, 39, who was released from jail November 11 on $1,000 bail shortly before the Waukesha tragedy took place. The motive remains a mystery.
A 6th person has died in the #Waukesha massacre. 8-year-old Jackson Sparks died in hospital. Nearly 50 others were injured when Darrell Brooks, a registered sex offender out on bail on other offenses, allegedly rammed his car through the Christmas parade. https://t.co/FzSxZr7HpH
And as the entire country mourns the loss of those who were mercilessly killed, one special man is stepping in for the grieving families.
J.J. Watt, defensive end for the Arizona Cardinals, offered to cover all the costs related to the funerals.
“J.J. Watt is covering the funeral costs for everyone that lost their life in the Waukesha Christmas Parade,” journalist Cory Jennerjohn wrote on Twitter. “That is an amazing gesture. He has such a huge heart.”
J.J. Watt is covering the funeral costs for everyone that lost their life in the Waukesha Christmas Parade. That is an amazing gesture. He has such a huge heart.
This, however, is not the first time for Watt to offer his kindness to someone in need. He’s known for his heart of gold and his selfless nature. In 2017, he managed to raise $37 million for those affected by the Hurricane Harvey. With his 32 years, he’s doing all in his power to be the change he wants to see in the world.
“Everything that you do on the field [pales] in comparison to what you do off the field,” he said. “And at the end of my life, if I’m remembered as a football player, and a good football player, and that’s all I’m remembered for, then I did a poor job in my life.”
Just now seeing what happened at the holiday parade back home in Waukesha tonight.
Horrific images.
Truly hoping everyone is going to be ok and those not involved are now safe.
Thankful to everyone who rushed to action and helped the wounded.
After the Waukesha tragedy, Watt took to Twitter to express his sorrow and offer condolences.
“Just now seeing what happened at the holiday parade back home in Waukesha tonight,” he wrote. “Horrific images. Truly hoping everyone is going to be ok and those not involved are now safe. Thankful to everyone who rushed to action and helped the wounded.”
Thank you Watt for everything you do. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. We pray for the injured to recover as soon as possible.
Hollywood is the place where dreams are made, and being part of it truly is a dream come true. A huge number of people yearn for a place under its sky, but not everyone is lucky enough to make it big in the industry.
Matthew McConaughey is one of those people who were fortunate enough to make a name for themselves in the showbiz. Over the years, he became a much loved face and gathered millions of fans. McConaughey has landed a number of iconic roles, but that in Dazed and Confused is considered by many to be his breakthrough role.
This American sweetheart is not only a famous actor, but a loving husband and a proud father of three. His love story with wife Camila Alves resembles that of a fairy-tale, and if you believed he executes roles of a romantic guy perfectly, wait until you see how charming he is around his lady.
The couple first laid eyes on one another in 2006 and tied the knot in 2012.
McConaughey never misses a chance to speak of his affection for his wife. Even years after they first met, he’s still smitten with her and he’s not afraid to confess that.
When it comes to showing his love, he doesn’t do it by buying expensive gifts, but maintains his romance in a different way.
“I don’t have a certain thing I buy her. An earnest handwritten note, that she knows I sat down and took some time and has some poetry to it, that’s worth more than whatever retail I paid for something,” McConaughey told TODAY.
He says Camila posses qualities he admires and describes her as graceful, beautiful, and having strong sense of identity. When it comes to loyalty, he says that he’s faithful to her to a point that is selfish, as reported by Playboy Magazine. He, however, adds that he loves that and wants that to stay that way.
Speaking to People, Camila said she wasn’t a typical girl, the one who dreams of getting married, but meeting McConaughey changed all that.
Besides having tight work schedules, they both make sure they spend much time with their children, and that includes movie night, trips, and a lot more. Fridays are always pretty special in their home because on those days, the kids are allowed to have pizza and everything else they please. They are even allowed to sleep in their parents’ bedroom after the festivities which often turn into dance nights.
When it comes to their parenting, the actor says he and his wife blend different styles of parenting, he’s more laid-back, but they both share similar moral values. At the end of the day, the moral traits of each person are inherited and their sense of morality would always be in their core, as per McConaughey.
Source: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
We love McConaughey so very much and we are extremely happy for him. What a beautiful love story these two share.
