Sometimes life can be hard, sometimes you get a curveball and a lot of the time we do hard things to survive. For this one mother, she had to do one of the hardest things imaginable by giving up her baby boy to another family who could provide for him when she couldn’t, how brave!
Hannah Mongie and her husband had an awful decision to make when they found out that she was pregnant, what were they going to do? They recorded a youtube video where Hanna explains what they decided and why!
As Hanna speaks you can really hear that the decision was one of the hardest ever, and she did it out of love…
Hanna tells her story and explains that she met the father of the baby, called Kaden, back in 2013, then after dating for some time, in 2015 they found out she was pregnant!
Hanna says: (To Tagg)
“He loved you so much, from the very, very beginning”
She went for her eight-week checkup and sent a recording of her baby Tagg’s heartbeat to the father, he was delighted!
Two more days after this, hearing his son’s heartbeat, Kaden’s heart practically stopped…
“From the day your daddy died, I had a hard time even considering placing you with a different family when you were my last piece of Kaden …But one day, I woke up and I just knew that you were supposed to be with someone else.”
Hahhan searched to find a suitable couple to adopt him and found Emily and Brad, moving on two weeks again and all the time talking to them and getting to know them, she decided they would be great parents for baby Tagg.
Hannah said:
“Over time, me and your mommy, Emily, became really, really good friends, and she’s one of my best friends now”
Hannah says that the two parents she found for Tagg really love him already…
Hanna was so upset, she just kept telling her son over and over how much she loved him, and how much his dad loved him too, then the video ends.
Hanna wrote in the video caption:
“I hope anyone who watches this will be able to gain a new perspective on what the birth mom goes through when she places her child for adoption. It is the FARTHEST thing from a heartless act. It shows (the) definition of love. To love someone this much is to give away your happiness for them”
Her Situation is really sad, kind and loving too, but such a great shame, Hannah has so much love to give, and Tagg’s birth parents are heartbroken, the one small comfort is that its an open adoption and she can see him regularly!
Such a bittersweet lovely but sad moment, it really show’s how parenting is both difficult and carries such responsibility, please if you like this story, SHARE it with friends and family!
The saying goes that there are friends, there is family, and thenthere are friends who become family, and for one very special man who changed the world of entertainment forever, one and only Dean Martin, family was everything.
Born Dino Paul Crocetti on June 7, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, to a father who was an Italian immigrant, Dean Martin didn’t speak any English during the first five years of his life. His classmates made fun of his accent and that made Martin shy, a trait that would become part of his character.
“When Jerry Lewis and I were big, we used to go to parties, and everybody thought I was bigheaded and stuck up, and I wasn’t. It was because I didn’t know how to speak good English, so I used to keep my mouth shut,” Martin told Desert in 1967.
“Well, see, I’m shy,” he added. “Always been. See, if I walk into a party, I sort of go in a corner, ’cause I don’t know what to say to people.”
Henry Gris/FPG/Getty Images
When he started performing, Martin didn’t even know how to read music, yet he reached incredible heights and became the best of the best in the showbiz.
At the start of his career, he performed at local restaurants while working as an amateur welterweight fighter at the same time. Eventually, Martin signed his first record deal in 1943 with MCA Records. Two years later, a serendipitous meeting with Jerry Lewis would change his life and career forever.
“I turn, and I see this handsome guy in a camel’s hair coat. You can die from how handsome he was, sporting his new nose,” Lewis recalled meeting Lewis on the street in an interview with Today in 2005.
“And we became very friendly. He looked like he needed a friend, and I certainly did. And that was really the start.”
The two did show after show and reached the top, only the sky was the limit for this incredible duo. However, after being very close for years, and doing music and films together, prior to the tenth anniversary of their first show, Martin and Lewis split.
Some 20 years later, in 1976, they were reunited on stage thanks to their mutual friend Frank Sinatra. And while many found the reunion emotional, People referred to it back then as to “a forced and uncomfortable onstage reunion.”
Martin was also part of the famous “The Rat Pack,” a group of A-list show business friends who met casually at the Los Angeles home of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, along with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford.
They were really close friends who showed their loyalty for one another numerous times.
Harry Langdon/Getty Images
When Dean Martin was invited at JFK’s inauguration as the 35th president of The United States, Martin declined the invitation because his friend whom he considered family, Sammy Davis Jr., was told not to attend. At the time, Davis Jr., got married to May Britt, a white actress, and their interracial relationship caused quite a stir. Apparently, Kennedy was afraid that Davis Jr.’s presence would made people from the Southern states angry, as per the 1989 book Why Me.
Martin wasn’t happy with the news and decided not to attend the inauguration himself in support of his beloved friend.
Universal History Archive/Getty Images
A new documentary by Tom Donahue, supported by Martin’s daughter Deana Martin, Dean Martin: King of Cool, speaks about this incident in more depth.
“Sammy Davis Jr. helped to get JFK elected, and then JFK and his campaign decided to pay Sammy back by not allowing him to go to the inauguration because he was part of an interracial marriage,” Donahue told Fox News.
“It was Dean Martin who stood up for his friend and said, ‘I’m not going to be part of the inauguration if Sammy isn’t going.’ That really impressed me. He had a sense of honor. The more I got to know Dean Martin, the man, the more I grew to truly love and admire him.”
Bettmann/GettyImages
Deana Martin revealed that her late father was “astounded” when he heard his friend Sammy Davis Jr. wasn’t among the guests of JFK.
“He was my uncle Sammy, he came to our house. He was family. So it was pretty remarkable,” she told Fox News.
“My dad was going to take a stand because it was the right thing to do. It didn’t matter what JFK or anyone else was going to think of him. This is Sammy Davis Jr., and that was his friend. And for family to not be invited for those reasons made my father very upset. He just said, ‘It’s not right. I’m not going.’ And that was it. He wouldn’t think about it anymore.”
Before 1961, interracial marriages were illegal and punishable by law, and even after they were legally allowed, many continued to see them as something odd and considered them taboo.
Hollywood actors Georg Stanford Brown and Tyne Daly tied the knot in 1960 and never cared what people were saying about their relationship. Being a white woman in love with a black man triggered prejudice and judgment, but Tyne never considered leaving the man who meant the world to her. Georg was as determined to stay with Tyne and their love stood the test of time.
Georg’s career in the world of film started when he was still very young, but he didn’t see it as something serious at the time. In fact, he only saw acting as a way of making easy money, but he eventually fell in love with it and decided to pursue it as a career.
In order to be able to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, he worked as a janitor. At the academy, he met his future wife, Tyne. Over the years, they both rose to stardom and became very successful actors.
Georg is probably best known for his role as Officer Terry Webster, one of the stars of the ABC television series “The Rookies,” Tom Harvey in the mini-series “Roots,” Henri Philipot in The Comedians and Dr. Willard in Bullitt among the rest.
circa 1975: American actor Tyne Daly and her husband, Cuban-born actor Georg Stanford Brown, attend a performance of the British National Theatre, London, England. Brown holds a small cigar in one hand. (Photo by Fotos International/Getty Images)
At the time he and Tyne tied the knot, she was already a celeb in her own right who had her breakthrough with the role of Mary Beth Lacey in the hit show “Cagney and Lacey.”
In an episode of “The Rookies,” Georg and Tyne shared their first on-screen kiss and that scene caused quite a stir.
Tyne often spoke of her marriage with Georg and said that she never saw him as a black man, but a human being.
Tyne Daly and daughters during The 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards – Arrivals at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by SGranitz/WireImage)
They have three daughters together. When their youngest daughter was born, “on her birth certificate, under ‘race,’ we put ‘human’; under ‘sex’ we put ‘yes’, and under ethnic origin, we put ‘citizen of the world,’” Tyne said.
Georg and Tyne divorced in 1990, after 24 years of marriage, but they are still remembered as a couple who fought prejudice and that is just another reason why we all love them so much.
Frankie King married her loving husband Royce some 78 years ago. What they had was a love at first sight which lasts until today. Not many people get to spend that much time with their soulmate and the great love of their life, but these two are among the few lucky ones.
Their wedding took place during Royce’s two-day leave from his service at the Air Force. Since they didn’t have much time to organize the special event, Frankie didn’t get to wear a wedding gown and they didn’t hire a wedding photographer.
“He was stationed as a lieutenant in the Air Force… he just got his pilot wings,” their daughter, Sue Bilodeau, told CBS News. “He got a short leave. They had been engaged about six months, so they decided to have a wedding before he was deployed overseas.”
Once the war was over, Royce went back home to the small city of Oelwein, Iowa, and he and his wife welcomed two children. Today, they are being taken care of by a hospice nurse working for St. Croix Hospice.
On what was supposed to be their 77th wedding anniversary, the nurse asked Frankie to see photos of their wedding day. Unfortunately, Frankie didn’t have any because there was no photographer there on their most special day. The nurse then came up with a brilliant idea. She, together with other members of the staff at the hospice, decided to organize a real wedding for this sweet couple. She contacted Frankie and Royce’s daughters who were thrilled with the idea.
The ceremony was a beautiful one. Frankie wore a vintage wedding dress while Royce put on his military uniform, the same one he wore on his wedding day back in the day.
“…It was really sweet and touching, how she looked at herself in the gown. She said, ‘Should I wear my glasses or not? I didn’t have glasses that day.’ And I said, ‘Wear your glasses, you’re beautiful this way,'” the couple’s daughter, Sue, said.
Royce was in anticipation to see his beautiful bride and had a handkerchief held over his eyes for the “first look.” “They said, ‘Are you ready to see your bride?’ and took the blindfold off,” Sue told TODAY. “He had just the biggest smile the rest of the day. It was amazing.”
Everyone who got to attend the wedding was in delight. “How can you not have a sense of overwhelming emotion?” said St. Croix Hospice CEO, Heath Bartness. “The connectivity you almost feel that you were a part of this, and thinking back to what it was like in World War II the first time, and how meaningful and how emotional this second opportunity to do this was. There’s an overwhelming sense of pride in not just the company and what the organization did, but more so just as an act of humanity.”
It truly was a day to remember. Happy anniversary and many more to come, Frankie and Royce.
For the Gibb brothers, Barry, Maurice, Robin, and Andy, musical talent ran in the family. All four of them accomplished great things in the music industry, the first three as a group, and the youngest of them all, Andy, as a solo artist.
The famous siblings were exposed to music from the moment they were born. Their mother, Barbara, was an established singer, and their father Hugh, was a bandleader, drummer, and performer where he lived, in the Isle of Man. So it didn’t really come as a surprise that their children were gifted and interested in music from very early age.
The Ultimate Biography of The Bee Gees: Tales of The Brothers Gibb reveals a fun story related to how Barbara realized her boys were talented. Namely, one day when she got home she saw her father-in-law watching TV as loud singing could be heard coming from the other room. She supposed it was the radio, so she offered to lower the volume down, not realizing it was her sons who produced the beautiful sound. At the time, Barry was 9, and the twins, Maurice and Robin, were only 6.
GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty
That was an incident that made her and her husband understand that their children were meant for great things, and they were right as their group, Bee Gees, would become one of the most famous and most renowned ones there are, with selling more than 200 million records worldwide.
In 1957, Barry formed his first group together with his brothers and two other friends. It was named The Rattlesnakes, but it didn’t last long because the Gibb family moved to Australia and left Manchester behind. Once in their new home, Barry decided to change the group’s name and that’s how Bee Gees was born.
“Though it is widely believed that the Bee Gees first got their name from being the Brothers Gibb, this meaning did not come until a few years after their founding. When the brothers moved to Australia in 1958, they began playing on the radio with friends Bill Goode and Bill Gates,” the group’s website explains the story behind the name.
The group’s name was originally The BG’s – contrived from the common initials between Barry Gibb, Bill Goode, and Bill Gates. The name then evolved from The BG’s to the Bee Gees, which eventually came to mean the Brothers Gibb!”
In 1975, Bee Gees had their first No.1 with Jive Talkin. One year later, they again topped the charts with You Should Be Dancing.
Responsible for embodying the disco era of the late 1970s, the group’s remarkable music made them known and loved worldwide. Not only they wrote each of their songs, but they did music for other authors as well. Their 1977 Saturday Night Fever soundtrack represents the turning point of their career, with both the film and soundtrack having a cultural impact throughout the world, enhancing the disco scene’s mainstream appeal.
Hits like Staying Alive, Night Fever, and How Deep Is Your Love topped the charts.
Youttube/BeeGees
They won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Group in 1977, and two for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance By a Duo in 1978.
The Bee Gees were awarded the Grammy Legends Award in 2003. In 2015, they received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
As these three brothers conquered the world of music, their youngest sibling, Andy Gibb, was pursuing a career on his own, and he was very successful at what he did.
When he performed in Australia, he was usually introduced like the youngest brother of the Bee Gees. That wasn’t something that bothered him, but at the same time, he felt like he wasn’t acknowledged enough as a musician on his own.
Michael Brennan/Getty Images
“I was a Gibb, but out in the bush or the sticks of Australia, you know, you could be anybody,” Andy said in 1985.
“So the ‘Bee Gees’ was a selling power, but let’s be honest, in the long run, it has been nothing but a great advantage. Because I wouldn’t, who knows what would have happened, I might be here without their help, but I mean the fact is they did help me, and it was a tremendous start, it was a tremendous success.
“Looking back, almost a little too much too soon, too young, because I peaked and then I died for a while and I am just now starting to try and get my feet back on the ground, but other great advantages are just having wonderful musically gifted brothers who always help me and always advise me on anything.”
Andy couldn’t cope with the fame and turned to drugs and alcohol, addictions that would lead to him losing his life just five days after turning 30.
In March, 1988, Andy complained of severe chest and abdominal pain and was rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately, he passed away three days later of inflammation of the heart, officially resulting from a viral infection.
His passing affected many. His many fans were devastated to hear the news, and his brothers were left utterly heartbroken.
It looked like Andy’s ex-wife Kim Reeder, with whom he had daughter Peta Gibb, was the only one who wasn’t surprised.
“I always knew that one day I’d get a call with news like this,” she told People. “It was only a matter of time.”
Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty
Barry Gibb was crushed. He had a hard time coping with Andy’s loss, just like the rest of the brothers.
Unfortunately, Maurice and Robin died too. Maurice died after collapsing in his home in Miami in 2003. Robin died in 2012. Barry is the only living brother of the Gibb family.
Losing the siblings with whom he reached the starts was a huge shock for Barry. Even today, he feels deep sorrow and immense grief, especially because at the time of their passing, he wasn’t in good terms with any of them.
“My greatest regret is that every brother I’ve lost was in a moment when we weren’t getting on, so I have to live with that, and I’ll spend the rest of my life reflecting on that,” Barry revealed in an interview with Australian show Sunday Night.
“I’m the last man standing. I’ll never be able to understand that as I’m the eldest.”
Shutterstock/Featureflash Photo Agency
With tears in his eyes, Barry explained how close the brothers were throughout the years.
“Nobody ever really knows what the three of us felt about each other,” he said. “Only the three of us knew.
“It was such a unifying thing. The three of us became one person. We all had the same dream. That’s what I miss more than anything else.”
Bee Gees were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame “as an iconic group that produced a decades-spanning catalog of timeless music.”
The role of the police officers is to keep the community safe, so using them as a scare tactic when your children misbehave is never really a good idea. Kids should learn how to trust the members of the law enforcement and turn to them when they feel something isn’t right.
One South Hill, Virginia officer named C.B. Fleming, who has been part of the department for over 15 years, went an extra mile in order to convince a group of kids that police officers aren’t bad people, on the contrary, their job is to serve the citizens at the best of their ability.
Source: Metro.co.uk
Just recently, officer Fleming answered a call about a gas leak at an apartment complex. Once there, a woman named Iesha Roper-Boswell told him how the kids from the neighborhood, including hers, were afraid of the police.
Officer Fleming didn’t think twice before he decided to change the way those kids perceived men in uniform. He noticed two girls playing with their dolls, carefully approach them, started talking to them, and then got on his belly on the sidewalk and started playing with them.
Source: Facebook/ Iesha Roper Boswell
After that, officer Fleming saw some boys working on their art project. He got on his knees and helped them finish it.
Source: Facebook/ Iesha Roper Boswell
The incredible sight was caught on tape by Iesha, who shared the video on the social media.
From someone they feared, the kind officer became a hero in the eyes of the kids he met that day. We definitely need more people like officer Fleming.
A false alarm gas leak turned into a full out play session in Mecklenburg Manor today! We definitely need more cops like him!!! Thanks for taking the time out to play with the kids!!
One of the scariest things a parent can ever experience is their child to wonder off and get lost. Sadly, the family of 10-year-old Malachi Bradley was forced to endure such terrifying occurrence after their son separated from them while they were walking in the High Uintas, Utah, and was nowhere to be seen.
They feared the worst and prayed for the searchers to find him as soon as possible because the thought of him being completely alone in the woods was terrifying all by itself. The day turned into a night and Malachi was still lost. A number of people gathered together to help authorities locate the boy, and some 30 hours later, he was spotted from a helicopter.
What surprised everyone was that besides a few scratches on his legs, the boy was completely uninjured. Asked how he managed to survive the cold and long night in the wilderness, Malachi said that he remembered all of the surviving tips his dad taught him.
He explained that he used his jacket to filter some fresh water and hid behind rocks in order to keep himself safe from the strong wind. “I had to keep switching positions because the wind kept switching,” the boy said.
His incredible story was shared online and has been seen by more than 13.8 million people so far.
Once his teachers and schoolmates heard Malachi’s story, they organized a welcome party at the school and chanted his name.
For more on the story and Malachi’s survival tips go to the video below.
Being forced into the foster system can be heartbreaking for many children. Getting used to the life with different families is tiring and not every child feels loved and accepted. The sad reality is that many of the foster children don’t get the chance to be adopted. As a result, a lot of them age out and end up without a roof over their head.
A girl named Akyra has spent a number of years moving from one family to another. As she reached 16 and changed 24 families, she feared that no one would be willing to adopt her and she would be forced into homelessness. But then, something truly serendipitous happened.
Katie Holstein, a woman who has fostered 16 kids since 2017, got a call about Akyra. Her “favorite social worker” had a special request. “I know you don’t do teens, but I have this girl. She’s great, her and her current foster family just need a break. What about just for the weekend?” the social worker told Katie.
As she felt sorry for the teen, Katie agreed to welcome Akyra into her home for a week. At the time, Katie was fostering five children all under the age of five and couldn’t possibly take Akyra in for long. However, knowing how important it was for the teen to have a place while at high-school, Katie allowed her to stay as many times as she needed it.
Around a year after they first met and 3,739 days in the foster system, Akyra gathered the courage to ask Katie a very important question. She asked if Katie was willing to adopt her. “I think that was an important moment for her, because that decision came completely from her. After so many years of having no control over where she lived, she got a say in what she wanted,” Katie told Love What Matters and added that her answer was a resounding ‘yes.’
A few days before turning 17, Akyra, or Okra as her new mom calls her, officially became part of Katie’s family.
On the same day when she adopted Akyra, the single mom also adopted 1-year-old Thomas, a sweet boy she looked after since he was under a week old.
“Even though she’s been in foster care for so long only to be disappointed, she took a chance on me and my family and let herself be loved again,” Katie said of her daughter.
“She’s got a lot of her own life experiences and opinions and I respect that, I’m not a domineering mom. It was a learning curve for us both, and we’re still learning now, but it’s worth it.”
Source: Love What Matters
This single mom who entered the world of fostering children by chance because she wanted to have children and was tired of waiting for Mr. Right now has a family to call her own.
This family is such an inspiration. We are so happy for them.
From the moment she first appeared on American Idol, Kelly Clarkson has stolen millions of hearts. Some 20 years later, she’s still considered an American sweetheart and one of the best female singers there are.
Kelly was born on April 24, 1982, in Fort Worth, Texas. She has always loved singing and performing, although she only did it at home until her music teacher, Cindy Glenn, heard her sing in the hallway of Pauline Hughes Middle School. Kelly was offered a place in the school choir and soon after everyone learned how talented she was.
What caught her teacher’s attention was the mesmerizing vocal range Kelly possesses. She showed she could move between low and high notes with ease and she enjoyed it.
Shutterstock/FeatureflashPhotoAgency
During a school show, Kelly performed Mariah Carey’s song “Vision of Love,” and received standing ovations. Among the crowd was an elderly man who Kelly believes was the grandfather of a student from the school. The man approached Kelly and told her: “That was so amazing, you’re gonna do this for the rest of your life.” At that point, these encouraging words meant the world to Kelly and had a huge impact on how her career unfolded over the years.
Becoming aware of her inner talent, Kelly starred in some musical productions while studying at Burleson High School, but that was it. She tried getting contracts and sent a number of demos to a number of people from the music industry but luck wasn’t on her side at that point of her life.
Some years later, Kelly, who tried pursuing a career in Los Angeles and worked as an extra for some TV shows, returned to Texas. Once home, her friend’s mother told her about this new show, American Idol. It turned out they were looking for talented singers and were having auditions all over US, including Texas.
Shutterstock/FeatureflashPhotoAgency
Well, as we all know, getting accepted into the show and winning it was the start of an incredibly successful career for Kelly Clarkson.
She received a million-dollar RCA record contract and became known worldwide almost overnight. Her first single reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts and new hits and albums followed.
Kelly has won numerous awards over the years, including two Grammy Awards in 2005 for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (“Since U Been Gone”) and Best Pop Vocal Album, and two Daytime Emmy Awards in 2021 for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show and Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host for The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Shutterstock/Debby Wong
One thing that makes Kelly a much-loved celebrity is her humble nature. She never let fame change her. Instead, she remained as grounded as always. Of course, staying true to herself wasn’t an easy thing to do because a number of people tried to change Kelly over the years. They wanted her to act differently and dress differently, but she always feels most comfortable wearing her natural look.
“Everybody would always micromanage everything and try to get you to be somebody that you’re not, and the hardest part has been being me,” the 39-year-old singer told Yahoo. “So, I think that’s been the hardest challenge; I guess I’d say, with mental health.”
Shutterstock/Leonard Zhukovsky
Speaking about her beginnings in the industry, she recalled: “I was sitting in a room full of – no offense, I love men, I love older men, they’re great – but I was sitting in a room full of men that were far older than me telling me what I should be like, what I should say in interviews, what I should sing, and I’m like, ‘Y’all don’t even listen to me. You’re not even my core audience. Like, how would you know?’”
She often appears without makeup in public and feels confident about the way she looks. And when she’s on TV and has to put all that makeup on, she says it makes her feel like “Harry freaking Potter just got ahold” after seeing herself in the mirror.
Not only that, but she has never had a surgical procedure to improve her looks either. She confesses she’s terrified of needles and would never go under the knife for beauty reasons.
Shutterstock/Tinseltown
In 2013, Kelly married Brandon Blackstock, the son of her manager Narvel Blackstock. They welcomed two children together and Brandon had two children of his own from a previous marriage. However, Kelly filed for divorce in 2020 and cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason. The divorce was finalized this year and Kelly was granted primary custody of her two children.
Youtube/thekellyclarksonshow
The entertainment industry is a tough place to be for many who are dreaming of reaching fame, but Kelly Clarkson is the perfect proof that you can still succeed while being yourself.
The abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman that took place back in 1996, made the U.S. Government think of ways of locating missing and kidnapped children with the help of the general public. That’s when the AMBER alert system was first introduced. The acronym also stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. Messages with information about the victim and the suspect are sent via e-mail, TV stations, radio stations, and on people’s phones.
Many of us opt to ignore these messages, but those who choose otherwise may play crucial role in helping solving the case.
When war veteran Steve Adams received an alert on his phone, he was certain he wouldn’t be of any help, as the abduction took place in Knoxville, TN, and he was in Ohio at the time. However, he never takes these messages for granted, and is extra cautious when driving or walking around.
The child that got kidnapped was 2-year-old Brooklynne Enix. Her dad, Tyler Enix took the child and flee the scene after killing the girl’s mother and his ex-wife Kimberly.
”Bring Brooklynne to someone safe. Take her to someone safe. Take her to a hospital, take her to a fire hall, drop her off with someone safe,” said Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch according to WMC5.
This got him concerned for the girl’s safety, but knowing he could do nothing, he drove his car and looked for an exit. But as he lifted his head, he could see a tiny hand waving at him from a car that passed by him.
Steven got his phone, read the message alert again, and realized the girl fit the description. The person driving the car looked exactly like Brooklyne’s father, and the licence plate was of Tennessee.
He was determined to follow the vehicle, even though he wasn’t 100% sure it was the AMBER Alert that he spotted. But he didn’t want to risk losing the girl from his sight.
That’s when he contacted the police. During the whole time, he was giving location updates to the 911 dispatcher, hoping the case would have a happy ending.
The cops were finally able to pull the murderer’s car and take the girl to a safe place. Thanks to the kind-hearted and courageous veteran, Brooklynne was unharmed.
The police were thankful for all the help Steven provided them with.
”He kept level headed, follow it, gave us everything we needed”, County Sheriff Steven R. Brenneman said.
Brooklynne’s family is also very grateful the girl is by their side again. They say how Steven is their hero.
We need more people like him, who care for the well-being of the others.
Some shows get so popular and last for so long that when they end, or a character leaves, we can’t help but feel as though we lost something or someone we love.
If you are a fan of NCIS, which you probably are because who isn’t, you probably felt devastated by the news that the lead star of the show, actor Mark Harmon, who played Leroy Jethro Gibbs, left the series after whooping 18 seasons.
Shutterstock/Kathy Hutchins
This is all you need to know about one of TV’s most famous investigators.
Growing up, Harmon didn’t know his parents were famous. In case you didn’t know, he’s the son of football player Tom Harmon and actress Elyse Knox. Speaking to TV Insider, Harmon recalled, “My parents kept things real. I had no idea they were famous.
“In fact, it didn’t hit me until one day when I was riding in the car with my father in Ann Arbor, Michigan – I was maybe 8 and could barely see above the dashboard – and we stopped at a crosswalk.
“Suddenly we were surrounded by people who recognized my dad and were really thrilled to see him. I remember looking at this man I thought I knew so well and thinking, ‘Who are you?’”
Shutterstock/Vicki L. Miller
Harmon was great at football, just like his dad, and he could easily choose a career as a football player, but instead, he started dreaming of a bigger stage after he was asked to fill in a role in the spin-off of Ozzie’s Girls his brother-in-law Ricky Nelson was working on at the time.
This experience was the turning point for Harmon. He realized acting was his calling and started taking acting lessons. Luckily for him, he made friends with Michael Caine and Jaso Robards, who became his mentors and helped shaped his skills. “They were all humble; they all gave me valuable time and camaraderie and advice,” he recalled.
What followed were roles in movies such as 240 Robert, Flamingo Road, several appearances in The Love Boat, and St. Elsewhere.
Youtube/SeriesTV
However, as he was working on his career, Harmon also started a family with actress Pam Dawber. The two got married in 1987 and welcomed two sons, Sean and Ty Christian.
Harmon had a hard time balancing between acting and his family life so he decided to take things easy with his career. But then, he received the script for NCIS and he could feel the role would be perfect for him.
“For a moment, when I started getting interested in doing it, the name changed to Bob Nelson or something, and I just said, ‘Eh…please, can you put the name back,’” he shared with Parade.
NCIS aired in September 2003 and became a huge hit eventually. Hollywood Reported reported that the show is licensed in over 200 countries, along with the spin-offs.
The show received and was nominated for a huge number of awards over the years, and Harmon himself won the People’s Choice Award in 2017 for Favorite TV Crime Drama Actor.
Shutterstock/Kathy Hutchins
Harmon has had a great relationship with everyone on set. Well, except for his co-star Pauley Perrette who played the role of Abby. She left the show back in 2018 because of an incident involving Harmon’s dog. Apparently, he brought his Pit Bull on the set and the dog attacked a member of the crew. She believed he wasn’t supposed to bring his dog there again, but he didn’t listen, which Perrette found inconsiderate behavior.
Shutterstock/Joe Seer
After 18 years and 418 episodes in which he appeared, Harmon announced on October 9 that he’s leaving the show. CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl confirmed the news in a statement to Deadline.
“Mark’s always been part of the show, Mark’s always going to be part of the show,” he said. “In terms of his on-air appearances, we’re just going to have to see how it plays out going forward.”
NCIS executive producer and showrunner Steven D. Binder said that the doors are always open if Harmon decides to return to the show.
“Our north star has always been staying true to our characters, and that truth has always guided the stories we tell and where those characters go,” he told Hollywood Reporter.
“So regarding the future of Gibbs, as long-time fans of the show may have noticed over the years … never count Leroy Jethro Gibbs out.”
Shutterstock/Joe Seer
Recently, it was revealed that Harmon asked from the producers his exit from the show not to be a dramatic one. Nothing could reveal that he was saying goodbye to the series, and as it turns out, it was all part of the plan.
According to Entertainment Tonight, he requested his exit not to be advertised, which caught fans of the series off guard. According to the source, it was “crucial — especially with social media — that any hint of a twist be omitted.”
We believe Mark Harmon did an awesome job playing the legendary character of Leroy Jethro Gibbs and we hope we see him in other projects and films soon.
Shark Tank and its British counterpart Dragon’s Den are reality shows which attract a huge number of viewers. Why? Because the concept behind the shows is fun, sometimes intense, and we never know the outcome when an innovator or a business person stands in front of the Sharks or the Dragons.
The Sharks give budding entrepreneurs the chance to secure business deals that could make them millionaires. The aspiring entrepreneurs offer part of their business in return of an investment that would help their business expand. Sometimes, they ask investors to invest in a business concept or an idea.
Whether they get the money or not depends on many things. The most important of all is the amount of money the investors expect to get once the business grows.
Source: Facebook/ Virality
During an episode of Shark Tank, a humble farmer from Florida named Johnny Georges presented something unique and most likely life-changing for thousands of fellow farmers in America and all around the world.
Namely, Georges asked for a $150,000 investment in his company “Tree T-Pee.” He presented an invention that is a game-changer in plant irrigation and saves thousands of gallons of water for farmers every year. The only problem was that Georges spends $2.95 in order to produce a single item and then sells it for $4.50. This didn’t sound like a good investment for the Sharks who asked Georges to make the selling price $12.
Well, the issue with that number is that he didn’t want to overcharge for his product because he knows how hard farmers work in order to put food on everyone’s table.
Georges became nervous and tears started rolling down his face. He was convinced he would leave the show empty-handed, especially when one of the investors was out.
But then, another investor decided to give Georges the entire sum of money he requested. Not only because his invention was brilliant, but because they understood how much it meant to this humble and kind-hearted farmer.
George didn’t bend his morals for money, and he stood up for every farmer in the country. His act truly deserves all the praise.
A truly tragic incident during which an 11-year-old girl lost her life took place in the small town of Parachute, Colorado, on Thursday.
Annaliese Backner, a sixth grader at Grand Valley Middle school in Parachute, was running to catch the school bus when she tripped and fell under the moving vehicle. Unfortunately she died at the scene due to blunt force trauma.
As the community mourns her tragic passing, her family requested that her photo and identity be released to the public.
Parachute police said Annaliese Backner was running to her school bus when she fell underneath while the bus was moving. https://t.co/wfljCMbX6w
Brad Ray, superintendent for Garfield County School District 16, described the event as a “sad day for all.”
“Today is a sad day for all,” he said during a press conference.
“It’s a sad day for schools, it’s a sad day for our community, and it’s sad day tonight in households. Our primary responsibility moving forward is to honor the families privacy and care for our students during this tragic loss.”
Parachute Police and Grand Valley Fire came to Annaliese rescue but nothing could be done to save her life.
At the moment, the death of the girl has been investigated as an accident and a final autopsy report is expected to be revealed in the weeks that follow.
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.
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.
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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.”
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.
