【推荐2】I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous. I fumbled(摸索) in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches. They had taken those. I looked through the bars at the guard. He did not make eye contact with me. I called out to him, “Have you got a light?” He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette. As he came close and lit the match, his eyes unconsciously locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I don’t know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness. Perhaps it was because, when you get very close, it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled. At that moment, It was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn’t want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and caused a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.

I kept smiling at him, now thinking of him as a person and not just a guard. “Do you have kids?” he asked. “Yes, here, here.” I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his family and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them. My eyes were filled with tears. I said that I feared that I’d never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up. Tears came to his eyes, too. Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silently led me out. Out of the prison, quietly and by back routes, out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.

【推荐1】Christmas 2020 was shaping up to be a heartbreaker for Melanie Lee. A few weeks earlier, her 33-year-old son had lost his battle with a long illness. Then the transmission (变速器) on her 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe failed to work. She had no means of paying for it to be fixed.

“When it broke down, I broke down,” Lee told CNN. “Now I don’t have my baby, and I don’t have transportation. How am I supposed to stay active in my grandchildren’s lives?”

Eliot Middleton, 38, who is the owner of a barbecue restaurant and former auto mechanic, in his free time, repairs and gives away used cars. He’d heard about Lee’s difficult situation from her nephew Frank McClary, the mayor of Andrews, South Carolina. On Christmas morning, Middleton showed up unannounced at Lee’s home with a gift: a white 1993 Oldsmobile.

“I had no idea what was going on,” said Lee. “He handed me the keys and didn’t ask for anything.” Once again, she’s able to pick up her granddaughters from school and take them to dance class. “I got my freedom back.”

The idea for the used-car giveaway came to Middleton a year earlier during a food drive he’d organized. Many of those who’d lined up for a meal walked up to four miles to get there because they didn’t have cars. “Cars are a lifeline in this part of South Carolina,” Middleton told CBS. “There’s no public transportation, no Ubers, no taxis to take people to job interviews, doctor appointments, even food shopping.” So he posted on Facebook an offer to trade his restaurant’s specialty, barbecued ribs, for broken-down vehicles. Since then, friends and strangers have dropped off more than 100 cars in various states of disrepair. Many sit in Middleton’s yard waiting to be patched up and donated, usually to those he’s heard about through word of mouth. It’s a list of names that grows daily.

“People think Eliot is an angel,” Mayor McClary told the Washington Post. “And I do too.”

【推荐2】It was about 10:15 p.m. Janice Esposito got off the train at the Bellport, New York, got into her car and began driving home. She had traveled the route so many times that she almost drove automatically: a left onto Station Road, then a left on Montauk Highway, and then—bang! Out of nowhere a car crashed into Esposito’s car, pushing her backward some 100 feet onto the railroad tracks. Injured but mostly shocked by the crash and by the airbags that popped up, she got stuck in the vehicle.

As it happened, Pete DiPinto was getting ready for bed when he heard the crash coming from not far outside his bedroom window.

A volunteer firefighter and retired teacher, DiPinto, 64, never stopped to think. He grabbed a flashlight and rushed out. “Any firefighter would have done what I did,” he said. “We’re always on duty.”

The first car he came upon, 2,000 feet from his front yard, was the one that had hit Esposito. Once making sure the driver was OK, he looked around and spotted Esposito’s car straddling (骑跨) the railroad tracks. And then he heard a bell sound, which signaled a coming train.

DiPinto rushed to Esposito’s car and hit on the driver’s side window. She just looked at him, “I don’t know where I am,” she said.

“You’re on the railroad tracks,” DiPinto yelled. “We have to get you off right now!” The train was traveling at a speed of 65 miles per hour toward them. The driver’s door couldn’t be opened due to the crash, so DiPinto ran to the passenger side. He threw open the door, pushed aside the airbags, seized Esposito’s arms, and pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until he finally got her out and walked her to safety as quickly as he could.

Within seconds, the train crashed into the car. “It was like a Hollywood movie, ” DiPinto told reporters the next day.

“Last night,” said Greg Miglino Chief of the South Country Ambulance, “the hero arrived in pajamas, not in a fire truck.”

【推荐3】 “ELSA, IT’S YOU!” It was the four-year-old’s surprise birthday party, and her favorite Disney character, Elsa from Frozen, had arrived. The two merrily began to sing the movie’s big song, “Let It Go”. You would swear they were celebrating at the most magical place on earth, but this wasn’t Disney World. It was the pediatric（儿科）cancer ward at a hospital on Long Island in New York. And the princess was a college student volunteering for A Moment of Magic, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to lift the spirits of sick children, which has 400 volunteers from 11 colleges around the country.

It all began with a movie Frozen. Kylee McGrane, now 23, noticed that she and Elsa had matching blond hair and big blue eyes. At that time, she was searching for a new community project, ideally one with kids. That sparked an idea—dressing up as Disney princesses and visiting pediatric cancer patients.

“When kids are in a hospital for so long, they don’t get all the magic that most kids do,” says McGrane. “It’s nice to give them time to be themselves.” In 2015, after raising $2,000 on a Go Fund Me page to pay for costumes and travel expenses, McGrane and her friend landed their first gig, at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York. They dressed as Elsa and her sister, Anna, to the squealing delight of the girls and blushing smiles from the boys. “To see the kids believe in me, my character…It was life changing,” says McGrane.

They also have a growing kingdom of fans. Shara Moskowitz from New Jersey says that her seven-year-old daughter, Avery, still talks almost every day by phone or text to the princesses she met nearly two years ago at her birthday party. Avery was receiving treatment for a neuroblastoma（成神经细胞瘤）. “My daughter found something that she really needed to connect to,” says Moskowitz. “These girls gave her that moment of imagination, freedom, and happiness of dreaming”.

【推荐1】When I was a little girl, a couple in our community went through a tragedy. They lost a young child and were in deep despair. Shortly afterward, my mother ran into the father at the local supermarket. He turned to my mother and said, “Your husband saved our life. He was the one more than anyone else who helped us get through this incredible loss.”

My mother wanted to know what message of solace was given to lift them from the depths of despair. So back at home, she asked my father about their conversation many times, but my father insisted that he had said nothing.

A few weeks later the couple came over to our home. After sitting down for a few minutes, my mother gently said, “You told me that my husband helped you the most when you went through your awful sadness. What did he say?”

“Rebbetzin, you husband did not say one word. He just came over to our home and walked over to me without saying anything. And then he reached over to me, took my hands into his and hugged me. I looked up and saw tears falling from his eyes. You cannot imagine what that felt like. Your husband felt my pain. I was not sitting alone with my suffering.”

My mother was quiet, absorbing the message this man was giving.

“No, your husband did not speak. I didn’t need him to give me words. I needed his heart and soul.”

When I recall this story, I realize the truth. When having someone in our lives who is going through difficulty, we are often at a loss. What do we say? How do we make it all better? What is the greatest gift we can give to our loved ones?

We tend to think that we must fill space with words. But when you want to give of yourself, give a listening heart. Sometimes a person in pain needs you to stay silent. Just now that you are there for them. Perhaps you can’t fix anything or take away the pain, but you can feel it. With the silence comes sympathy and understanding. And you share the load.

【推荐2】One day, 12-year old Sean Redden logged on to the Internet and went to a popular chat room. Just as he was about to sign off, he saw the name of someone he’d never seen there before, Susan. Her brief message was “Would someone help me?”

Sean typed back, “What’s wrong?” A moment later he received this message, “I can’t breathe. Help me! I can’t feel my left side. I can’t get out of my chair.”

At first, Sean thought pretending to be paralyzed (瘫痪) was a bad joke. Then he wondered what if she really was sick. “Hey, Mom,” he called. “There’s a kid here who’s sick or something.” Sharon looked at the computer screen. “It’s not just some game, is it?” she asked.

The message was not a joke. “Susan” was actually a 20- year- old student, working late at night at a college library near Helsinki, Finland-almost 7, 000 miles away from Sean’s home in Texas. While searching the Internet, she began to feel terrible pain all through her body. The library was silent and empty. The nearest phone was outside in the hallway. She couldn’t move that far. Any movement caused the pain to get worse. Then she realized she might get help on the Internet.

“I don’t think it’s a joke, Mom,” Sean said. And he typed, “Where are you?” After a long pause (暂停), the letters appeared: “Finland.” Sean and Sharon couldn’t believe it. Not knowing what else to do, Sharon called the local police.

Sharon explained the situation to Officer Amy Schmidt. Schmidt told Sharon to try to get the sick girl’s phone number. Texas police called the international telephone operator and asked to be connected to the proper agency (机构) in Finland. The call was connected to a nearby rescue station. The Texas police gave Susan’s address to the Finnish operator. When Sean heard that, he typed, “Help is on the way.”

In a few minutes, Susan heard people running down the hallway outside the door. Suddenly, the door opened. Emergency workers and three policemen ran in. Susan turned once more to the computer, “They are here. Thanks. Bye-bye. ”

Four days later, the police in Texas received message from officers in Finland: “Thanks to her Internet friend, Susan had received medical treatment she badly needed and is doing well.”