Little Lola-Rose Raine had dreamed about being a flower girl for her older sister for months. But just two months before their big day, Lola had only hours to live. She suffered from acute liver failure (急性肝衰竭).

Full-time mum Jane recalled how Lola came down with the disease in March. Jane said, “One day, she came in to wake me up and said she didn’t feel well. I looked at her and was shocked to see that her eyes had turned slightly yellow.” She rang 111 straight away and was told to take Lola to hospital.

There, doctors found that the tests showed her liver function was not going well. Lola was kept in hospital for five days, but her condition started to worsen.

Doctors told her worried parents she had adenovirus (腺病毒) — which has symptoms (症状) similar to the common cold — but in Lola, it had led to the serious liver failure.

“The situation was worse than we could ever have imagined,” Jane said. “The doctors told us that her liver was no longer working to clear the toxins (毒素) in her body and the virus was causing her head to swell up. They told us that she didn’t have much time left. We were in complete shock. It didn’t seem real.”

Lola was put into the ICU and added to the urgent transplant (移植) list for a new liver, but Alan, Lola’s father, feared a donor wouldn’t be found in time.

Desperate to help their daughter, the couple asked doctors if they could give part of their own liver, instead of waiting for a match — and tests soon found out that Alan was a match.

Normally, it takes around six weeks for all the necessary health checks to be carried out on living donors. But Alan’s checks were rushed through in just 21 hours.

Soon the transplant operation went ahead.

Six weeks later, Lola was back home and couldn’t stop talking about the upcoming wedding.

Sarah, a high school student, had a great passion for baking. With her parents’ support, Sarah dreamed of opening her own bakery, a place where she could turn her interest into a business. However, she knew the importance of improving her skills and gaining real-world experience.

Therefore, every Saturday, without fail, she would set up a small but charming table at a local park. The park, filled with families and laughter, was the perfect place for Sarah to sell her creations. Her table, neatly laid out with colorful homemade cookies and cakes, attracted passers-by with the desserts’ smell.

On a particularly bright and sunny afternoon, as Sarah was carefully arranging her chocolate cookies and cakes, her attention was drawn to an elderly woman sitting alone on a bench. The woman, with her silver hair and sad eyes, seemed lost in thought. As the hours went by, Sarah noticed that the woman remained where she was, seemingly forgotten by the world. A sense of concern washed over Sarah. So she decided to act. She poured a cup of warm tea carefully and cut a generous slice of her rich chocolate cake, a crowd favorite, and approached the woman.

“I thought you might like some snacks,” Sarah said with a warm, inviting smile. The woman’s face lit up as she accepted the treat. “Thank you, dear. I haven’t had such a delicious treat since my retirement,” she responded, her voice soft yet filled with gratitude. As she enjoyed the cake, tears rolled down her face.

A little shocked, Sarah asked what had happened. The woman introduced herself as Mrs. Wilson, who had been a baker before she retired. Since losing her husband to cancer a week ago, she had been living alone. Her visits to the park were her escape from the loneliness that filled her quiet home. Sarah listened attentively, her heart touched by the woman’s story.

Sarah decided to help Mrs. Wilson out.

Over time, their unlikely friendship became noticed in the park.

It was the Easter holidays, and school was closed for two weeks. For me, the Easter holidays were so boring that it was impossible to find something fun to do. My mom had suggested that I do some studies since the promotion test was coming up. However, I didn’t follow my mother’s suggestion. Instead, I went outside to seek out my friends to play with. When I had successfully contacted some of my friends, none of them seemed to be much in a playful mood, but one friend Jimmy agreed to play with me. He suggested we go down to the river and just relax there. The river was not far from my home, and we arrived there quickly.

Just relaxing on the river bank with nothing but some waste logs, it wasn’t fun for us at first. Clearly what was on our minds was to jump into the river and just take a swim in the clear cool water. So we took off our clothes down to our underwear and walked into the shallow part of the water. The water was truly cool and refreshing and we were starting to have fun then, playing and laughing, as we splashed the cool water onto each other’s faces.

Then we started to chase each other around on the river bank and then we ran straight into the river. We were having so much fun that we didn’t notice danger was around the corner. Before Jimmy could know it, and before he could do anything to keep his balance, he lost his footing on a tree branch, which was in the shallow part of the water, and slipped, bringing his whole entire body into the deep water. He tried to resurface from the water but found it extremely hard to keep his head above the water.

I was scared to see him struggling in the water but I knew I must rescue him.

After a while, Jimmy recovered from panic and thanked my mom and the neighbors.