Like every boy there ever was, what Kyle Hrenwood most wanted in this world was a dog. Unfortunately for Kyle, his mom didn’t think he was responsible enough.

The day before Kyle’s thirteenth birthday, he went to the park and found a woman sobbing. He was immediately worried. Was the woman hurt?

He bent over and said “Miss, Are you OK? Do you want me to call anyone?” The woman shook her head and said, “My husband died two weeks ago, and I feel alone. We’d been together for thirty years. I can’t stand the silence inside that house. I’m Deidre. What’s your name?”

Kyle introduced himself and they talked for a long time. Kyle’s encounter with Deidre left him very sad, and he decided to go home. “Mom,” he said. “I don’t want to get married.” “Why not?” asked Kyle’s mom. “What if you spend thirty or forty years with someone,” Kyle said. “And then he is dead, and you’re alone?” Mom said, “Then you’ll miss out on love. You see, if you protect yourself from feeling pain, you’re cutting yourself off from happiness. You may discover those thirty years alone are not worth living.”

The next day, he had one of the biggest surprises and greatest joys of his life—a puppy! That was when he remembered Deidre was alone in her huge house.

A few hours later, Kyle knocked on Deidre’s door holding the puppy. He said, “Today is my birthday, and my parents gave me this puppy. You need this puppy more than I do.” “Give my heart to an animal just so it can die in a few years’ time?” Deidre asked bitterly. “I don’t think so. I don’t need any more pain in my life!”

“My mom said that if you protect yourself from feeling pain, you’re cutting yourself off from happiness. too,” Kyle said.

“You’re right, Kyle!” Deidre said. “I do need this puppy. Maybe you can visit us both; I’ve never had a dog before and may need some advice!”

Over the next few years, Kyle and Deidre, and Max (that was the dog’s name) became great friends. Then Kyle’s dad was offered a job in another state, and the family moved away.

Kyle grew up and fell in love, and his wedding was drawing near.

“This is Gemma, Max’s daughter,” Deidre said.

Rivaldo was playing football from the age of 4. When he was 7, he joined a local football club. He attended the training regularly but never got a chance to play in matches. But the coach had faith in him. He told Rivaldo that he should focus on his training, and one day he would get the chance. Rivaldo had no other option but to continue training in the club. He was training very hard and focused on improving himself.

Even after two years in the club, he never played in a match. He was not even allowed to travel along with the team. One day their club had a charity match, where a famous footballer was a chief guest. While the team was planning to travel, one of the support staff who used to take care of kits got ill. So, they needed someone for this.

The coach thought this should be an opportunity for Rivaldo. So, he told him to travel with the team and take care of the kits. Other support staff objected to it, but he convinced them.

The team reached the stadium. There were a lot of crowds to witness the celebrity footballer. For Rivaldo, this is his first-time experience in the stadium. He was helping the other players with the kits for the pre-match training. The coach came for a chat with Rivaldo. He told Rivaldo, “You are playing today.”

Rivaldo, for a moment, got frozen and asked him why. He said, “One of the players from the team got injured while training. So, we are short of players. We need someone to be in the field to make it 11. But I know you are more than that. So, go and prove yourself”. There was resistance from the support staff. Luckily for Rivaldo, the coach, through the organizing committee, convinced Rivaldo’s team management to allow him to play.

When the match started, Rivaldo was running like a deer.

After the match, the celebrity footballer walked to Rivaldo.

Larry had butterflies in his stomach. Today was the day for him to meet his girlfriend Kate’s parents. He was planning to leave them a good impression, so he was in his finest suit. On the way, he secretly recited a few jokes he picked up online the previous night. His weird behavior caught Kate’s attention.

“What are you doing, honey?” she asked. Blushing, Larry told her what he was doing. She, on the other hand, actually found his eagerness to please her family quite cute. “Well, let’s hear your jokes.” she said teasingly.

They were so immersed in their chatter and laughter that before they knew it, they had arrived at the house of Kate’s parents, who gave them a warm welcome. As an orphan, that night, Larry felt the love and warmth he had always longed for since childhood.

The next day, they drove downtown to pick their engagement ring. Everything was working out just perfectly. However, on their way home, a truck driven by a drunk driver smashed into their car, sending it flying off the roadside down a steep hill before it got stuck between several trees.

Larry struggled out of his seat to save the then unconscious Kate. As he made every effort to wake her up, the car began to slip down again. With only seconds to act, he hastily removed her seat belt and pushed her out of the car before it fell downhill again with him trapped inside.

A rescue team finally arrived and drove them to a nearby hospital. Under the doctors’ treatment, Kate woke up the next day. She was only slightly injured, but Larry remained unconscious due to severe damage done to his brain caused by the heavy impact.

What They Found Inside an Old Sofa Bought for $20 Was Life-Changing

In 2021, SUNY students Reese Werkhoven, Lara Russ, and Cally Guasti were living together in a small apartment. They decided to furnish their apartment.

The three had gone to a Salvation Army store to buy a sofa, and were forced to settle for an old, rather smelly specimen that none of them really liked, but was the only one that was affordable and would fit in their living room. That day, as they were testing out their new purchase, they noticed that something was making a crinkling noise inside the cushions (垫子). Upon further investigation, they discovered a few bubble-wrapped envelopes inside the sofa.

When they opened the envelopes, they were in shock. A large amount of cash was inside. As they continued to pick apart the piece of furniture, they discovered more and more money. Guasti said, “Just when we thought we pulled out the last envelope, we’d find another $1,000 a few minutes later.”

After some time, the three roommates had unearthed a good $40,000 in cash. The fantasies of what they could do with all this money started flowing immediately.

However, they were quickly brought back to reality when they saw that there was a woman’s name on one of the envelopes. That was when the moral dilemma started — what to do? Keep the money for themselves, or try to find the owner?

The three consulted their parents for advice, and the next day, Werkhoven got a call from his mom. She had tracked down the mystery woman and found a phone number.

Werkhoven called the number his mom had given him, and an elderly woman picked up.

For 30 years, the money had remained safe inside the sofa.

On a Saturday night, I was just back from rock climbing. That was a very cold night, the moon was high and I was looking forward to getting into my warm bed. My coach, Diana, came up to me as I went through the arches to my dorm. She took me to her home and told me that my mother had been hurt badly in a terrible car crash and taken to the ICU of a nearby hospital.

When I reached the hospital, my grandmother pulled me aside and said whatever I did, I mustn’t cry in front of my mother.

A nurse opened the door that led to a wide hallway with machines all around. My mother’s room was right next to the nurse’s station. As I entered the room, I saw her lying on her side, with her tiny back to me and a pillow between her bandaged legs. She struggled to turn around but couldn’t. I slowly moved to the other side of the bed and said “ hi ” in a calm voice, holding back my urge to cry out.

Her faces were swollen like a soccer ball, her eyes had huge dark bruised rings, and she had tubes down her throat and in her arms.

Gently holding my mother’s cold swollen hands, I tried to keep my calmness. She kept looking at me as she hit the bed with her hand. She was trying to tell me how much pain she was suffering from. I turned my face away from her, trying to hide the tears that were rolling down my face. Eventually I had to leave her for a moment because I couldn’t hold in my sorrow any longer. That was when it struck me that I really might lose my mother.

I accompanied my mother all day long. She was able to whisper a few words, but I didn’t know what to say. I felt like screaming but I knew I mustn’t. I went home and cried myself to sleep.

From that night on, my life changed a lot.

My mother’s reliance on me changed our relationship.

Don Montero was the owner of one of the grandest hotels in Spain. He was a workaholic and ignored everything else in the pursuit of earning more money. He did not have any family or children. He even failed his health for his business. With the passage of time, he got old, and his health worsened. He started to become very ill. At a visit to the doctor, he came to know that he had cancer and that it was also in its last stage. His doctor told him that his disease was incurable, and he didn’t have much time left. He became very disappointed and anxious.

One day he thought, “I am a rich person, and still, I feel so helpless. How could those poor people survive in this harsh world?” He thought of checking how his staff treated the poor in his hotels as he always told his staff members to treat rich and poor equally. He dressed up as a beggar and went to his most expensive central hotel. When he reached the door, the security did not even let him in and insulted (辱骂) him badly. Seeing the attitude of his staff with the poor, he was left heartbroken.

Then he went to his other hotels and was left surprised by seeing the ill attitude of his staff with him. All of them insulted him and treated him without any sympathy. Finally, he decided to visit his hotel that was in a town out of the city. This hotel was surrounded by greenery and remained packed (挤满人的) almost all the time. He approached this hotel, and for the first time, the security guard did not wave him away with disrespect. Instead, he called the manager, and the manager told Don to wait for a little as the hotel was currently packed.

That night, after a couple of restless hours, Dora woke up suddenly at midnight. She went to her bathroom. Stepping on the carpet she noticed it was damp. Looking out, she found that muddy water was inching up the wood-paneled walls! She ran to her father’s bedside. “Daddy, Daddy,” she cried, shaking him violently. “Wake up. There’s water in the house!”

Barefoot and wearing only shorts, Dykstra walked to the entrance and opened the door. What he saw shook him wide-awake. Duchess, their dog, was standing just outside the door, her feet in six inches of water. That meant the roadway, their only means of escape, was flooded. He hid his anxiety. They climbed up the ladder-like stairs to a loft (阁楼) above the living room. From there they could hear the water filling the room below, creeping (缓慢地行进) toward them. Suddenly the whole house trembled as if struck by an earthquake. The next instant they found themselves floating, and the wooden house being swept along the river! Terrified that the cabin would sink and take them down with it, Dykstra decided that they would have to get out. Wrapping his arms tightly round his daughter, he plunged (猛冲) into the icy water.

The house was behind them now, chasing them through the darkness. Before he could get out of its path, the house – pushed by the tremendous (巨大的) power of the water – pinned him at the trunk. His ribs (肋骨) were crushed. His left leg was broken. He lost consciousness. Then the house shifted, releasing him. Dora found herself drifting downstream, her unconscious father beside her. “Don’t die, Daddy!” she cried. “Please!”

Perhaps it was the cry of the little girl that stirred Dykstra to consciousness. In the pale moonlight, Dykstra spotted an island formed by some rubbish that had got caught in some treetops. Fighting against the current and his pain, he swam toward it. Dora climbed onto the small pile of timbers (木材) and pulled her father, who was fighting for breath, from the rushing water onto the timbers. Now, Dora realized, it was up to her to help him.

Just then she was astonished to see a figure appear out of nowhere.

Suddenly a voice from somewhere on the distant hillside broke the darkness.

I opened the package containing individually wrapped Lego sets for my two boys from Lisa, who was a nurse in New Hampshire. We used to be total strangers, but an incident made us less strange.

Last August, we drove from our home in Washington, DC, to New Hampshire. It was just me, my husband, and our two kids out for a nice, safe, socially distanced week away.

We had hiked about half a mile to a popular spot called Diana’s Baths, where the water falls off a series of flat huge rocks like an M. C. Escher drawing. The baths were full of families, so we made our way to one of the upper levels of rock to keep our distance.

Both where we sat and down below, the water fell into small pools, where kids in swimsuits were splashing around. I watched as some younger parents nervously protected their toddlers away from the rocks edges, feeling grateful that I was out of that stage, for our kids, at six and eight, could navigate their physical space with more confidence. Don’t get me wrong: I was still terrified as I saw my two boys jump between the slippery rocks. But soon I relaxed and we were all having fun, splashing in the pools, my kids laughing as my husband swam under the cold running water. Then, seconds later, every fear I’d ever had rose to the surface.

I turned and saw my son Wyatt sitting down between two rocks in a fast-moving stream. I yelled at him to get out and he yelled back something that I couldn’t hear, and then he disappeared over the edge!

All I remember from the moments after is screaming, over and over! “Somebody help my son! ” I didn’t even know what help he needed, because I couldn’t force myself to look.

My husband was already sprinting down the rocks. I continued to scream for help. However, it did not work. Everyone else looked on from a distance, too afraid or unbothered to help.

A brown-haired women with a mask was the only exception.

The rescue team finally came and took Wyatt out of the park on a stretcher (担架).