14 Heartwarming Stories That Prove There’s Nothing in the World Like the Mother-Daughter Bond

A new chapter

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“Goodbye,” she sang cheerily, skipping off to her new dorm after giving me a light peck on the cheek as though we were no more than acquaintances. A young woman. A college freshman. No longer my baby. Her casual parting stung me. Had she outgrown me? As I walked away I was arrested by a child’s voice shouting “Mommy!” (A word I hadn’t heard in years.) Before I could turn around she was in my arms, her face buried in my neck. She didn’t need to say anything in that moment. I knew then that she’d always my little girl. --Jamie Larson, Atlanta, Georgia

The scent of love
In the recesses of my closet, there is a bin filled with clothes. For years, I’ve been haunted by it, using that size as a weight-loss goal. One day, my 13-year-old daughter begged to raid it. Excited to save money on back-to-school outfits, I told her to pick a few pieces. She pulled out an old jacket and put it on. It was too big. I was just about to comment when she buried her face in the fabric and inhaled deeply. “It smells like you," she said. I no longer care if I ever fit into those clothes again. --Alyssa Mayley, Dover, Ohio

Emergency!

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After moving to the country, my three-year-old daughter and I were often alone in our house. Because we lived in a rural area with no close neighbors, I wanted to make sure my daughter would be able to call 911 in the event that something happened to me. After instructing her, I decided to test her: "Okay, what would you do if you found me on the floor and you couldn't wake me up?" I could see her little brain working and to my surprise she said, "I would go into the kitchen and eat anything I want." --Laura Albrecht, California, Kentucky

The power of perfume

My daughter Anne’s September departure involved a flurry of all things new and two cars full of her anticipation of college life two hundred miles away. Our house became strangely quiet, but phone calls but email kept her close. However, in late October a student wearing Anne’s favorite perfume came into my office at the college where I work. When she left, I had tears in my eyes. Until that moment I hadn’t realized just how much I missed my daughter. Twenty years later, a whiff of that special scent brings back that special autumn and Anne. --Kay Mills, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania

Reunited by Mom

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While shopping, I noticed a credit card on the floor. I picked it up, went to the courtesy desk and asked them to page the owner. I waited. No one came. They said that her cart was still there and she had gone to her car to look for her card. When she came back, I asked if she had lost something. I asked her name and established that it matched the card, which I then gave her. She said she had prayed to her mother, who had passed away recently, to help her find the card. We talked and I introduced myself. "My name is Claire," I said. She responded, "My mother's name was Claire." --Claire Salem, New City, New York

Who’s the tooth fairy?

My favorite moment raising my children happened while tucking my daughter into bed. Jeanne told me she went to the nurse's office that day with a classmate who had just lost a tooth. Unfortunately, the nurse said, "You know, your mother is really the tooth fairy." My daughter looked up at me and asked if that was true. I said, "Yes." Then, ever so innocently, she asked, "How do you fly around to all the houses?" --Maryann Zacchea, Sandy Hook, Connecticut

The rhythm of life

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It was the first anniversary of our only daughter's death. Jillian had died of cancer at three-years-old after a grueling series of treatments. My husband and I had decided to spend the weekend at a bed and breakfast because it was too painful to stay at home. I awoke to the sensation of being shoved out of bed. The message in my head, “Take a pregnancy test. You’re pregnant with my sister.” I did. I was. We named her Cadence to remind us to return to the rhythm of life. Name --Sylvia Johnson, Tampa, Florida

A trip from Mom

We were feeling gloomy a week after my mom’s funeral. She’d passed away from Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Suddenly, the phone rang; it was our priest. “You’ve won our raffle - a vacation to St. Maarten!” Suddenly, I remembered that a few days after Mom’s passing, I found an envelope on her desk. In her beautiful handwriting, it said, “Return to church by November 17th.” Inside were tickets for the church raffle. Honoring Mom’s wish, my father and I dropped them off at church the next day. I told Father this. He hesitated and said, “It’s a gift from your mom.” --Sharon Bette, Southbury, Connecticut

Dress shopping

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We went looking for a wedding dress on Sunday. Laughing, we made for the door of a bridal shop. This would surely be the first of many stores before we found the perfect gown. Having witnessed other brides and their mothers, we vowed to be happy in these moments. Unexpectedly, my mind went back to the day we brought her home some 27 years ago. I said a silent thank-you to the young mother who, by letting her go, allowed her to be mine at this precious time. Two hours later, there she stood, in the dress of her dreams. My beautiful girl. --Marybob Straub, Smyrna, Georgia

Lessons in motherhood

Don’t let her sleep in your bed.” That’s what I heard over and over after my daughter was born. So I didn’t, unless she was sick. Now my baby is almost six, and every night, after we read and sing songs and turn off the light, I lie down with her before she falls asleep. We whisper to each other, and I watch her eyelids start to flutter. I smell her hair and kiss her forehead. And I wish I had done this every night. --Suzanne Cifarelli, Albany, New York

Pennies for candles

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When I was a child, during the Great Depression, my mother sent me to the store to buy candles because our electricity had been turned off. I gave the clerk in the store my pennies for the candles, and he sarcastically said, “Didn’t pay the electric bill?” I held my head up high and replied, “Of course we did, but we want to have dinner by candlelight tonight.” I still laugh when I recall our “candlelight” dinner and the look on the clerk’s face after my retort. We didn’t have much money, but we had pride. --Jean Smidt, West Milford, New Jersey

A stand up woman

My mom had a great sense of humor and a knack for making everything fun. One thing that resonated with me, even as a small child, was how much she seemed to enjoy her own company and found ways to entertain herself. As a kid, I remember her giggling while paying bills. What was so funny about bill paying? She would put humorous notes in the reference section of the check: For the electric bill, she might put “You light up my life,” and for the mortgage she’d write “Four shingles closer to owning it all.” --Robin Hynes, Slingerland, New York

Memories in verse

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The day I was dreading had arrived—it was inevitable. I had seen it coming but had chosen to ignore it for as long as possible. My very capable, intelligent mom had started forgetting to pay her bills, and it was time to take over her finances. As I looked through her wallet, I made a remarkable discovery. Tucked away in a tiny compartment were four Mother’s Day poems I’d written for her in the 1960s. She had saved and cherished those simple gifts for 50 years. What a happy surprise! --Pat Witty, Fairmont, Minnesota

Just one question
“I was chosen to be your mama,” I tell my four-year-old daughter as my younger boys pull at my clothes. She looks at me tearfully and asks, “Why couldn’t I grow in your tummy like my brothers?” “Well,” I tell her, choking back my own tears, “The doctor said I couldn’t grow a baby in my tummy, so your daddy and I decided to adopt a baby. That baby was you.” I hold my breath and wait for a more difficult question. “Can I have some ice cream?” she asks. “Yes!” I say, thankful for her innocence. --Katina Brown, West Monroe, Louisiana

SOURCE: RD

9 Heartwarming Stories of Nurses Who Went Above and Beyond Their Call of Duty

Motherly love

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As a nurse at MetroWest Cancer Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, Karen Mott tried hard to get one patient to open up. But Patrician McNulty usually tried to avoid conversation—unless it was about her nine-year-old son, Stephen. After McNulty went to hospice when her cancer took a bad turn, Mott wondered what would happen to Stephen. He couldn’t live with his father, who had permanent brain damage from a car accident, or any of his mother’s five siblings. McNulty didn’t want him in foster care. So after Stephen’s mother passed away, Mott and her husband, who have three other older children, brought him into their own family and adopted him.

Night of their lives

Sixteen-year-old Madison Hurd had spent the year prepping for prom. She took a part-time job to afford her dress, and helped the student council plan and decorate the big night. But the week of the dance, she ended up in the hospital. Complications to an infection revealed she was having heart problems, and she knew there was no way she’d make it to prom—so nurses brought prom to her. They spent their day off doing Madison’s hair, makeup, and nails, and decorating the room to match the Great Gatsby theme she’d planned for the dance she was missing. They draped her dress over her hospital gown, and her boyfriend flew in from Alabama to Omaha, Nebraska, wearing a tux when he arrived, according to Live Well Nebraska.

Two new beginnings

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Julie Stroyne Nixon and her new husband, Andrew Nixon, were glowing after their wedding. The two were heading to their hotel from the reception when they heard yelling. People were calling for a doctor, so Julie rushed over. A woman on the bench was barely breathing and didn’t have a pulse. Luckily, Julie was a nurse at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. She performed CPR—still in her wedding gown—until the woman came to, according to CBS Pittsburgh.

Bringing back romance

Visiting a patient at Stony Brook University Hospital, oncology nurse Maggie Knight noticed the man seemed down. She figured a date night would make him feel more at home, and from there an idea was born. She and other nurses and staff surprise cancer patients with romantic dinners with their significant others. They set up music, decorations, and order food from the couple's favorite restaurant. A "do not disturb" sign on the door ensures they get some privacy for an hour or two while they enjoy the alone time, according to ABC 7.

Weathering the storm

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A major blizzard in January 2016 kept most New Yorkers safely in their homes, but one woman braved the elements. Knowing her Hebrew Home patients might need her, nurse Chantelle Diabate walked about two miles in the snow to get to the Bronx nursing home. She was the only nurse to report there that day, so she and other staff members worked double shifts to cover. “My job is really humbling because you realize you could be a patient…at some point you’re going to have to depend on somebody,” she told ABC News. “We all need each other. I treat my patients well because I treat them like family.”

Doubly happy day

A Fort Worth couple rushed to North Hills Hospital when the soon-to-be mother started having contractions. While his girlfriend, Brandi, was waiting for an epidural, James Anderson vaguely told her he needed to go to the store. Little did she know he was asking the nurses to help him spontaneously marry Brandi before the baby was born. One nurse called her dad, who was a preacher, while the dad-to-be ran out to buy a ring. (Learn the not-so-romantic history of engagement rings.) At the surprise wedding ceremony, with their six-year-old son as a ring bearer. About half an hour after tying the knot, baby Janelle was born, according to CBS DFW.

Making memories

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Spending months waiting for a heart transplant in a Rochester, New York, hospital, Rich Danieu wasn’t able to make the father-daughter dance at his five-year-old, Mara’s, school, according to KOMO News. Mara’s grandpa took her to the dance, but she got upset when she started missing her dad. Danieu was sad he couldn't be there either. When nurses at Strong Hospital heard what happened, they planned a daddy-daughter dance just for him. Without letting Danieu in on the secret, they set up a dance, complete with music, balloons, and his two giggling daughters dressed to the nines.

In sickness and health

A bad fall that broke several bones left Betty Hughes, who had Alzheimer’s, in Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, barely hanging on. Later that month, her husband of 68 years, Arthur, had a heart attack. The couple was originally in different units in the hospital, but nurses found a hospice room where they could both stay, according to WSBTV. Betty passed away just one day before Arthur, but the couple stayed side-by-side in their final days, thanks to the hospital staff.

Feeling the love

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Four-year-old Abby was in the hospital with Pre-B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, but all she couldn't stop talking about wanting to marry her favorite nurse, Matt Hickling. When Abby's mom told the nurse, he planned a special ceremony. With Abby, wearing a white dress and veil, walked over roe petals to Hickling, who was wearing a tuxedo T-shirt. The two sealed the deal with a big hug and Ring Pops, according to CBS News.

Spinning a yarn

As a former oncology nurse, Holly Christensen knew that the scalps of children who lost their hair after chemotherapy were usually too sensitive for traditional wigs. So when her friend’s three-year-old daughter got a cancer diagnosis, Christensen made her feel like a princess. The former nurse made her a Rapunzel-like wig from soft yarn, decked out with faux flowers. Seeing the girl’s glee inspired Christensen to make more, according to ABC News. Launching The Magic Yarn Project, she and other volunteers create princess wigs from The Little Mermaid, Frozen, and more, plus ones based on Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. The organization has sent more than 1,900 wigs to kids, at no cost to the parents.  
SOURCE: RD

Homeless Man Returned $676 Money Order That Stranger Lost

One California mom assumed someone would jump at the chance to cash in a money order for hundreds of dollars that she lost.

Photo by Yesenia Del Valle

That’s exactly why she was stunned when a total stranger went out of his way to return it to her. “It flew away somehow,” said Yesenia Del Valle, who had taken out a $676 money order to make her tax payment. “I tore my car apart looking everywhere. I thought maybe I left it in the tax office, checking for it there. I was frantic.”

Photo by Yesenia Del Valle

Del Valle never thought she’d see the money order again, but later that night a complete stranger knocked on her door with the piece of paper in his hands.

“When he knocked on my door, I never would have imagined it was about the check. I was shocked and wanted to know where he found it,” Del Valle said. Sergio Juarez had found it underneath his tire earlier that day and was able to track her down based on the address she had written on the back.

“I got him $40 and I said, ‘Here take your wife to Denny’s,'” Del Valle said. However, Juarez mentioned he’d be using the money for gas. “When he said that to me, I realized he must be struggling and I asked him and he said he lives in the Motel 6.”

“I couldn’t sleep all night thinking about what to do,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that a person in that situation would care to do something so nice when he doesn’t even have money for gas.” Juarez lost his job and was living in a motel with his wife, their three children, and another child they took in, so Del Valle started a GoFundMe to thank him for his good deed.

Photo by Yesenia Del Valle

So far, the campaign has raised almost $18,000 and Juarez has received multiple job offers from people who were so impressed by his honesty and morals. “I reached out and told him what I had done,” Del Valle said. “His wife was in tears. Their kids are smiling for the first time in months. I told him you don’t need to thank me. I said this is my thank you for you doing the right thing.”

Watch the entire video below to see how much everyone’s generosity mean to Jaurez and his family.

SOURCE: Lifedaily

New York Launches Its First Girl Scout Troop for Homeless Girls

Giselle Burgess knew moving into a homeless shelter with her five kids would be tough for her family. For security reasons, kids can’t hang out in each other’s rooms or in the hallway, so Burgess wanted more of a community feel.

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As Queens community development specialist for the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, Burgess already knew the benefits of joining a troop. She figured starting a Girl Scout troop in the 100-family Queens homeless shelter was the perfect solution. (Meet the woman who plans birthday parties for the homeless.)

Burgess called up Heidi Schmidt, director of government relations for the New York City Department of Homeless Services. Together, they formed a troop for the homeless shelter. The Girl Scouts of Greater New York covered the costs to make it affordable for the homeless girls. (Visit their page if you’d like to donate.)

Girl Scout troops from the other five New York boroughs are numbered in the 1000s, 2000s, 3000s, 4000s, and 5000s. The new troop picked 6,000 to represent the homeless girls. Other Girl Scout troops have formed in other states before, but this was the first one in New York. More than 62,000 people in the city are homeless, and about 40 percent of those are children.

Just eight girls, including Burgess’ three daughters, attended the first meeting, but they quickly spread the word. Now, Troop 6000 has 25 consistent members. The girls had seen each other around in the building before, but the meetings turned them into friends. “They are there to support each other and spread positivity,” says Burgess. “They see each other in the hallway and there’s just hugs.”

Troop members range from five years old to early teens, but the age gap doesn’t get in the way of their sisterly bond. The older members are protective of the younger scouts, helping them with activities. Not only are they spreading love, but they’re learning responsibility. “These girls are taking that leadership and owning it,” says Burgess.

The troop is already inspiring feminist leadership for the girls. Leaders from around the community, including the chief operating officer of Girl Scouts of Greater New York, district manager of a community board, Queens Borough representative, and a local councilmember attended the first meeting. “All the adults in the room were women except the councilmember,” says Schmidt. “Three girls asked separately, ‘Are you the boss of the Girl Scouts?’ to the man in the room.”

Since then, meetings with Troop 6000 have shown them women can be leaders, too. For instance, a visit the New York City Council showed Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito as a woman in power.

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Even beyond their weekly activities learning about a theme like women’s suffrage, financial literacy, or first aid, the girls are stepping up as leaders. Every meeting, they rotate responsibilities such as handing out snacks, taking attendance, and cleaning up. “It builds in this level of respect because they all know they have to come around and take the role on,” says Schmidt.

And that responsibility lasts beyond the Girl Scout meetings. Burgess says she’s proud every time a girl talks about sticking up for a classmate, or when a mom says her daughter is suddenly stepping up more to help the family.

Plus, the troop is trying to get the rest of the community involved. Burgess and Schmidt hope to encourage women to take on leadership roles with the troop and to bridge the gap between the shelter and the rest of the neighborhood. “It would be so much easier for families living in the shelter and for the community to understand and not feel like it’s a burden upon them or be afraid of who’s in the shelter,” says Schmidt. “It’s good for families to know they’re embraced and welcomed by the community. The girls can go on to do great things and not be bound by their current situation.”

In fact, one woman has already volunteered to become the first leader for Troop 6000—and she doesn’t even have a daughter, says Burgess.

Troop 6000 hopes to inspire Girl Scout troops to pop up in more shelters around the city. The girls might be enjoying some press right now, but Burgess says they won’t be sad when coverage dies down. “They say, ‘That means our job is done and we passed it on,’” says Burgess.

SOURCE: RD

The Local Gravedigger Who Saves Lives on His Days Off

Johnny “Digger” Tucker has dug the graves of over 20,000 people.

Saturday night had just turned into Sunday morning, and Tim Abernathy, 47, walked off the dance floor at the Menlo Barn Dance near Summerville, Georgia. He sat down in a folding chair to rest with his wife, Tina Abernathy, next to him. Then something felt wrong. His throat got tight, then tighter. He grabbed Tina’s hand, then crashed to the floor.

“His eyes had rolled back,” said Tina. “His lips had turned blue and were getting darker.”

The band stopped playing. People started yelling, but nobody stepped forward to act. Someone finally did.

It was Johnny “Digger” Tucker. He swiped his fingers through Tim’s mouth, thinking he could be choking. He started beating on Tim’s chest. Then he began mouth-to-mouth. More pounding. More mouth-to-mouth. Then, finally, Tim drew a breath. The paramedics came, and Johnny quietly left.

“If Johnny hadn’t been there, I would be burying my husband,” said Tina.
Folks say Johnny Tucker is the type of man you’d call at 2 a.m. The type whose handshake is his word. Maybe it’s because he knows more than most how precious life is. Every day, he faces death.

Johnny is a gravedigger. Ever since he was a boy, he has been digging, just as his father did—not with a backhoe but by hand, with a shovel and a pick. He has dug the final resting places for about 20,000 people, each grave measuring three feet wide, eight feet long, four and a half feet deep, in hard, frozen ground or wet Georgia clay. He has his rules: no cussing, smoking, or radio playing during the grave­ digging. “I treat every­body as if it’s my family I’m burying,” he said. He is so respected around Chattanooga that funeral directors arrange their schedules around his availability.

So maybe it’s not surprising that Johnny often finds himself in a position to lend a hand. That night at the barn dance was actually his second death-defying feat. In the ’90s, a car driving in front of him veered off the highway, crashing into a flooded, freezing creek. Johnny jumped out and pulled the driver to safety. “I don’t want to see somebody leave this world,” Johnny says, “if I know I could have saved them.”

On top of that, Johnny has been fighting his own health battles for the past four years. “Non-small cell carcinoma,” Johnny says. Cancer. He has weathered two years of chemo­therapy. “He’s as tough as they come,” says his wife, Mary Tucker.

That’s why the couple spends Saturday nights at the barn dance, living it up and, frequently, closing the place down. Johnny and Mary were actually on their way out the door that night when Tim Abernathy collapsed. But then the band started playing that old Vern Gosdin song “Chiseled in Stone,” the one that goes, “You don’t know about lonely ’til it’s chiseled in stone.”

“Our song,” said Johnny to Mary.

They turned around for one more slow dance. Minutes later, the gravedigger had saved another life.

SOURCE: RD

An Annual Ski Trip Turned Into a Quest for Survival

Liisa and Tuomo Peltola step from their bungalow in a forested suburb of Turku, a small city in southwest Finland. It is just before 8 a.m. on a sunny Saturday morning at the end of March in 2015, nippy but with the promise of warmer weather to come. They are about to embark on a 1,200-kilometer two-day car trip to the fells of Lapland above the Arctic Circle for their annual four-day ski trip.

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The couple check their backpacks: sleeping bags, instant coffee and two water-resistant covers they’ll use at night in the rustic wilderness huts they plan to shelter in. They’ll stop en route for a night and buy food. After attaching their backcountry skis atop their hatchback, they settle down for the two-day drive to just beyond Kilpisja¨rvi, a settlement of Sami, an indigenous people also known as Laplanders. There, they’ll begin their trek.

It’s easy driving, and on occasion, Liisa points out a bird that Tuomo must squint to see, for he has taught her to love birdwatching as much as he does.

“You can see so much farther than me,” he grumbles good-naturedly.

“Yes,” she says happily. “I can.”

There has always been a bit of competition between them, from birdwatching to running and skiing. Both are passionate about orienteering, a sport that requires them to find their way in unfamiliar terrain with a map and compass, and the wilderness is their playing field.

The ski trip in Lapland is one of their favorites, a straightforward trajectory they have done at least five times before: 30 kilometers due east across a fell, a high, mostly barren landscape, with rolling hills, some steep climbs and jagged boulders and rocks. Here, they can be alone in nature, with only the huts—a system of bare bone, sparsely spaced structures—their only contact with civilization.

Married for only four years, they met over half a century ago, when Liisa, now 65 was a shy, tall, talented teen with a thick blonde braid who a decade later would win the women’s world orienteering championship. Tuomo, nearly six years older, with craggy features and a dry sense of humor, was in the same orienteering club, already married, an engineer and maker of maps.

“Back then, I never imagined I would fall in love with you,” remarks Liisa. “I thought you were so technical and dull.”

“In some way, we stored our feelings,” he says.

There were other marriages along the way, and children to raise – Liisa’s three sons, and Tuomo’s son and daughter. On their first ‘date’ about 14 years ago, she thought it was just a walk in the forest. For Tuomo, it was more than that.

“I wanted to kiss you,” he says. And he did. Ten years later, they were married.

By Sunday morning, as they reach their starting point, the wind has picked up to a gale force 72 km an hour and is blowing snow that turns the world white with fat, black clouds overhead. But the weather doesn’t scare them. As orienteers, they’ve dealt with bad weather before.

SOURCE: RD

Pilot Turns Plane Around So Elderly Couple Can Say Goodbye to Their Dying Grandson

As an elderly couple was about to shut their phones off onboard a flight to Australia via Abu Dhabi, they noticed a missed call from their son-in-law. The plane was already starting to roll forward on the runway when they saw the text: Their grandson was in intensive care with a serious illness. If they didn’t get back soon, they might miss their chance to say goodbye.

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The couple got the attention of the Etihad Airways crew, who rushed to tell the pilot. Instead of shrugging off their pleas to stay on schedule, the kindhearted pilot turned the plane back around to the Manchester Airport gate.

From there, the rest of the staff jumped in to get them home as fast as possible. Some collected their bags and helped the couple through the airport, while others brought their car to arrivals so the grandparents could head straight home. The airline said they could use their tickets another time.

“I’ve been in the travel business for 25 years and never heard of this happening,” the couple’s travel agent, Becky Stephenson, told the BBC.

The boy passed away the next day, when his grandparents would have been in Australia, but they reached his bedside in time to say goodbye.

“They never in a million years expected the crew to go so far for them,” Stephenson told The Independent. “You shudder to think what would have happened if they hadn’t been able to get off the plane.”

SOURCE: RD

On His One Day Off a Week, A Florida Man Devotes Himself to Restoring Veterans’ Tombstones to Perfection

He spends weeks scrubbing away damage from the elements so veterans' graves can be properly honored.

Photo: ANDREW LUMISH

Andrew Lumish spends his free time in an unlikely place: cemeteries.

The owner of a carpet and upholstery cleaning service has just one day off a week, but he doesn’t just relax on the couch. Instead, he spends about ten hours using his cleaning skills to restore veterans’ tombstones around Tampa, Florida, as “The Good Cemeterian.”

Lumish got his start when photographing a historic cemetery and noticing veterans’ gravestones covered with mold, mildew, and weather damage. “There were monuments for veterans who served in every conflict, from the Civil War and the different Indian wars, going nearly to the mid-1800s, and no one was taking care of them,” he says. “It upset me to see the condition they were in.”

To honor veterans for serving their country, Lumish taught himself how to properly clean graves. He found out the system the government uses for national cemeteries—including Arlington—and got to work.

Photo: ANDREW LUMISH

Each headstone can take between three weeks and four months to finish. “One under a 200-year-old oak tree since 1890 takes a long time to fix,” he says. “You’ve got vegetation, mold, mildew, extreme flooding every year, then multiply that by decades or centuries.” But Lumish is dedicated. He’s worked extra days to get ahead so that he can post four new pictures a week on his Facebook page. (This veteran’s paintings of fallen soldiers will make your heart burst with pride.)

But Lumish doesn’t just post a picture and call it a day. He scours genealogy sites to find the deceased’s backstory. He’ll share details like their hometowns, battles they fought in, wives, and businesses—and those stories can get juicy. “Some of these guys, who some consider heroes, would leave their wife for another woman, and leave six kids,” says Lumish. “It’s a war hero who won a medal of honor for serving in the Civil War and was thrown in jail for not paying child support. … It’s like Real Housewives of 1895.”

Lumish’s work has started a movement, inspiring others to clean veterans’ graves properly. “Huge swathes of teams and classes and Boy Scouts are doing it in their local communities and completing entire projects in a day or two,” he says. “Children have restored full cemeteries that would take years and years for veterans to do.”

If you want to start a similar project in your town, make sure to get permission and learn the proper technique for cleaning a gravestone, says Lumish. “It’s important not to just go haywire with a bottle of bleach and wire brush,” he says. In fact, federal veterans cemeteries don’t even allow bleach products. Instead, use a gentle product like D/2 Biological Solution with a natural or soft nylon brush, Lumish recommends.

Photo: ANDREW LUMISH

Cleaning graves work doesn’t just warm hearts—it restores relationships. One World War II veteran died before his granddaughter was born, but his son refused to share details with her. The father and son had a rocky relationship, and the son found it too painful to talk about his death. But when the adult granddaughter found the tombstone suddenly restored, she rushed to show her dad and sister. “He totally broke down in hysterics. He was so moved by the restoration that he told them anything and everything about their grandfather that they wanted,” says Lumish. “It stopped the bleeding of this pain that was too painful for him to discuss.”
SOURCE: RD