Lucky for them in 2020: touching and life-affirming stories about people and animals
'04.01.2021'
Source: Lenta.ru report
Believe it or not, there have been many good things happening in 2020. Despite all the circumstances, people fell in love, had children, became eyewitnesses of unprecedented scenes and suddenly acquired wealth and happiness. The most touching and kind stories about people and animals that happened in the past year are in the material "Lenta.ru".
You have a refill
For an elderly couple from the Nigerian city of Lagos, 2020 turned out to be one of the happiest. 68-year-old Margaret Adenuga and her 70-year-old husband Noah became parents after 43 years of unsuccessful attempts to have a child. The woman underwent in vitro fertilization four times, but only the last one was successful. As a result, their family had two healthy and long-awaited children - a boy and a girl.
26-year-old Katie Crowe from Wales was waiting for the good news at the beginning of the year. She gave birth to an abnormally rare identical triplet, which occurs in only one in 200 million women. In 2019, she became pregnant naturally, and on February 9 of the following year, she had Tommy, Joshua, and Eddie by caesarean section. Besides them, Katie has a four-year-old son, Jacob.
The neighbors decided to support a large family and anonymously planted essential items, including packaging with diapers, on the porch of their house.
“They say that in order to raise a child, you need the help of an entire village,” the British woman said ironically. - I agree with that.
Since 2010, only girls have been born in the Polish village of Meisze Odrzanske. However, in 2020 a unique event took place there - for the first time in ten years a boy was born. The village became famous all over the world in August 2019, when its mayor, Raimund Frishko, promised an award for the birth of a boy.
The boy was born on May 2, 10 months after the announcement of the award. His parents were local residents Anna and Grzegorz Milek. The child was named Bartek. Frishko stressed that the good news gave Meisze-Odrzanske hope for a bright future.
A couple from the French city of Strasbourg had a larger replenishment. They had six children at once: a boy and five girls. The woman gave birth in the 24th week of pregnancy by caesarean section. Immediately after giving birth, she and her newborns were transferred to the intensive care unit. The maternity hospital Hautepierre in Alsace clarified that the babies weighed between 630 and 730 grams.
For France, the birth of gears is a rare event. Prior to that, the appearance of sextools was recorded only in 1989. According to statistics, one in five billion women have gears.
The world of kind people
In the American city of Columbus, Indiana, barmaid Keri Likens chatted with a client and unexpectedly received a $ 2020 tip. According to her, the visitor ordered drinks for $ 64 and started a conversation with her. The barmaid noted that that day was her first shift after the sick leave.
The next day, she learned from the manager of the establishment that the client had paid the bill and left Likens a huge tip. She could not believe what had happened: “I remember exclaiming:“ What? It can't be like that! " It didn’t fit in my head, but it was all true. ”
The kind deed of the guest of the bar reminded Likens that there are many kind people in the world. She decided to save the money presented by the visitor for the future.
“People like that are everywhere. You never know who will show goodwill and please you. But don't expect this from others. You have to try and be a good person yourself, ”said Keri Likens.
Sometimes help and support comes from where you don't expect at all. It happened in the American city of Houston, Texas. A frequent visitor to Italian restaurant Cavatore decided to support waiters during the COVID-19 pandemic and left a generous tip.
On April 10, a guest at Cavatore, who wished to remain anonymous, ordered a $ 19,49 takeaway meal and left a $ XNUMX tip when paying. She wrote "Hold on" on the check.
The tip was split between the four waiters who worked that shift. The client's kind deed lifted the spirits of the employees.
“You should have seen how everyone perked up and cheered up,” said Cavatore. "Just like before the coronavirus epidemic."
In June 2020, Canadian Ralph Bussin, who worked at a Walmart grocery store, reminded the world that it is possible to do good in spite of life's adversity. He helped an absent-minded customer named River Johnson retrieve her bag containing thousands of Canadian dollars.
In a hurry, Johnson did not immediately notice that she had left the bag at the checkout, which contained the seven thousand Canadian dollars set aside for the business. She called the store outside of business hours, but to her surprise, one of the workers answered the phone. It turned out to be Buzin. He assured the worried Canadian that he had found the money and put it in the safe until she returned.
Returning to the store for a bag, Johnson learned that due to the crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Buzan lost his own business - the 9Round Fitness fitness club.
“I don’t know what I would have done in his place, given all his problems,” admitted River Johnson. “But he didn't pocket the money. He made sure the bag was returned to me. "
British WWII veteran Tom Moore has received a knighthood for good deeds, raising millions of pounds for doctors fighting the coronavirus. The 100-year-old veteran was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. The ceremony took place on the grounds of Windsor Castle. The Queen touched the veteran's shoulder with the sword of her father, George VI.
Two years ago, the veteran slipped and broke his hip, after which he began to use a wheeled walker. In April 2020, two weeks before his birthday, he launched a charity event. As part of the action, he began to walk around the garden with a walker. He planned to complete 100 laps for his anniversary and raise a thousand pounds.
Thus, he wanted to thank the doctors who cured him of cancer and a fracture. As a result, he raised 32 million pounds to help doctors fight the coronavirus. More than a million people have donated.
On the subject: 'Legend Man': a 99-year-old veteran raised over $ 30 million for doctors just by walking in the garden
The cycle of good
For some people in the United States, a good deed done in 2020 turned into good luck and unexpected wealth. One of those lucky ones was retired firefighter Kenneth Crews from Shelby, North Carolina. He sometimes gave a ride to work for a friend who didn't have his own car.
Usually an American would refuse money, but one rainy day, a friend insisted that Crews take $ 60 and play the lottery with that money. The man followed his friend's advice, bought three lottery tickets and hit the $ XNUMX million jackpot. With the money he won, he plans to build a new house and help relatives pay bills.
American Anna Charkovich claims that a good deed brought her luck in the lottery too. She and her husband noticed a lost child on the street and took him home. After the incident, her intuition prompted her to buy a lottery ticket.
“I decided that if I did something good, then something good should happen to me. I felt that I would win, and my intuition did not let me down. This is karma, ”she later said.
A resident of the American city of Wilmington, Delaware, also played the lottery while helping a neighbor, and became rich. She anonymously told how she went to the supermarket at the request of one of the neighbors in her house. “Once in the store, I thought, why not buy myself a couple of lottery tickets,” she recalls. As a result, one of the tickets brought her a prize of 250 thousand dollars.
“I was so surprised,” the winner admitted. "I didn't plan to go shopping that day."
You are not alone
In July, thousands of caring people rallied and helped Canadian Vancouver resident Mara Soriano find a stolen teddy bear with an embedded sound capsule containing a voice message from her late mother.
A valuable toy for the 28-year-old Canadian was stolen on 24 July. The girl was sorting things out during the move when her friend called. He said that he was hit by a van, and Soriano rushed to his aid. In a hurry, she left her bag with a teddy bear, important documents, iPad and Nintendo Switch outside. When she returned, the things were gone.
Soriano posted advertisements everywhere asking for the return of the bear. Thousands of people joined the search for the toy, including Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds.
On July 28, the day after talking with reporters about the loss, Soriano received a message from a stranger. He claimed that he had found the bear and wanted to return it.
They arranged a meeting, as a result of which Soriano received the toy back. The unknown person explained that he had stolen the bear cub from the homeless tent camp in one of the city parks. The girl thanked everyone who participated in the search for the toy: the police, journalists and ordinary people.
“I can't believe so many people have come together to help a little person like me. I think they just presented themselves in my place, ”said Mara.
On the subject: Ryan Reynolds offers $ 5000 to whoever will return the teddy bear to the owner
Soriano said that Ryan Reynolds, who announced a $ XNUMX reward for finding the toy, wrote to her and asked about the development of the situation. The girl noted that some people offered her money to buy new electronics instead of the stolen ones, but she refused. She asked everyone who wanted to support the hospice in Toronto, where her mother lived for the last weeks.
Another touching story took place in the Australian city of Brisbane. On February 19, local Yarraqa resident Bales posted a video on Facebook of her nine-year-old son Kuoden crying in the car after being bullied at school. The bullying was caused by achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism that a child suffers from.
Mother wrote that over the past three years Kuoden tried several times to commit suicide. She asked all parents who watched the video to talk to their children about attitudes towards classmates and friends. For the first time, she said, she decided to publicly tell what child abuse leads to. To support her son, she created an Instagram page. That evening, hundreds of strangers wrote messages to her and expressed their sympathy for the boy.
The local rugby team invited Kuoden to take them to the field ahead of one of the matches of the National Rugby League on February 22. The players recorded a video for the boy in which they wished him all the best, and said that they were always ready to help him. Caring Facebook users also expressed outrage about bullying in schools and conveyed words of support to Kuoden.
Comedian Brad Williams opened a charity fundraiser for the boy on the GoFundMe portal and collected more than $ 200 from almost nine thousand people in a day. With the money raised, he plans to take Kuoden and his family to the United States, pay for a hotel room and take them to the Disneyland amusement park.
“He is an ordinary child who, like everyone else, deserves love and joy. I want to prove to him that there are good people in the world, ”Williams said.
"The Good Side of the Terrible Virus"
There is no doubt that COVID-19 has brought a lot of trouble. However, some people were lucky enough to see the positive side of the pandemic and find happiness. Some of them are pensioners from the English city of Prestwich, Greater Manchester. 97-year-old war heroes Robert Walsh and Lillian Grundy met on Memorial Day in November 2019.
Walsh once served on a submarine, and Grundy helped build bombers. Each of them was once married, but widowed. They found a common language and began to meet three times a week.
When the pandemic began, retirees realized that they could no longer live without each other. Before the introduction of the strict isolation regime, they decided to take their relationship to a new level and moved in. They began to live together only after the approval of their relatives and still sleep in different bedrooms: Walsh has occupied a spare room in the Grundy house.
“I fell in love with her irrevocably. We found a good side in this terrible virus: now we are together, ”said Robert Walsh.
Thanks to the free time due to the coronavirus, 32-year-old British woman Teri Abimbola found her sister Joanne Odwyer, who was given to a foster family at birth.
Before that, she tried every method available to her: she studied the databases of adoptions, scoured the Internet and even went to talk shows. However, attempts to find the older sister did not bring results.
During the self-isolation regime introduced in the country due to COVID-19, Abimbola had more free time. She delved deeper into the archives of the registry site and noticed a woman with similar facial features in one of the photographs. She wrote to the 51-year-old stranger on Facebook and learned that it was her sister Joana Odwyer.
Abimbola soon found out that Odwyer lived only eight kilometers away. The women first met in a nearby park. Besides Odwyer, Abimbola invited her other sisters for a walk. The relatives immediately found a common language.
“My dream has come true. Let this virus be a real disaster, if not for it, I would not have had so much free time to search. Our mother is still alive and she was so happy that we found our sister, ”Abimbola said.
Animal rescue squad
In 2020, not only people, but also animals did good deeds. In January, in the Leningrad Region, a West Siberian Laika rescued a newborn bear cub. The dog found a cub abandoned by a bear in the forest of the Gatchina region and tried to lay it down next to its puppies.
The rescue of the bear cub was noticed by local residents, including the Governor of the Leningrad Region Alexander Drozdenko. The found female, who was only a month old, was named Mashenka. She was transferred to the Tver region at the orphaned bear rescue center.
In July, a touching video filmed in the Krasnodar Territory appeared on the Internet. In the footage, two cats slowly walk along with a lame dog along a night road, as if protecting it from passing cars on both sides.
“The delegation is whole! Look, they're guarding her! She is apparently disabled, ”commented the author of the video, who witnessed the events.
In August, Twitter users were struck by an equally amazing video of piglets who rescued a fish on land. The video was posted by Indian Forest Service Officer Susanta Nanda. On the footage, piglets approach the fish lying on the shore and begin to push it into the water. After several attempts, the animals manage to return the fish to the pond. One commentator wrote: “It doesn't matter if the fish is alive or dead. The intentions were noble. Even people run away from the scene, where the victims are fighting for their lives. "
An impressive video of a turtle rescuing a fish dying on land also gained popularity online. In a post posted on Twitter account Nature Is Lit, a lifeless fish lies on a rock. Only her head is immersed in the water. A few seconds later, a small turtle swims up to it and pushes it into the water with its fins. Once in its native environment, the fish woke up and swam away.
In the same month, footage of a dog bringing a bun to a homeless hungry cat was leaked to the network. A girl from the Chinese province of Shandong witnessed the cute moment. She said that she heard her dog named Pudding barking and went out to see what was happening.
Right in front of her eyes, the pet took out a bun with pork from its booth and laid it on the ground in front of a stray cat, which was sitting on the stairs nearby and was clearly hungry. According to the Chinese woman, initially the cat did not dare to go down the steps. Soon, Pudding stepped back slightly, allowing her to approach.
“I thought he was going to use the bun as bait to catch or fight a cat. And I couldn't even imagine what would happen next. Pudding gave the food, walked away and stayed away so that the cat would not be afraid, ”said Pudding's owner.
As a result, the cat took the bun and ran away. The girl stressed that she was very moved by this moment, because Pudding is a guard dog and usually treats his food with care.
In India, a pregnant dog has adopted an orphaned baby monkey. Photographer Prakash Badal came to Chakki Mor village to take pictures of wild birds. There he saw an adult dog playing with a baby monkey. It turned out that the mother of the baby was poisoned by local residents, as the adult primates destroyed the crops.
“I realized that the dog had found an abandoned monkey cub, and maternal instinct did not allow her to leave him alone. I think this is a good lesson for all people who behave selfishly towards each other, ”said Prakash Badal.
A compassionate dog was found in Vladivostok, in the White Lion Wildlife Park. In September, a German shepherd named Sandra began feeding the cubs. This happened after their mother, the lioness Sirona, left the children and did not feed them for several days. “It is absolutely unique that the new mother shepherd Sandra adopted the cubs,” the park noted.
On the subject: Holiday survey: 47 questions to summarize the results of 2020 and plans for 2021
Animal happiness
In 2020, the "loneliest cat in Great Britain" finally found its owners, having lived in the shelter for 130 days. A pet named Monique entered the orphanage in the English city of Battersea in April. She was abandoned by the owners, as she suffered from immunodeficiency.
To find a new home for the cat, the shelter staff decided to throw a birthday party for her. They invited everyone to the holiday, but no one came. Then the workers posted on social networks a picture of a lonely Monique sitting in front of the inscription "Happy Birthday!"
Caring netizens dubbed the animal "the loneliest cat in Britain" and began offering the shelter to take her home. People sent gifts and donations to the cat. “We were touched that people came to help Monique. All abandoned cats deserve a second chance, ”said the employee of the shelter.
The cat was taken in by an Englishman named Adnan. He immediately found a common language with the animal. “She follows me around the house, jumps on her knees and always watches how I work,” said the new owner. According to him, he is incredibly happy that Monique has appeared in his life.
In the past year, netizens were fascinated by the story of a street red cat named Bruce Willis. The seven-year-old cat lived on the street for many years before ending up in an orphanage in Minnesota, USA. On the website of the institution, the cat lover Sandra drew attention to him.
When the girl took Bruce Willis from the orphanage, he had scars on his body, chipped teeth, an injured eye, and he also suffered from problems with the immune system. Judging by the expression on his face, he was one of the saddest cats in the world. But during the year of his life with Sandra, he changed: his coat acquired a bright color, and he began to smile.
The girl showed on social networks how the new pet has changed over the year of her life.
“A year has passed since I took him in, he is the happiest cat I know,” says Sandra. She even started an Instagram page for him, to which more than a hundred thousand people are subscribed.
In 2020, another unfortunate pet, who spent ten years in a shelter in the English county of Kent, found new owners. Around 2010, a border collie dog named Bess was hit by a car. As a result, she suffered serious neck injuries. The owners could no longer take care of her, so they took her to the animal shelter in Edenbridge and asked to find a new family.
For many years Bess lived in an orphanage. Visitors often showed interest in her, but upon learning of her injury, refused custody. Desperate employees of the shelter decided to post a story about Bess on the Internet. Hundreds of strangers from all over the world responded to the ad. Among them, the workers of the shelter chose a married couple from England and invited her to a meeting with Bess.
“It took Bess a long time to get used to these people. Her new owners came to us five or six times to spend time with her before we let her go home with them, ”said representatives of the shelter where Bess was kept.
The past year turned out to be joyful for the "loneliest elephant" Kaavan, who lived for 35 years in a small aviary in one of the Pakistani zoos. Five years later, a female named Sahel was added to the elephant, but in 2012 she died. Khaavan was left alone again and was very depressed: he could shake his head for hours in boredom and loneliness.
Animal rights activists more than once drew attention to the poor conditions in which he lived: the elephant was kept in a too cramped cage, they did not allow him to communicate with relatives and every day they were forced to speak in front of visitors. Only five years later they managed to agree on the move of Kaavan to the Cambodian Elephant Sanctuary. The success of the campaign was largely due to the participation of the singer Cher.
On November 30, Khaavan arrived in Cambodia, and the very next day he met one of the local elephants. They greeted each other by connecting their trunks across the fence. Khaavan began to walk serenely around the spacious paddock, playing with the tire, and sprinkling mud on himself to protect himself from insect bites. And over time, the elephant even began to slowly show interest in one of the females. If she reciprocates, in 2021 he will finally say goodbye to the title of "loneliest elephant."
