Two young siblings who were separated during childhood and placed within the Oklahoma foster care system have finally been reunited after 40 years. Their heartwarming reunion began in rural Oklahoma 1984. 5-year old Kitt Wakely and her little sister Tasha were forcibly removed by the state after family, friends, and neighbors reported severe child abuse and emotional trauma taking place within the home. “Even at that young age, we had to have each other to get through it,” Kitt said. “It was haunting, horrific times.” Together, they survived unspeakable abuse. Their ordeal, although painful, would eventually become even more distressing,…
Author: Robert Amoroso
A disability can literally be in the “eye of the beholder”. Take Anthony Ferraro for example, who has been virtually blind nearly all of his life, yet hasn’t let that stop him from achieving his desired goals. Visually impaired since kindergarten, Ferraro learned how to adapt to his disability by mastering and using other heightened skills. By learning how to utilize these tools, not only was he able to begin wrestling, but went straight to the varsity team at his elementary school. After graduation, Ferraro attended St. John Vainney High School in Holmdel, New Jersey, where he continued excelling at…
It’s hard to imagine that every 11-minutes someone in America takes their own life. Over 12 million adults have seriously thought about committing suicide, and even more disheartening, 1½ million individuals have actually attempted suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 10-34 years, and the 4th leading cause of death among people 35-44. One miraculous June evening in 2015, divide intervention changed the outcome of what would have been another tragic statistic when God placed two emergency nurses at the exact location and moment a troubled, young woman was about to jump…
This is one of those inspiring stories that I’m always privileged to share because it defines what “true grit” is all about. Chelsie Hill has been paralyzed and living in a wheelchair her entire adult life. Thanks to a drunk driver who nearly ended her young life in 2010, the then 17-year-old high school senior was in the hospital for 51 days and was left paralyzed from the waist down, her dream of becoming a dancer almost shattered. “The only thing that I loved was dance,” she told CBS News at the time. For most, that life altering accident would…
Bronx resident Marty Rogers, along with a dedicated group of volunteers, walks the mean streets of the South Bronx three times a week distributing much needed essentials like food, water, hats, and gloves to the homeless. The South Bronx, which stretches across roughly 42 miles, is the poorest borough in the city. According to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, household incomes have continued to drop for three straight years, and almost 28% of families residing here lived below the poverty line in 2010. With that stark reality facing many of the homeless and working-poor, Marty Rogers and…
Academy Award winner and 9-time nominee actor Denzel Washington was recently interviewed by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd about his new film “Macbeth” scheduled for release on Christmas Day. The interview began as expected, with the acclaimed actor discussing his role within the film, when the subject suddenly pivoted to Denzel’s much publicized religious convictions. It should be noted for those who are unfamiliar with Denzel’s background, long before he memorized his first acting lines, young Denzel was memorizing scripture. His late dad, Denzel H. Washington, Sr., was an ordained minister and gospel singer, so faith is a highly…
The joy of Christmas is a wondrous time of year, for both grownups and children alike. For most people, it’s that magical time when we collectively witness humankind at its best, generously giving of themselves through random acts of kindness. For others, the holiday season is filled with the despair of witnessing a loved one grieving, or a young child struggling with a debilitating illness or injury, confined to a hospital bed. That stark reality hit home for two siblings. Tyler Slaven, a freshman at Ohio Virtual Academy, and his older sister Monica, a senior, decided to bring a little…
Actress Lalia Susini’s young life nearly came to an end last year when a freak accident almost killed her. The 12-year old girl from Los Angeles was at home with her grandfather. He was pushing her on a porch swing at their family home when suddenly the bolt holding up the swing snapped off the porch ceiling, sending metal fragments speeding throw the air and smashing through Lalia’s skull. “I thought I was going to die,” Lalia, who most recently starred in ABC’s “Station 19,” told CNN. “I just had no idea what happened.” “It started as a cute, All-American…
Most will never experience the emotional trauma of witnessing your life literally “go up in smoke” from a devastating wildfire, or the debilitating feeling that comes when realizing treasured family mementos and photographs will never again be shared or viewed. We are thankful for being alive without a doubt, but what comes next? Where will we go? For some, it will involve living with extended family members. For others, it may be a revolving door of temporary hotels, motels and emergency shelters. Those questions were floating through the mind of Woody Faircloth while watching news coverage of the devastating and…
By all reasoning, this should have been a tragic event. Consider the basic physics of the force of an 18-wheel semitruck weighing a minimum of 35,000 pounds empty running over and crushing a compact Nissan Altima weighing approximately 3,300 pounds. The odds of anyone surviving inside the Nissan, without sustaining massive life-threatening injuries, would be near impossible…unless divine intervention interceded. This horrific accident occurred on Tuesday, November 16th, 2021, at approximately 11:04am on the Skagit River Bridge in Mount Vernon, Washington. The State Police got an emergency call that a serious collision involving a large semi-truck on Highway I-5 had…
A “feel good” Christmas story is usually the work of talented writers weaving a fictitious heartwarming story somewhere in Hollywood during the holiday season, perhaps appearing on a Hallmark Channel. However, this particular Christmas tale is true. Two tiny 4-year old twins in Liberal, Kansas, decided to do something special during the 2020 holiday season because of the unprecedented pandemic lockdowns. Faced with a somewhat gloomy Christmas away from loved ones, Leticia Flores-Gonzalez thought it would be a great idea for her young twin daughters, Luna and Gianella, to write their Christmas list letter to Santa. They then attached the…
Christmas is a time for giving and sharing joyous holiday traditions with loved ones, like decorating the family Christmas tree, baking Christmas cookies with family members, or gathering around the holiday dinner table on Christmas Day. Yet, for those in need and are unable to provide for their loved ones during the holiday season, Christmas can be an extremely stressful time of year. When Massachusetts police officer Matt Lima was about to go off duty, he received a call about a shoplifting incident happening at a food store in Somerset. Once Lima arrived at the store, he was informed by…
If you’re a functioning part of the human race, then at some point within your life you may have experienced a random act of kindness and the instant feeling of wellbeing that follows. According to Elizabeth Dunn, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), research has shown there’s a “causal link where, when people behave in this generous, kind way, they actually end up happier themselves.” “Frankly, I find it very reassuring that humans have this sort of baked-in tendency to experience joy from helping others,” she told CBC News. Dunn explained that by “changing the conditions…
The world has changed dramatically since 2019 when we first heard about a deadly virus originating from China. Since then, millions of people, both young and old, around the globe has succumbed to COVID-19. In America alone, over 764,000 people have died, with hundreds of thousands more fighting for their lives. One of those individuals was 56 year old Donna Crane, from Port Orange, Florida, who tested positive, even though she and her husband Gary had been vaccinated a week prior to receiving the bad news. Appearing on the nationally syndicated Good Morning America show, Donna re-lived her life threatening…
Sometimes it does take a village, especially if you happen to be lucky enough to live within the quaint historical and picturesque New England town of Westerly, Rhode Island. Random acts of kindness seem to come easy to the roughly 23,000 residents living within the beachfront community on the south shore of the state. For over 2 decades, Dan McKena’s high school students at Westerly High School had a proud tradition of quietly building projects within his construction class that benefited their city. If the local municipality needed a park bench or a wooden flower bed in front of the…
With less than one-half of one percent of Americans currently serving within the Armed Forces, we sometimes forget this infinitesimal population of patriots protects the remaining 99.5% of the population. Perhaps even more concerning, many within the roughly 19 million veteran population (less than 10% of the adult population), suffer from a variety of issues directly related to their service. While many veterans haven’t suffered the catastrophic and debilitating injuries due to actual combat, we’ve come to witness within the mainstream media or on social media they, nevertheless, suffer with homelessness, addiction and mental illness. Many are simply regarded as…
Back in 2016, Arizona grandma Wanda Dench and husband Lonnie sent out their annual invitation by text to family members in celebration of Thanksgiving, inviting them all for dinner. The text read; “Thanksgiving dinner at my house on Nov. 24th at 3:00 p.m. Let me know if you’re coming. Hope to see you all. Of course that includes Amanda & Justin.” However, unbeknown to Wanda, her text message was also sent by accident to 17 year old Jamal Hinton, who instantly knew that it couldn’t be his grandmother, because his grandma didn’t know how to send a text message. When…
Hate is a powerful all-encompassing emotion; it can rob the heart and infect the soul. It can blind us from reasoning and compassion, turning individuals into fanatical extremists. This is a true tale of one such individual, a young Muslim boy named Yassir, who was born in Sudan. A country located in northeastern Africa, and within perhaps the most radical Islamic sects on the entire continent, where children as young as 5 years old are indoctrinated to hate Christians and Jews, leading perhaps into producing some of the world’s most infamous Muslim extremists on the entire planet. Yassir’s family, like…
If you were a Catholic (and not so Catholic) kid growing up in the late 50’s and 60’s, there was another rock-star besides Elvis Presley dominating the pop culture landscape of the day. His name was Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a handsome, charismatic Catholic priest (later Archbishop) who captivated both TV and radio audiences around the country with his eloquently skilled homilies of the gospel. Dressed in full priestly regalia, he would usually begin his sermons reading from scripture, pausing moments later, to explain to his viewing audience the meaning of what he had just read, with charm, wit, grace,…
Most of us have our own unique stories in how we’ve dealt with COVID-19 for the past 15 months. From wearing face masks, to keeping a “safe distance” away from others, to perhaps working from home for the first time. Still, others have experienced personal tragedies from this worldwide pandemic, striking loved ones and those individuals with compromised immunities, especially the elderly, the most vulnerable group within our society. Bettina Lerman, 69, was one of those elderly individuals stricken with the deadly disease which has claimed tens of thousands of lives around the globe, mostly within that senior population. The…