"I don’t know who this lady is... she waved at him and he made his way up to her. I thought their interaction would be the same as last time but I was wrong. "
"I felt the tug on my sleeve and looked down to find him standing motionless. His mouth was moving but I couldn’t make out his words. His quiet body in the noisy room caught me off guard. I bent down to find his voice."
Following a deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ 2024 Super Bowl victory parade Wednesday, one teen is sharing how Head Coach Andy Reid was there to comfort him in the chaos.
Gabe Wallace, a high school sophomore was separated from his friend when a gunman opened fire outside of Kansas City’s Union Station Wednesday in a mass shooting that would ultimately injure 30 people and leave one person dead.
Wallace was attending the parade with his friend Hank Hunter when the shooting broke out shortly after the Chiefs players left the stage. After being separated in all of the commotion, Wallace says he fell while trying to climb over a fence and was eventually ushered inside Union Station for safety.
There, he was met by none other than the man that “Chiefs Kingdom” affectionately calls, “Big Red,” Andy Reid.
Andy Reid Comforts Teen Following Deadly Shooting at Super Bowl Victory Parade
“Andy Reid was trying to comfort me, which was nice,” an emotional Wallace told The Kansas City Star. “He was kind of hugging me, just like, ‘Are you OK, man? Are you OK? Just please breathe.’ He was being real nice and everything.”
The teen said Andy Reid eventually “left to check on other people,” along with other Chiefs players who reportedly helped “calm panicked kids” before the team was rushed out of Union Station and back to Arrowhead Stadium.
As Wallace remained inside Union Station still separated from his friends, his mind was racing.
“My friends are dead — that’s what’s going through my mind,” Wallace said. “I’m literally thinking, ‘What if my friends are dead?… Are they alive, or are they just lying there on the floor just bleeding out?’ I have no idea.”
A half an hour later, Wallace was reunited with his friend Hunter. The two shared an emotional embrace, “I love you, man,” Wallace said. “I love you.”
The gunfire erupted around 2 p.m. local time following the conclusion of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade with more than 800 police officers in the area. Of the 30 victims, 11 were children who are expected to recover.
When my kids were young, it seemed like one of their friends or cousins had a birthday party nearly every weekend. Of course I wanted my kiddos to be able to celebrate their friends, but sometimes finding the right gift was a real chore, especially if it was a school friend I didn’t know well yet. I always tried to contact the parent to get gift ideas, but sometimes it was exhausting, not to mention expensive, to find the right gift for each child.
Mom Proposes Alternative to Buying Kids Birthday Gifts
One mom in the United Kingdom says she as the solution to all that, but not everyone agrees with her. It’s hard to believe, but her choice of gift for all the children’s birthday parties she attends is stirring up an internet comment storm.
The mom in question, 39-year-old Sarah Clarke shared her kids’ birthday gift strategy in an Instagram video. She starts out by saying, “When we get invited to a kid’s party, I don’t buy the kid a present.”
Insert record scratch. Say what? Well it’s turns out that phrase leaves out some details. The truth is, she doesn’t buy them a traditional kiddie present. What Clarke does, she shared, is give each child whose party they attend a gift certificate to a local cafe in their village. This saves “on the mental load,” she says.
I will admit, there have been many times in my life where I would take any shortcut possible to help with my own mental load. So, I get it. I’m not sure I’d go that route myself, though.
Clarke says that she gets the same thing for every child, boy or girl, regardless of age. The intent, she says, is that the child can go on a cafe date with a parent. And I think that’s nice! I also think that most kids have waaaaay too much stuff and many of their parents might be relieved to not have another toy to add to the pile come party day.
But I waffle on this—because even as an adult, I love my birthday. I always have. And in my family, we never wanted for anything, but we didn’t get toys and gifts all year round or anything. So birthdays were especially exciting, seeing what special gift we might get. So as a kid (right or wrong), I can see myself being disappointed with a cafe gift card. (As a matter of fact I once got in huge trouble for crying about getting a few pairs of socks for my 8th birthday.)
I also think there’s something really thoughtful and loving about picking out a gift for the birthday boy or girl, but I realize with the number of parties one’s child may be invited to, this isn’t always possible. If they just met this kid this school year or you don’t know the family well, it can be a real challenge to get “the perfect thing.” And again, if everyone else is bringing toys…one gift card in the pile might be welcome.
A little boy is stealing hearts across the internet this week, and restoring people’s faith in love with his Valentine’s Day gesture for a fellow classmate.
Anthony Small is making waves on TikTok after his mom posted a video of the 5-year-old boy dressed up in a tuxedo, delivering flowers to his Valentine.
In the now-viral clip, which has now been viewed over 56 million times, Anthony walks up a set of snowy steps in his Sunday best, holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand, a rainbow stuffed unicorn in the other, and a box of chocolates to seal the deal.
“Hi, may I please see Lyla?” He asks as a man answers the door.
As Lyla makes her way to the door, Anthony patiently waits in the snow, excited to see his crush.
While Anthony’s mom filmed the exchange outside, Lyla’s mom filmed it inside. The look on both kids’ faces is enough to make anyone’s day.
“I got really nervous,” Anthony later told Good Morning America.
“He actually went to go take his tux off multiple times,” his mom Shelby added.
Anthony and Lyla are classmates who sometimes sit on the bus together.
A Budding Romance
All of that bus-riding led to some sneaky plans and big dreams for these 5-year-olds. According to their bus monitor, the kindergarteners were talking about “escaping their houses to meet up with each other” after bed.
I think it’s safe to say, the affection goes both ways.
While shopping at Dollar General with his mom, Anthony saw a box of chocolates and asked if he could buy them for his valentine.
After learning of his plan, Anthony’s sister informed him he couldn’t give a girl a box of chocolates without a stuffed animal to accompany it.
A few days later, Anthony learned that you give flowers on Valentine’s Day, and had to have those to go with his gifts for Lyla.
Along with his flowers, Anthony wrote Lyla a note that read: “You look like an angel and are perfect like one too.”
Anthony and all of his charm are swooning people all over with over two hundred thousand people flocking to the comments.
“She’s never gonna settle for less after getting this from a young age,” one commenter wrote.
“When he stepped back out after giving her the flowers I cried,” wrote another. “What a gentleman.”
“And that’s how I met your mother,” one user wrote, a nod to the popular TV show.
If you don’t follow football, you might not know why San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy making it to the Super Bowl this weekend is a super big deal. Purdy, only in his second year in the NFL, was selected dead last in the 2022 NFL draft, earning him the nickname “Mr. Irrelevant.” Even in the pros, there’s a playground stigma that comes with being picked last for a team, and in his case, every team. But Purdy let that roll off his back.
“When I got drafted last, did I freak out? Did I panic? No,” Purdy said. “It’s easy to, but more than anything, I was just grateful. I had a grateful mindset. And I had an opportunity to go play for the 49ers.”
So why was Purdy picked last? Well, despite being a standout at Iowa State and leading the school to the most football wins ever in a season, the quarterback wasn’t considered a hot pick for the NFL because of his small size. When he finally was drafted by the 49ers, he was the third-string quarterback his rookie year, not expected to play much if any at all.
Then both the first and second string QBs got injured, and Mr. Irrelevant got his shot, when it was most important. He shone on the field, leading his team to the AFC Championship, which they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. But Purdy’s stellar performances have continued this season, and now he’s leading his team all the way to the Super Bowl, the youngest quarterback to do so in 49ers history. Brock Purdy is now 17-4 in his short NFL career.
Purdy credits his faith in God for his come-from-behind success. “God is faithful,” Purdy said. “He’s never done with a story, even when you think he is.”
Screen grab via YouTube // CBN News
Brock Purdy’s Faith
Faith isn’t new to Purdy: in college he was very active with his church’s college ministry and with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. His faith background helps him put the fame and fortune of football stardom in perspective and keeps him grounded, too.
“I’ve never tried to hold on to the football life tightly,” Purdy said recently. “I’ve held it pretty loosely. And see what God has in store. I’ve stayed faithful to him and he’s taken me to places I could never have imagined.”
Despite Purdy’s success, he has plenty of critics: not everyone loves an underdog story. Some people call him a “game manager” because he is not a one-man show like some quarterbacks. But Purdy seems content to be part of a winning offense, and not the only man who makes touchdowns for the 49ers. And hey…it’s obviously working!
Brock Purdy, A Team Player
Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher told the UPI that he thinks Purdy’s critics are just plain wrong.
“People call him a game manager and that’s so naive,” Cowher said. “If you run a Shanahan offense, you have to process a lot of information. He gives you a lot of things to read, progression-wise. Brock Purdy can not only process information, but he makes the right decisions and he is very accurate with the football. He is not just a game manager. He is a game winner.”
His teammates agree that however he’s doing it, he’s doing it well.
“I think he does such an incredible job of managing the fame and expectations, being the same guy every day and prioritizing his studying,” 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk said.
In addition to studying playbooks, Purdy also keeps up with studying the Bible. He said that this year he went back to Psalm 23 again and again this season and post-season. He is also known to often pray during games.
Purdy’s seat as starting QB at this weekend’s upcoming Super Bowl certainly speaks to the fact that he is a game winner. And whether he’s a game manager or not, he’s made it clear that it is Christ who is managing his life and career.
“I was reminded what Jesus told us thousands of years ago,” Purdy said. “If you try to chase fame, status, money, you’ll lose your life. Keeping your eyes on Jesus and his promises … that’s a life worth living.”
And how does he handle the fame and adulation that comes with being a winning professional quarterback on his way to the biggest stage in the game? He acknowledges that that aspect of his life comes with some unique challenges.
“Playing this game, playing this sport, there’s a lot that goes into it,” he said. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in wanting to be loved, obviously by your teammates and everybody, but also the world. “For me, in that passage [Psalm 23], it’s saying, I already have what I need from the good Shepherd and Jesus.”
Knowing who he is and whose he is is the thing that helps Brock Purdy stay grounded as he moves forward in his career.
“The bottom line for me is, my identity is in Jesus,” he told podcaster Jason Romano last. year.
Best of luck and prayers for a safe game to Brock Purdy, his teammates and their opponents this weekend at Super Bowl LVIII!
Allison and Eric Blosfield were excited to welcome their third child to the family when they got some scary news early in the pregnancy. Doctors told Allison that their baby, a boy, had a 77% positive test for having Down syndrome.
Allison was scared of what challenges her child might face. “It was just kind of this instant sinking feeling,” she told Inside Edition about receiving the diagnosis. However, when she told her husband Eric, his response was positive.
“My husband’s reaction when I told him that our baby was going to have Down syndrome was very calm, and it was just, ‘Whatever happens, babe, we’ll roll with it. It’s cool. Don’t worry about it.’ While I’m sitting there sobbing, freaking out,” Allison recalls.
She soon took to social media to share her son’s diagnosis and received overwhelming support from the Down Syndrome community online. Other parents assured her that she would love having a child with Down syndrome and that they were in for a new normal full of ups and downs but mostly ups, and a whole lot of love.
But then at their next pre-natal appointment, the Blosfields received much more devastating news. After a routine test, the doctor entered the room with a grim diagnosis of a life-threatening condition.
“The doctor came in to tell us that the test results weren’t good and that they believed he was developing a condition called hydrops,” Allison remembers. “Which is when excess fluid builds up underneath the baby’s skin, and it goes throughout their body. hey told us that eventually it would reach his heart and his lungs, and then his heart would stop beating.”
This condition could happen to any child and had nothing to do with the baby’s Down syndrome diagnosis. About half of children diagnosed with hydrops in utero do not survive. The Blosfields steeled themselves before their next appointment, hoping for no more bad news. But before they went back in, Allison says, she felt a strong urge to name their baby boy.
They chose the name Ethan, Allison says, “which means strong and enduring, is just so fitting for him.”
Armed with a name for their child, the Blosfields entered the doctor’s office again, and were told bad news, again. They were told the fluid build up from the hydrops could stop Ethan’s heart at any moment. Doctors offered to terminate the pregnancy, citing the low chances of survival.
“At that point, they offered us a termination,” Allison says. “And I remember sitting there when the doctor said, ‘Here’s your options. We can terminate.’
She admits she thought about it for a brief moment, wondering if she should jump off of the roller coaster. “I was just like, I could walk away. I could be done with this whole nightmare,” she remembers. “Because the level of fear that you feel, the level of anxiety that you feel, and I was just like, I could be done. I could just be done and run away. And after I took a breath and thought it through, I was just like, ‘no.’”
She and Eric let doctors know that they would be continuing the pregnancy, hydrops and all. Doctors said that Ethan would probably not survive past 16 week gestation, so in a strange, emotional existence, they prepared both for his birth and for the fact that he could pass away at any moment.
Then one day, Allison felt it: a kick! She was ecstatic. Her baby was alive!
At 18 weeks, still pregnant with a living baby, Allison and Eric went back to the doctor for another ultrasound. This time, they received the kind of news they had longed for. Allison describes the incredible moment: “The doctor comes in, and he just goes, ‘Well, this never happens,’” Allison said. “And they were just like, ‘The hydrops is gone, you guys.’ We just sat there, we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, is this what it feels like to witness a miracle?’”
Unfortunately, the Blosfields were not able to ride that high for long. Soon, more devastating news followed. Ethan had a heart defect, and it was a bad one.
“They told us that his heart defect was so severe that they expected that he would be a fetal demise case so that his body would give out in the womb and he wouldn’t make it to birth,” Allison said. “They told us that if he did make it to birth, survived birth, that it was likely he wouldn’t live more than 24 hours.”
Again, the Blosfields were offered an abortion to terminate the pregnancy, this time at 24 weeks. But their answer was the same.
“At that point, I was annoyed,” Allison recalled. “I was like, ‘No, we’re good. I’m scared right now, but we’re keeping our baby.’” It was time to come up with a game plan for the rest of the pregnancy and the hopeful birth of their baby boy.
The medical team strategized that if Ethan could make it to 36 weeks, he could have surgery. Week after week, knowing their son could die at any moment, the Blosfields held on to hope. But, Allison went into labor at 35 weeks. Ethan was born on December 13, 2022. Too weak for surgery, he spent his days and nights in the NICU with his parents by his side.
Finally, Ethan was able to receive open heart surgery, but sadly, it wasn’t enough. He and his parents fought and fought, but it soon became clear that Ethan would not survive. Allison describes how hard it was to accept this, saying, “We had been told many times that he was getting worse and that he likely wasn’t going to make it,” she said. “But in our mind, we had heard that so many times before, and he had come so far. We had gotten days away from going home once. So in our minds, we were like, ‘We’re going to get back there. We are absolutely going to get back there.’ And we had gotten ourselves in just such a mode of just fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. Every day, there was a new fire. Every day, there was a new battle to go through.”
One day, she and Eric came to the realization at the exact same time that it was time to let their beautiful baby boy go.
The hospital staff made it special for them, allowing the family to spend time together on the roof of the hospital. It was Ethan’s first time going outside. They turned a bench to face the beautiful Mt. Ranier, and the family settled in to spend some precious moments together.
“And it was in my arms that they took him off of his life support,” Allison remembers through a rush of emotion. “We got to have music playing. We got to sit, and hold him, and tell him how thankful we were for him. We got to sit and just thank him for being our son, for fighting as hard as he did to stay with us. And we told him that it was okay to go, and it was okay to not fight anymore.”
Ethan passed away on June 30, 2023.
Despite losing their child, Allison and Eric are so happy they got to meet him in this life, that they gave him a chance to fight for his life instead of ending the pregnancy. Allison describes Ethan’s funeral as a celebration of his short life.
“My son lived for 199 days, and we wanted to celebrate that. He pushed past more stuff than doctors ever thought that he would, and he broke barriers and proved that miracles happen. And I wanted to celebrate that, and so did everybody else.”
Throughout the whole ordeal, Allison used social media to tell Ethan’s story, and that continues as she uses it to help her heal. She has no regrets about their choices, and she wants everyone to know that.
“Being able to acknowledge that situation that we were in, it’s temporary. Your situation is temporary. It’s not going to last forever,” she says encouragingly. “And focusing on that and focusing on moving forward. I don’t think people move on from losing a child, but I think that you can move forward, and we’re moving forward.”
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the better part of 2023, and now all of 2024, then you know as well as anyone that Taylor Swift is having a *moment* right now. Whether it’s her record-shattering Eras Tour, her 13th and 14th Grammy’s win Sunday evening, or even being named TIME’s Person of the Year for 2023. Perhaps most infamously though is her very public relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Since the pair started dating late last summer, fans and critics alike have had opinions on Taylor Swift, most notably those bothered by her presence at NFL games in support of her Super Bowl-bound beau.
The 34-year-old’s frequent NFL appearances began in early September, when she confirmed the speculated relationship with Kelce by attending his team’s Week 3 win over the Chicago Bears. After the victory, Swift was seen leaving the stadium with the eight-time Pro Bowler.
Ever since then, the NFL has capitalized on the high-profile romance, turning cameras on the pop star frequently throughout Kansas City Chiefs games, drawing in a whole new era of NFL fans. According to the New York Times, Nielsen Media Research estimated an additional two million women tuned into Kansas City’s game on Oct. 1, dramatically expanding the NFL’s reach and fanbase.
But some “Dads, Brads, and Chads,” as Swift called critics in her TIME Magazine interview, are less than impressed with how often she’s being shown on the screen, even going as far as calling it “distracting.”The New York Times found that Swift has been shown for an average of 24 seconds per broadcast of each 3+ hour game she’s attended.
One dad is defending the pop star this week, calling out those who hate Taylor Swift simply “for existing.”
Robert People, a retired military journalist, author and father from Florida addressed the criticism of Swift in a TikTok video with more than 1.4 million views.
“Those of you people out there, especially grown men, expressing all this nasty, ridiculous hate for Taylor Swift just for existing and supporting her boyfriend in the NFL, keep in mind, Taylor Swift’s not gonna see or hear any of that,” he said in the video. “But you know who will? Your daughters.”
People continued, “And with all this juvenile hate you’re showing Taylor Swift for simply being there, you’re encouraging your daughters to shrink themselves, reduce who they are. Because if they do anything more than that, if they just decide to be themselves, they’re gonna get a whole lot of hate from not only the world but from people just like you: their own parents. We need to do better, straight up.”
As the father of a 16-year-old daughter, People says he considered how his own daughter perceived the negative responses toward Swift merely showing up to a football game in support of her boyfriend.
“My daughter watches football with me and pays attention to everything I do,” People told TODAY. He says when girls hear complaints over Swift attending a football game they might hear, “Everything that Taylor Swift is, I can’t be.”
People says that slamming Taylor Swift is demoralizing for girls who love sports, causing them to wonder, “Do I really belong here?” in a male-dominated space.
People says that while his video was intended to call out “dads, Brads, and Chads” who are hating on Taylor Swift, the issue goes so much further than just the pop star.
“It’s wrong to treat anyone this way,” he tells TODAY.com. “If you don’t know much about her, then don’t say anything. She’s a human being and people reduce her humanity.”
In fact, People says he wants his daughter to look to “powerful and successful” role models like Swift.
According to The Washington Post, Swift stands to make $4.1 billion in personal earnings from the Eras Tour alone.
Beyond what she’s raking in herself, the sold-out performances along with hotel stays, restaurants and travel stand to generate $5.7 billion in economic impact, larger than the GDP of 50 countries. One California group says the singer’s six shows in Los Angeles brought in $320 million and 3,300 jobs to LA county.
In August, Swift was said to have given $100,000 bonus checks along with a handwritten letter to each of her 50 bus drivers on the Eras Tour. People Magazine reported that the 34-year-old also gave bonuses to to everyone working on her show from her dancers to riggers, sound technicians and caterers, among others. The payout totaled more than $55 million. She’s also said to have been quietly making financial contributions to food banks in cities along the Eras Tour route.
“They said they wanted to make a gift to help the areas that they were performing in,” Michelle Beck, chief development officer of Three Square Food Bank in Southern Nevada told TODAY. “For us, that was a pretty amazing day.”
Isn’t that the kind of thing we should be talking about?
Following the Kansas City Chief’s Jan. 28 win against the Baltimore Ravens, Swift was seen on the field hugging her boyfriend and ecstatic over the team’s win. During that game, Kelce broke the NFL record for career postseason receptions. Swift was shown on screen for 32 seconds of a three hour and forty-three minute broadcast. Dads, Brads, and Chads across the internet had things to say.
It’s important to emphasize that what our daughters are hearing from the loud minority is, “be less.”
The Kansas City Chiefs are set to play the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas. Swift is believed to be in attendance with millions all but tracking her flight from Tokyo, Japan to the big game. Her first concert back on the Eras Tour is Saturday night in Tokyo.
Whether you listen to Taylor Swift or not, People says in a follow up video is not the point. “Young boys are going to hear how you address these women celebrities and they’re going to say, ‘Oh, my dad is doing it … that’s how I should go about my business.”
Swift’s appearances at Kansas City Chiefs games are a display of two wildly successful role models showing up for one another. And THAT is what our kids need to see us championing.
Recently, a flight attendant went viral because of the extreme effort he went to in order to comfort a distressed passenger.
Viral Photo Shows Flight Attendant Comforting a Passenger
Flight attendant, 44-year-old Floyd Dean-Shannon, is clearly compassionate—and the photo of him sitting on the floor, holding the hand of a distressed passenger tells it all.
The flight attendant had only been working for Delta in this role for a few months when, on a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to New York City, he noticed one of his passengers looked extremely anxious.
Recalling that day, he told Good Morning America in an interview that “It kind of dawned on me…she had a look like, ‘I don’t want to be here.'”
He explained to GMA that he could tell she was nervous, and he decided to do something about it.
And what this flight attendant did to help the nervous passenger went viral for a reason.
Another passenger on the flight, Molly Simonson Lee, was so moved by the flight attendant’s care for the passenger that she took a photo.
After Molly Simonson Lee posted a photo of the flight attendant helping this passenger, it was picked up by all sorts of social media users. Check out this post by A Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge:
Molly Simonson Lee, confirming that the female passenger “was very nervous and even before the plane took off, she was visibly shaken by each sound.”
But when Dean-Shannon noticed this, he didn’t just say a few words to her. He actually sat in the aisle for the entire flight to help her get through it.
As Simonson Lee said, Dean-Shannon “explained every sound and bump” to the scared passenger to make it clear that she would be okay.
Later, after the photo of the flight attendant went viral, Good Morning America asked Dean-Shannon what exactly happened.
At just 3 pounds, the baby who is now named Samuel Tyler was so small he fit in a shoebox. And that’s the where his birth mother put him as a makeshift cradle when she left him at a local firehouse with a note explaining she couldn’t care for him. The bottom of the note said simply, “I love you.”
Brittany Tyler, a foster and adoptive mom from Kentucky, didn’t know any of this when she was scrolling her social media feeds in May 2022 and saw a story about a baby being left at the local firehouse. But she knew right away in her heart that her story was meant to include this child.
“I started praying that he would be placed with us, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” Brittany told TODAY.com.
Just a few days later, Brittany and her husband Chris got a phone call about fostering the newborn who had been left at the firehouse, a designated place under Kentucky’s SAFE Act where you can anonymously relinquish an infant, no questions asked.
“My prayers were answered,” Brittany said of the phone call.
When the Tylers first met Samuel, he was still very tiny and fragile, and a resident of the hospital’s NICU. His medical situation is part of how he was matched with the Tylers as foster parents: they were known for fostering medically fragile babies.
In that NICU, it was love at first sight for Brittany and Chris. “I remember holding him in the my arms and knowing right off the bat, ‘This is my boy. This is the next member of our family,’” Chris Tyler said.
Chris was right. It took 518 days, but the Tylers were able to legally adopt little Samuel on December 18, 2023. He joined big brothers Judah, 8, and Calvin, 5. Chris says their older boys were immediately enamored with Samuel and that the three as a unit are inseparable.
Brittany says snuggles from Samuel are a highlight for everyone in the house. “Everybody lives for Samuel’s hugs,” she says. “He’s such a cuddly kid.”
Having a big family is the fulfillment of her life’s dream, Brittany says, after she and Chris struggled for years with infertility. Their older boys are also adopted, and they are currently in the process of adopting a little girl as well.
“All I ever wanted was to be a mom,” Brittany says.
As for Samuel’s origins, the Tylers say that they are so thankful that his birth mom chose to seek care for him, and they want her to know that they love her. They say they are saving the note she wrote so he can read it when he’s older, and that he sleeps every night with the blanket she left with him.
“I made it into a teddy bear,” Brittany says. “So that he always has a piece of her.”
People across the internet are reeling this week after everyone’s childhood favorite, Elmo, posed a simple question on X (formerly Twitter): “How is everybody doing?”
The answer has been a resounding, “not well.”
The question, which was posted on Monday, quickly opened the floodgates for people across the internet to reveal that the state of their mental health was all around not okay.
“Elmo I’m suffering from existential dread over here,” a user replied.
“Every morning, I cannot wait to go back to sleep. Every Monday, I cannot wait for Friday to come,” another user wrote. “Every single day and every single week for life.”
The responses just kept coming, and it wasn’t long before the red-haired Muppet had unknowingly appointed himself as the internet’s most-needed therapist.
“Elmo thank you for checking in on your friends,” one user wrote. “The world is a bit tough at the moment. Lack of services people need. The economy isn’t great for everyone. Multiple wars. But you have brought us much childhood joy we needed. Thank you. May we all become a little bit more like you.”
By Tuesday night, Elmo circled back with another message saying, “Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you. #EmotionalWellBeing.”
In an effort to care for the adults that have long loved Sesame Street, other Muppets characters chimed in with their support.
sesame street saw the replies to elmo’s tweet and had an all hands on deck SOS meeting to immediately launch an #EmotionalWellBeing campaign on all fronts pic.twitter.com/PPWz1wIcVN
And it didn’t stop there. President Joe Biden praised Elmo’s efforts to support people’s emotional wellbeing saying, “”I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds away and get to sunnier days,” the president wrote on X.
“We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbor in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it,” he continued. “Even though it’s hard, you’re never alone.”
I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds away and get to sunnier days.
Our friend Elmo is right: We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbor in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it.
At the time of publication, Elmo’s original post had been viewed over 181 million times.
If you or someone you know needs a little extra help right now, you can call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. 988 is confidential, free, and available 24/7/365.
A 7-year-old boy went viral after someone recorded him having a conversation with dad in heaven and shared it online.
How a Boy Had a Conversation With Dad in Heaven
After Jeffrey Lipary Jr. passed away in a motorcycle accident early last year, his family was devastated.
The California resident was a husband and father to Jayda and Nicco Lipary.
One particular day after the tragic incident, His son, seven-year-old Nicco was really missing his dad; so he called a family meeting for some friends, his mom, and his sister.
He prepared the group, planning to have a conversation with dad in heaven.
When asked about this family meeting he called, Nicco said, “It popped in my head, I got everything ready. Then after, I sat on the couch and prayed to dad and God.”
Jayda explained her little brother has certain ways of processing and coping, such as watching videos of the family with her dad and hearing memories.
“The way he copes is he likes to talk about my dad,” Jayda said, explaining how Nicco often says their dad is best friends with God.
“He really is. Trust me,” said Nicco.
So on this particular afternoon, he asked the people participating in the family meeting to draw pictures of his dad in heaven, looking down on them and he had them write what they like about their dad.
Then he sat everyone down to have a conversation with dad in heaven.
Check out his conversation with dad in heaven here:
In the video, you can hear and see Nicco having a conversation with dad in heaven.
“Hey dad, how is heaven?” Nicco asks. “Is it good? Is it bad? Don’t tell me cause–please don’t tell me it’s bad.”
Everyone at the family meeting is joining in tilting their heads up to heaven.
“I hope you’re best friends with God. Please protect us,” Nicco continues on. “We love you, Dad. You would give anything to a homeless person. We love you. You would do anything for us.”
After a video of the family was posted online, social media users ate it up…
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is known for collecting medals: with a whopping 28 Olympic medals, he’s by far the most decorated Olympian of all time. But now retired, the 38-year-old is collecting something far more precious: family memories. And with the arrival of his fourth son on January 16, there are now many more memories to make!
Phelps and his wife Nicole posted a joint post to Instagram to announce their new arrival, saying: “@mrs.nicolephelps and I wanna welcome Nico Michael Phelps to the world. Born on 1/16. We’re so blessed to be given a 4th child,” the caption continued. “We’re now a family of 6! .”
Nico Michael (how cute is it that he is named after both of his parents??) joins big brothers Boomer, 7, Beckett, 5, and Maverick, 4. Phelps jokes that being the only girl around, Nicole is definitely the “queen” in their house.
“I think Nicole said something along the lines of, like, ‘I’m so lucky to have a house full of boys and no girls,’ and Boomer looked at her and said, ‘Mommy, you’re the girl in our house.’ So we’ve been saying that and it’s true, she’s the queen,” Phelps told PEOPLE.
Phelps says one of the best things the boys and their queen do to create memories as a family is have dinner together. “As a kid, I always wanted to have dinner as a family but with my parents separated, that didn’t happen often,” he says. “I love how we have dinner every night together at the same exact time.”
Dinner together also gives the family time to talk and communicate with each other about what’s going on, which can be huge in creating a healthy family dynamic. One thing they talk about is emotions. Throughout his adult life, Phelps has been open about his own mental health and an advocate for everyone else’s. He and Nicole say that the mental health conversation is always an open one in their own household full of boys.
“They talk about their emotions,” Michael said of his sons. “It gives me a lot of hope. I just want them to be as prepared as they can be.”
Nicole adds, “We don’t hide from emotions. We teach them that daddy or mommy is having a moment and we need to either give them space or ask if they want a hug,” she said. “And that’s taught them they have permission for their feelings to be heard too.”
With 4 little boys running around the house now, there are bound to be a lot of emotions to express and talk about these days, as well as a lot of fun to be had. Congratulations to the Phelps family and best wishes for many happy family memories made together.
We interact with numerous people throughout our days, whether through our line of work or when we’re rushing to get through all our errands. But how many times do we slow down enough to listen and respond to the Holy Spirit’s leading? Unfortunately, so many of us are so over-scheduled and burnt out that we miss those inner prompts or gut feelings that something’s not right and we brush past that sad or sick human face in front of us. But not Jessica Higgs. This Instacart worker saved an old man’s life simply by listening to that inner prompt.
The Story of How an Instacart Worker Saved an Old Man’s Life
On January 30, 2022, Jessica Higgs was out on her normal job for Instacart. She was picking up groceries and delivering them on people’s front porches. Even though, as Jessica explains, she always makes an extra effort to go above and beyond in her service with Instacart, inner promptings to surpass her normal efforts began for her even before she reached one customer’s porch. According to Jessica’s TikTok video, she was checking and rechecking the order to make sure it was right.
On this particular Instacart order, a daughter had ordered groceries for her elderly dad, and had specified in the order that the Instacart worker could simply leave the groceries on her father’s porch and head out. The daughter had explained that her father would get the groceries from there. (And it’s important to note that this is Instacart protocol; workers are not supposed to go into customer’s homes.)
For Jessica Higgs, normal protocol is what she typically followed. But something insider her—what Christians would recognize as the Holy Spirit—wouldn’t let her just put the groceries down and leave.
Jessica explained, “I get there, and something was telling me, no you’ve got to help this man out.”
And what unfolded after, was how the Instacart worker saved an old man’s life. What she did was life-changing for her and the customer’s family; Jessica explains on her viral TikTok that has had nearly 4 million likes and nearly 200,000 comments, as of today.
The Instacart worker starts her emotional explanation on TikTok with this important catch phrase:
“I just want to start this off by saying, if you see something, say something.”
As Jessica explains, the man came out and she offered to help him, even though she knew it was against protocol to bring orders inside.
“You’re not supposed to go inside someone’s house, but I used my judgement, and I brought the groceries inside…you’re just supposed to take a picture and leave.”
“I could not just leave.”
Thank God she did listen to what seems like His promptings—not only because of how this Instacart worker saved an old man’s life, but because of how she inspired others to listen to inner promptings, too…
