Good News In America: Road Trip For Kindness, 2 Fierce Grannies
Sometimes to find kindness, a person has to actually seek it out. Mary Latham of North Fork, New York, started on such a journey three years ago in October in memory of her mother, whom she had lost to cancer.
Latham chronicled her travels on a Facebook page, a website and in newsletters, telling those following her journey the stories of goodness and gratitude and people she met along the way.
All told, she has traveled to 50 states, visited 154 host homes and traversed 43,000 miles.
Read the complete story: Woman Spent 3 Years Chronicling Kindness Across U.S and check out more trending news on North Fork Patch.
Below, scroll through more “Good News In America” from Patch editors across the country.
Hundreds of NJ Kids Adopted In Time For Thanksgiving
Courthouses aren’t known as happy places. People usually don’t go there of their own free will. They’ve been summoned to appear in court, subpoenaed to give testimony or ordered to pay a fine. The atmosphere can be tense.
But not in courthouses across New Jersey during November, every day was National Adoption Day, and everyone was smiling: the judges and lawyers who volunteered their time to ceremonies finalizing adoptions of hundreds of New Jersey children and, of course, the foster children and families they’re now officially a part of.
Go to West Orange Patch and read more about National Adoption Day and other trending stories.
Bodybuilding Grandma, 82, Beats The Bejesus Out Of Burglar
This is the first of two stories the enduring resilience of older women, and two grandmothers who showed the world they’re not done yet.
By the time he crawled out of 82-year-old Willie Murphy’s house in Rochester, New York, a defeated burglar had been pummeled with household items and was squinting from having shampoo squirted in his eyes.
Little did the hapless burglar know he had broken into the home of a title-holding bodybuilder. “He picked the wrong house,” Murphy said.
Read more on Rochester Patch about how the fierce grandmother defended her property and started powerlifting to begin with.
104-Year-Old Wisconsin Woman Bags Buck In 1st Hunt
In Wisconsin, a 104-year-old grandmother went hunting for the first time and bagged a respectable buck. And if you think that’s something, Florence Teeter went ziplining earlier this year.
Her remarkable zest for life remained intact through the pandemic flu outbreak of 1918, World War I and the Great Depression.
Read more on Waukesha Patch about the 104-year-old whirlwind and other trending stories.
Thanksgiving Dinner Served On L Train: Video
New Yorkers usually stuff themselves into L trains. But on Nov. 23, L train passengers were stuffing themselves with a pre-Thanksgiving meal.
“Never saw so many people smiling on the subway before,” Andrew Torzano, who happened on straphangers serving up the Thanksgiving meals on a Brooklyn L train, told Patch via Instagram, where he’d posted video of the holiday kindness.
Read more about this and more trending news on New York City Patch.
L.A. Chargers Serve 150 Meals To Low-Income Families
Before he was an NFL football player for the Los Angeles Chargers, Casey Hayward was a kid learning the value of community service at the hand of his mother in Perry, Georgia. The lesson stuck.
Last week, he and teammates served 150 low-income students and their families a pre-Thanksgiving meal at a Santa Ana elementary school. Hayward’s charity, Hayward’s Hands Foundation, partnered with the Orange County United Way to bring the feast to the families.
Read more about this and other trending news on Orange County Patch.
This Video: Turkey Terrorizes Cop, Saves Driver Ticket
A turkey in Livermore, California, interfered with an official act, but didn’t get a ticket from police. Neither did a man a motorcycle cop was trying to give a ticket for speeding when the turkey took him on. Police are calling the bird “No Ticket Turkey.”
Livermore Police Sgt. Steve Goard had to wave his baton to keep the turkey at bay. “You’ll never believe this,” he told other cops back at the station.
Watch the video and read more trending news on Livermore Patch.
Soothe Your Travel Jitters With This Pig
Now that we’re in the busy holiday travel season, this news from the San Francisco International Airport comes just in time: The airport has added a therapy pig, LiLou, to its “Wag Brigade” of dogs.
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The “Wag Brigade” is outfitted with vests that read “pet me” and their mission is to help relieve travelers’ stress. So far, people seem to be reacting well to LiLou, with everyone from kids to adults and business travelers to pilots slowing down to give her a pet.
See the video, read more about the therapy animals and check out other trending stories on San Francisco Patch.
Marine Comes Home to Fulfill 5-Year-Old’s Wish To Santa
Seven months can seem like a lifetime when a kid’s dad is deployed overseas with the military, and Christmastime can be especially lonely for children waiting for their parents to come home.
A 5-year-old in Appleton, Wisconsin, put only one thing on his list. He wanted Santa to bring his Marine Corps sergeant dad home from Japan for Christmas so he and his 3-year-old brother could see him. That Santa has some special kind of connections.
Read more about the reunion of the Marine and his children on Appleton Patch.
Paint It Forward: Tile Project Brings Woman Full Circle
Hannah Donner’s own story is inspiring — a testament to strength, perseverance and the power of faith. She almost died in a car wreck three years ago, but battled back. Her recovery was called “simply miraculous.”
One of the stops in the Manchester woman’s medical journey was the K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital at Jersey Shore University Hospital in Neptune. Then 17, Donner spent 11 days in the pediatric care unit. She’s giving back by spearheading a project to install hundreds of cheerful ceiling tiles to brighten sick children’s days.
Read more about Hannah Donner’s project, how it involved the community and other trending news on Manchester Patch.
Why We ‘Heart’ These Illinois Troopers
Illinois state troopers aren’t strangers to tense situations where every second counts, but they don’t always have happy endings. A heart transplant team was on the way from Midway International Airport to a Chicago hospital with a healthy heart when they had a flat tire.
Two troopers thought they were responding to call to assist a motorist, but quickly realized their mission was more immediate.
Read about what they did and more trending stories on Chicago Patch.
Jimmy Carter Leaves Hospital After Brain Surgery
Jimmy Carter, at 95 the longest-living former American president, was discharged from a Georgia hospital after spending more than two weeks recovering from surgery to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from recent falls.