A robotic exoskeleton and unshakable determination are giving her a second chance at walking.
At 18 years old, Mary Maloney is defying the odds in ways that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. Walking confidently down the hallways of AHN Suburban Hospital in Bellevue, she’s taking steps that were once unimaginable—supported by a robotic exoskeleton that’s as life-changing as it is innovative.
Just a few weeks ago, Mary’s record was 300 steps in a session. But during a recent physical therapy session, she was on the verge of hitting 1,000, as reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Do you think we can get to 1,000 steps before we stop?” asked physical therapist Marielle Lynch as the machine beeped steadily along. For Mary, who was paralyzed at 13 after a rare spinal cord stroke, every step feels like a miracle.
“There is no logical reason I should have a video of our last goodbye.”
After a woman lost her father suddenly, she remembered their last moments together were in an airport hugging goodbye so she reached out to see if they were willing to locate the footage. It was a day like any other day for Megan Cyr. The Canadian woman was visiting her father in due to fly back home from Winnipeg to Calgary only to miss her flight due to a mix up in time.
This seeming moment of misfortune turned out to be a gift of extra time with her dad before he died. She writes, “On December 28, 2020, I was set to leave Winnipeg and head to Calgary. However, I misread my departure time. My flight was at 7:00 AM, not 7:00 PM, as I had told my parents. I woke up that morning to realize the flight had already departed.”
A dog’s motherly instinct and trust in humans saved a puppy’s life
In the Beylikdüzü district in Istanbul, security camera footage showed a stray dog holding a puppy in its mouth and bringing it to the doorstep of a local veterinary clinic. The veterinarian that answered the door found the puppy lifeless and took it in while the pup’s mother followed.
The puppy received emergency treatment, as it was dying from a slow heartbeat due to the cold outside. Throughout the treatment, the mother dog stayed at her puppy’s side. Thanks to quick action and care, the puppy survived and is being cared for at the clinic alongside its mother. This puppy turned out to be related to another puppy that was brought in by other animal lovers beforehand, with the belief that it was the sole survivor of its litter.
The chanting, the clapping, the song—this is what community looks like.
As anyone with children can attest, losing your child in public is a terrifying experience for both a kid and parent. You could be at the zoo or a theme park and take just a few seconds to look at a map, scan the horizon for a bathroom sign, pay for a snack, or attend to another child, and suddenly the kid who had been right there by your side is nowhere to be seen. You frantically search the crowd, having no idea which way they might have gone, and worse case scenarios flash through your head.
Chances are, the child briefly got distracted or disoriented and then swallowed up in the moving crowd. It happens so fast, and it unfortunately, it usually takes far more time to find a kid than to lose them. Often, a kind stranger or two will step in to help, but in the case of one little boy who got separated from his dad in Argentina, and entire crowd stepped up and pitched in the best way to make sure they were reunited.
