Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

World War II Veteran Parties For His 100th Birthday

Tim Drake & Alan

Alan turned 100 on January 26th, and had a party to celebrate.

Author and World War II historian Tim Drake posted on social media, sharing photos of Alan enjoying his party and gave more details about his time in the service.

“Alan served in Europe during the war as part of an artillery sound ranging battalion. They identified the location of enemy artillery, so that Allied forces could destroy them. Alan was an engineer in civilian life,” he wrote.

“Happy 100th Birthday Alan. Thank you for all you did on behalf of our freedom and letting me crash the party today,” Drake wrote.

To make the day even more special, his grandson helped raise more than $1,100 to buy him a comfortable sofa to enjoy, said a news report.

NJ Police Officer Pulls Boy From Icy Lake

An 11 year-old boy fell through the ice at a New Jersey lake in February. The police received a 9-1-1 call about the accident.

“Patrolman Dave Brosonski, the first officer on the scene and highly trained in water rescue, arrived to find the child stranded in the middle of the lake,” the police department continued, adding that “without hesitation,” Brosonski “entered the frigid water and successfully rescued the 11-year-old boy.”

After he got out of the lake, the boy was heard saying that he didn’t want to get into trouble, and the officer told him he wouldn’t. A neighbor on the scene had a rope to make sure the officer wasn’t in danger of being lost under the ice either.

“The only thing going through my mind was, ‘I’m going to get to this kid, give him the help he needed, and bring him back in,'” Brosonski, who is also a water rescue instructor at the Monmouth County Police Academy, said at the Tuesday press conference.

“I feel it was my job,” the officer added. “I would have gone in no matter what for anyone, whether I was working or not working.”

Good Samaritan Tackles Bank Robber

Humberto was in the bank in Albuquerque when he saw John come in, push someone aside, and walk to the teller, where he attempted to rob the bank. Humberto decided to take action, and tackled John to the floor, scattering over $2,400 that he had taken. The whole incident was caught on the security cameras.

Other customers helped keep John on the floor until police could get there and arrest him. They found that John had robbed the same bank several weeks before. This time he was taken to jail.

Blind Man’s Sight Restored

Thirty-one year-old Stuart had endured problems with his vision since he was a child and in 2023 he was diagnosed with the rare condition known as Leber congenital amaurosis, which made him functionally blind, only seeing some light. The disease causes retinal degeneration. He recently became the first patient in Ireland to receive an ocular gene therapy called Luxturna.

Two weeks after the treatment, he could see large letters on a page, and is now able to read big letters and make out large objects. He has expressed his gratitude to the medical personnel who have helped him.

Infant Thrives After Receiving World’s Smallest Pacemaker

Sarah and Michael went to the doctor for her 20-week ultrasound, and the doctor concentrated on the baby’s heart, diagnosing a complete heart block, in which the electrical signals never get to where they need to go. The only solution was for a pacemaker to be implanted in the baby when he was born.

Heart specialists at the New York hospital searched for a pacemaker that might be small enough to fit into the baby, and found one the size of a large vitamin. “They turned to Medtronic’s Micra, a tiny, leadless pacemaker no bigger than a large vitamin and weighing about as much as a penny. The device had to be specially adapted for Mikey, transforming it into a version where it could be used as a pacemaker generator after pacing leads were attached to his heart,” the hospital’s website reads.

When the baby was born he went to heart surgery immediately and had the pacemaker implanted. He has since gone home and is doing well.

Man Helps Deputies Save Women In Flipped SUV

In Colorado, at about 1:00 am, a 911 center received a call from someone who kept saying “Please”, but couldn’t answer any other questions. The center’s system showed that there had been a crash, so the officers reported to the scene. Someone at the scene pointed the officers in the right direction, where they found an SUV overturned in a ditch, which was filled with vegetation and water. The man at the scene had heard the SUV speed by and heard it go into the ditch.

The officers waded into the ditch and found the SUV. The vehicle’s windows were fully submerged in the water, and at one point, an officer said, “She’s banging on the door,” in reference to a woman inside the SUV. They removed two young women from the vehicle, getting one out fairly easily, and having to use the Jaws of Life to remove the other.

The man on the scene was recognized as a Good Samaritan. “If it wasn’t for you, man, if they would have gone off and nobody would have seen them, they probably would have died, to be honest with you,” an officer told the good Samaritan who helped in the rescue.

Both women, in their 20’s, were intoxicated, but treated at the local hospital. Amazingly, they only had minor injuries.