by Carolyn Fansler
Pennsylvania, USA
The street where I grew up in Philadelphia contained 80 row houses, 40 on each side of the street. It was a wonderful place for a child — always something going on and plenty of other kids to play with.
HeroicStories
The stories of HeroicStories.
This Better Be Good
by Brian Fahey
New York, USA
Easter Saturday 1980, while taking care of one of my bee hives I was stung on the temple. After finishing my task, I took a pill for the sting and forgot it. Bee stings are common to keepers and this one was mild.
With Her Help
by Mark J. Mitchell
California, USA
Dad was diagnosed with small-cell cancer, terminal. “Enjoy what life I have left,” he said. He had three good years before his downhill slide.
I Want to Be Alive
by Vanessa Bailey
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Everyone dreams. Especially little kids. Ask a little kid what he or she wants to be, and you can be inundated with dreams. “I wanna be… a cowboy! an astronaut! a princess! And I wanna live in… a mansion! a palace! a forest!” And then there are the answers that take your breath away. “When I grow up, I want to be alive. I want to be warm. And I want to live in a house.”
The Tree
by Amberly Neese
Fountain Valley, California, USA
My husband’s grandmother, Mary, had always been an agriculture artist. She took such painstaking joy in her beautiful gardens, and each component of her yard vividly illustrated her passion for plants. When she and Grandpa moved from one part of southern California to another, she viewed her new garden as a new adventure and immediately went to work.
Upgraded Expectations
by Robert Gerhart
Texas, USA
A close friend of mine, 88 years old and a widower, regularly listened to church services broadcast live on the radio from California every Sunday. He hoped to sometime travel there from his home in Houston, Texas to attend a service in person.
The Rock
by Bobbi
Oklahoma, USA
As a cashier for a large discount firm, and one of my duties is to take care of the “self check-out” registers. There is *one* cashier for *four* registers, which can be very stressful. The registers are fairly easy to use, but the customer must follow written instructions. Or, spoken instructions begin if the sequence of events isn’t properly followed. Often, they aren’t followed, and the customer becomes angry — with me!
Kindness in Chaos
Donna Whitten
Valparaiso, Indiana
My family and I were in the Fort Lauderdale airport at the time of the shooting in January, 2017. A lone shooter killed five and injured others in the baggage area of Terminal 2. Five of my family were in Terminal 1, and one more was in Terminal 2. None of us heard nor saw anything, and only learned of the tragedy on the television around 1:00 p.m. All was quiet, but we were nervous, waiting to see what would happen next.
A Dollar Short
by Russell Waterman
California, USA
Having to visit the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is never pleasant. It’s lots of people waiting in long lines, being waited on by unhappy employees. In the early spring of 2007, I had business at my local Southern California DMV office and dreaded it.
Just Plane Helpful
by Gentry Hogan
North Carolina, USA
It was May, 1988. I’d just completed basic training in Great Lakes, Illinois and was taking my first-ever off-base weekend leave. We didn’t get much notice about the duty schedule, maybe a week if lucky. This was a rare event: no duty for an entire weekend and I could go anywhere I wanted.