on your marks set and she's off at a 105 years old in a class all by herself and with a fresh picked flower in her hair Julia Hawkins was running for the record books at the Louisiana senior Olympic games come on you got it you got it she is running 100 m a little bit more than a football field and has to stay in that lane despite not being able to see much more than about a foot in front of her because of her age Miss Hawkins stays in race shape mostly by jogging a mile or two a day near her Baton Rouge home that she and her husband built together back in 1948 and that's where we first met her the day before the race well hello Miss Julia Hello nice to meet you I'm David well David we've been waiting a long time on you well have you ever wanted to be a world record holder older not particularly no are you impressed by it no not particularly I had too many other wonderful things before this this is just a drop in the bucket she grew up in the 1920s when a train ticket cost about a nickel what was the state of the world when you were born much calmer fewer buttons to push and but lots of books to read read she became a teacher and fell in love with gardening she shared that love for nature with a fellow student at LSU named Murray freeh Hawkins Jr or buddy as they called him I met him the first day at LSU I went home and wrote about him in my diary he was so smart it's so clever and so fun he had a good sense of humor and he was vivacious and wonderful we were married by telephone by telephone phone at that time Murray was at Pearl Harbor serving in World War II together they raised four children and after 70 years of marriage Murray died at the age of 95 did you want to live to be this old I couldn't imagine being this old without him it's not the same it's not quite as wonderful what are your dreams I don't have a dream I just want to go to sleep and let it end that's what my husband did we were sleeping together and he sang love songs to me that night wonderful songs so that's a wonderful way to go well until that happens we are going to cheer you on thank you which takes us right back to that 100 met run on race day among those cheering her on were two of her former students 90 y old Rosemary and Evelyn who's 89 she finished in just under 1 minute 3 seconds setting a world record as the oldest American and the first woman to run 100 m in her age group I'm so happy now you know every winner deserves a press conference and this one set her own rules okay one question a peace you want to do it again yeah right now no how about it 106 do it again maybe so who knows see how I feel when I get up in the morning deal we all know the name Rosa Parks whose Defiance on a Montgomery Alabama bus became a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement back in 1955 but chances are you may not have heard about this woman her name is Claudette koven most people don't know her story as a teenager she was arrested 9 months before parks for the very same reason refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person her story is a very important part of our civil rights history and now there's a new development that you'll see only on CBS mornings and we love when this happens lead National correspondent that's you David begau has an interview that we will and it's got a Twist as only you can do I've been waiting for this all morning I can't wait for you to see this and all of you you don't hear about Claudette koven in the history books but you should she's now a great-grandmother and for the past 66 years she has lived with a criminal record in what may be her final protest she asked a judge in Alabama to clear her name by expunging her record and the judge did it this is her story and as Gail said you do not want to miss the surprise at the end needing assistance now it's very nice to meet you claudet culvin has spent most of her 82 years as a convicted juvenile delinquent who would go on to college work as a nurse's aid and raise two sons do you think of yourself as an important figure in history no I think of myself as a survival of the Civil Rights struggle her place in the Civil Rights struggle began when she was 15 years old at the back of a crowded Montgomery Alabama bus after school with three friends I was sitting in the session that was allow for a color people and this white lady came the the bus driver demanded for the four seats and this is you and three others students yes so three of them got up yes and you refused so I refused because this wasn't a elderly white lady this was a young white lady you're sitting there your classmates get up and move yes what was going through your head as to why you refus to stand I said I could not move because history had me glued to the seat and they said how is that I said well it felt as though Harriet T my hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and so J's truth hand was pushing me down on the other shoulder now that happened N9 months before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus overshadowing for decades what a teenager had also done and the traffic Patrol came to the rear of the bus and he asked me why wasn't sitting there I told him I was sitting there because I paid my fair and it's my constitutional rights now watching this interview from a nearby room was Judge Calvin Williams today he is the presiding judge of the Montgomery family court and then what happened oh low and theold two squad car patrolman sto and you know cut the bus off and came they stopped and we said oh my we invited the judge to listen in and hear coven's account of what the police did to her in 1955 and he asked me why was I'm sitting there and I was even more defiant and I said I pay my fair and it's my constitutional rights he said constitutional rights and all I know and they put me in the squad car and handcuff me through the window claudet coven was jailed charged with disturbing the peace breaking segregation law and found guilty of assaulting police officers clawing them with her fingernails they said I clawed the the polican and I kicked the police I didn't do all of that was it the one and only time in your life that you've gone to jail yes at the time I represented CLA Carvin there was no Rosa Park's case as a young Attorney Fred gray later portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr in the film Selma took up her case that's before he went on to defend Rosa Parks in his book he pays tribute the whole history of the Civil Rights Movement may have been different but for clette at the age of 16 she made headlines again as one of four plaintiffs in the lawsuit that would end Alabama's bus segregation in the landmark Browder versus Gail Supreme Court decision when you won in court yes you could sit in the front row if you want yes and did you yes but the charge of assaulting police officers remained fast forward to today when judge Calvin Williams in Montgomery Alabama read her appeal he expunged her 66-year-old criminal record and I'm no longer a juvenile delinquent at 82 she was not present when the judge ruled she didn't know his name she didn't even know what he looked like we have a surprise we have a surprise we have a surprise for you what is a surprise someone would like to meet you so hello miss cvin judge Calvin Williams wow wow wow wow wow judge Calvin Williams oh my goodness Lord oh oh my goodness on behalf of myself and all of the judges of Montgomery offer my apology for an injustice that was perpetrated upon you well this is a surprise so you didn't know that the judge who did this was African-American no I so far the judge wasn't even born when Miss coven refused to give up her seat on that bus when she did this in 1955 there were no African-American judges in Montgomery she stood up for right and now I'm the beneficiary and byproduct of that and I could correct the wrong that was done to her Amen to that Amen to that can I squeeze your hand yes ma'am please do this morning our lead National correspondent that would be deavid David begno introduces us to G Gabrielle Perry she's a Louisiana woman who was given a very unique opportunity David we've been waiting all morning for this story good morning to you here we go good morning my friend look we all make mistakes but not everyone gets someone who believes in them enough to take a risk and give them a second chance that's what this story is about so buckle up for a valuable life lesson and a surprise the life of Gabrielle Perry has benefited from second chances that all began when she was born and given up for adoption I am the birth child of a woman who was incarcerated and that was the story of how I came to be into this world the woman with that bright smile learned firsthand about second chances by watching her adoptive father Thurman Perry run his Louisiana lawn care business and they don't make men like my daddy no more the only people that he hired were the men from the local jail they were from the prison work release program he never treated them any differently did he do that because he wanted to give them a second chance I believe so in my heart I really do Mr Perry died before he could see his daughter go to LSU but in your personal life back home they were for closing on your family home your mom was sick I mean it was just everything was falling apart and Desperation led to a lot of poor choices while in college she got arrested I had taken money um that I did not earn from my work study job I got caught of course and immediately confessed to it she was charged with 27 felonies and even though she paid the money back she had to face judge Bo higen Botham he just was so kind to me and he asked me um if I was ready to go back to school it was almost like it was a collaboration like we were just having a meeting about my future I feel like was meeting with an adviser and this was the judge on my criminal case and there was just so much humidity in that moment and it really changed the trajectory of my entire life Wow Wow the judge decided not to give her jail time and that was another Second Chance dear judge Hagen bom it meant so much to her that she wrote him a letter I stood before you just about 7 years ago as a firsttime nonviolent offender when you called my case you were incredibly kind to me your decision to not punish me saved my life and because of that I get to go save other people's lives now too in deep sincerity Gabrielle Angelique Perry Oh my God hi Miss Barry how are you it's nice to see you again sir I didn't think they would bother you with this no they're not bothering me at all I keep your letter on my desk every single day it gives me inspiration to do what I do every single day he took her to his Chambers to show her he wasn't kidding I took a lot of care in making that letter I really just never thought that it even got to you I I I I just sent it cuz I felt like been sitting right here even after the judge showed Mercy to her she struggled we are in the place that I was homeless the longest bathing in a bucket walking 3 mil a day to work that was her life she says for nearly 3 months after her arrest my peers my sorority sisters everyone kind of just led the charge in just isolating me and that experience gave definition to what has become her passion project the Thurman Perry Foundation named for her daddy the foundation gives financial assistance and essential Public Health Resources to women and girls impacted by incarceration my education saved my life being able to educate women and girls is not just a nicity it's a public health measure it's a public safety measure and that leads us to Tama Starks the first of more than a dozen incarcerated women to get a $11,000 scholarship from the Perry Foundation look at you I want to H you oh my goodness they had never met until this moment inside the Louisiana women's prison it's okay we're here together it's a moment you just look exactly like all your pictur pictures and I keep all your letters and I just yeah and I'm just so Happ yeah I'm happy to see you and I'm grateful for the work that you do you are giving us ladies a voice so there's purpose in the pain there's purpose in the opposition there's purpose in your tears we are very very grateful Starks is serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter what is your story about how you came to be here well I came to be here through domestic violence I remember calling the police multiple times and I also called the domestic violence hotline a couple times and I was told to get a dog a dog to get a dog so in that moment instead of running away I ran towards him and I shot my husband and he died so in awarding a scholarship to her what is your hope essentially women who were incarcerated they're erased I want to be able to give them a sense of dignity and to be able to give them them a sense of purpose just as judge hiam gave to her your decision not to punish me has definitely reverberated we have a scholarship program especially which is honestly a direct result of you letting me go back to school I got to pull myself and my mom out of poverty I got to I got to be somebody well I played a very minor role in this you are the person that played did everything but in fact he empowered her to go on to get three degrees including a master's of Public Health in epidemiology she is now a 29-year-old epidemiologist studying infectious diseases a lot of us move through life and people are nice to us but it doesn't stop us and give us pause what is it about kindness that gives you such pause there's been such a lack of it there's such a lack of it in the world in general it's like you forfeit that by having crossed through a jail cell it's like you are no longer worthy of that and I don't believe that and so when someone is kind to you it has the ability to literally change the trajectory of your life I'm living proof of that Chia Garcia is 102 years old I'm going to say that again she's 102 years old people one of the last surviving members of an all female all black unit that served in England during the war it's the only military women's unit to receive the Congressional gold medal and Garcia's role in its very vital mission is finally coming to light why because she's got a very loving granddaughter she introduced cresencia Garcia to our lead National correspondent David BAU and so you know Magic's got to happen this morning David takes us on a journey through her long life with a special surprise tribute you will not want to miss it's kind of crazy two years ago I received a message from Tara Garcia hi David she told me that her grandmother C CA had beaten Co at the age of 100 now that was at the beginning of the pandemic and we all needed good news then so I tweeted about it and included pictures that terara had sent to me one of which included her grandmother in a military uniform I just knew that she was a veteran and that she was in the Army and that she was very proud that tweet went viral and it was seen by retired army colonel Edna Cummings it was like um being in a casino and hitting the jackpot she started Ed connecting some dots and reached out to Garcia's family she spoke to terara she says let's start here give me her dog tag numbers and we'll compare them as it turns out she was in a burn unit about 30 km from Birmingham England treating soldiers because it was such a Manpower shortage all over you know Europe get this cresencia Garcia is one of only six surviving members of an all female all black segregated unit that was sent overseas during World War II known as the six Triple 8 the 855 women that served in that unit are now receiving long overdue recognition they're the only military women's unit to receive the Congressional gold medal they are part of an elite group of less than 200 recipients the first being General George Washington and I was just like you've got to be kidding me and everything matched up and I looked at my parents and I like I think we just opened Pandora's Box here they sure did they found out that Miss Garcia's name is on a monument at Fort lenworth in Kansas now as the family's finding out about all this I had no clue I never heard from Tara again I got a call from the good Folks at oer Daily in fact I was here at home and they said David we were just pitched about a story involving a2y old woman who served during World War II and her family is only now learning stories that they' had never heard before so my team said we got to do something so they called terara and we had a surprise may I say hello oh dude how are you I have wanted to beet you are you kidding me [Music] surprise oh the pleasure is mine the pleasure is mine understand you don't understand well I came to listen hi hi oh my gosh okay I'm so sorry it's okay I I feel the same miss cresencia my name is David David David hi Davy hi it's very nice to meet you it's an honor actually is it to meet you it is it good for you she enlisted in the US Army at the age of 24 after being enraged by the bombing of Pearl Harbor the Army sent her to Texas for basic training they put me in the black section and there is the white section that's America to you see that's America to you and it's very sad you know very sad I want to talk about your service wasn't much it wasn't much no I I was just a medic you were a medic yeah I was just to take care of the her the her you know when they came in I took care of them thank you for your service you're welcome I am proud to be an American what is this moment like for you I am delighted that everyone gets to see what I see because some people don't they don't get it until you actually experience it and see it you don't live to be 102 without being a spark car I mean right you're full of life you are full of life he said2 oh my God you just reminded her how be careful cuz you be my grandson oh you look great you look great thank [Music] you Mrs Garcia was born in Puerto Rico on April 18th 1920 a loaf of bread cost you 12 cents then woodro Wilson was the president and women didn't have the right to vote when World War II began she told us she had already moved to New York City and felt a patriotic duty to serve her country after the war she married estabon Garcia II an army veteran himself they raised three children in the Bronx she spent her post-war work years working as a seamstress and a pattern maker in New York City's garment district her husband died in 1994 after after 47 years of marriage that's my grandfather let me see this handsome man now we had arranged for a little surprise for Mrs Garcia but the surprise timeline was a little off and she was getting a little restless so what were we going to do you want Scotch I Scot I have Johnny Walker Johnny Walker you want you want one yeah yeah want does she really can we cheers we going to have a a toast okay a toast to you to me at 102 thank you you and 102 Che finally the phone rang so I have one other surprise for you can you answer that [Music] please hello Tara Hi how are you it's Jill Biden how are you doing hi I'm great how are you I'm great too I hear you have a very special grandmother I do I do hello Hi it's Jill Biden ah uhhuh wow my salute for you woman oh you're the one that needs to be celebrated you are one incredible woman and I can't thank you enough for all your service to our country and I salute you keep it up keep up the good word oh I'm trying to follow in your footsteps and in your example thank you thank you Tara for sharing this moment with me and with all of America thank you so much it's really nice to meet you take care love you Mrs Garcia's memory is fading but let me tell you in that moment she was fully present how amazing was that the fact that she knew who that was yeah and she felt that that acknowledgement just now that's all I needed that's all I needed I and I just want her to remember that's all if you were to say to Marquel Taylor hey man what is your secret to success he just might say if you fall in life just get up and keep running at 49 years old he is gearing up for the Chicago Marathon this fall the street of California is where he trains this where I was raised right here not bad for the views no beautiful but for nearly 18 years Taylor could only dream of training in this scenic city by the Bay from his window at San Quenton state prison when you got sentenced did you think you were going away for Life yes yeah I don't think I would never get out in 2001 he physically assaulted his pregnant girlfriend when she went to the ground she said I felt like the baby stopped moving the Instinct came on again like what the hell did I do why did I do this what the hell is going on so they convicted you for the death of your son yes after you abused his mother yes what was the sentence they made it 15 years of life it was a life-changing moment for a man who says he was a victim of violence as a boy we would get abused if the dishes ain't washed or if the house ain't clean or if it ain't clean to their specifications then we will get whooped out of our sleep out of your sleep out of our sleep did something about that say to you that hey hitting people is how you handle things yes that was that connection there growing up did anybody tell you they were proud of you only my teachers ironically it took going to prison for him to hear words like that again inside Taylor joined the 1,000m running club it's a track team at the prison led by volunteer coaches his speed earned him a nickname marel the gazelle they called him it's a story that will be highlighted in a documentary coming out soon how many races did you run in prison every month we had a race how many did you win I won every one of them except for one what were the euphoric feelings in that you got running in prison I got an emotional High an emotional High an emotional High uhuh it was also because when I ran I ran to honor my son it was like that you know what you made a mistake but keep running we have faith in you to be a better person nice marel that Faith stemmed from the kindness of his coaches Strong finish strong head up nice like Diana Fitzpatrick great workout you have a choice when you end up at a place like San Quenton and you can just lay around and let the time go by and wait for something to happen or you can take control of your life and try to do something with it and marquel's someone who really chose to do something with his life did it ever occur to you that you showing him that he mattered yeah is maybe why you got the best out of him I guess I always believed in marel okay DED and trusted him it makes me feel happy so I yeah with that support Marquel Taylor did something that has never been done in San Quenton before he ran a marathon that was so fast he qualified for the 2019 Boston Marathon and get this a month before the marathon he was released on parole after serving nearly 18 years and they gave him special permission to race I couldn't really enjoy Boston because I was still being happy and appreciative of just being free well this spring he went back and ran Boston again off parole and truly a free man what was the time then 252 flat and that is a Time so Speedy he placed in the top 5% of all the runners it's now your drug exact it's now my drug but it's a positive good drug that don't hurt people that's right it helps people he's been given a new starting line at life he's now got his own one-bedroom apartment where he's starting to cook again he got promoted at the grocery store where they took a chance on him his boss told us he is a humble Warrior have a good day thank you new opportunities for a new man who's moving in the right direction what do I see in your eyes someone that stopped running that don't need to run no more that can stand up to all my fears and anxieties I feel like I signed a pledge of being nonviolent and I know that not only do I owe it to myself and the people who I victimized in my lifetime I owe it to all those who are count on me and people who are looking for me to be a positive influence in their life all right what do I look like what is my Tombstone going to say later when I pass what would you like for it to say that he fell but he got up and he changed the life of a lot of human beings for the better that's why I keep doing it and sometimes I have to do stuff like this to continue to validate myself this type of stuff helps helps keep you accountable doesn't it exactly that's what it is the accountability yeah yeah that's what it [Music] is have you ever seen someone on the back of a 1200 lb horse jump a fence well watch again because Lisa bachner is doing it blind I do not see this fence at all until right now how much is getting to a jump and getting over dependent on the horse taking you there 98% wow her left eye is a prosthetic as for the right eye what exactly can you see where I see my finger when it gets here and then it disappears at here you see a little bit of light but again it's blurry mhm you can't make out quite what it is right you can see color I see color very well the minute I see that white fence with flowers in the green I know I need my outside side leg she invited us to her Farm in Wellington Florida where she even gave me a chance to ride with her when did you start riding when I was three she grew up at an equestrian center in Virginia that her mother owned she's been a champion Rider since the age of five when she was diagnosed with Uvis that's a rare inflammatory eye disease and it made School difficult was childhood lonely for you no I had horses it was her mother who encouraged her to follow her passion and ride everything good in my life is because of my mother my mother knew as much as she wanted to keep me at home and keep me safe she bought me a horse bachner never doubted herself but her fellow competitors did they were making fun of my riding that I should stop I remember looking away from them cuz I was crying and I remember thinking I am going to kick your ass the next time I get in that ring that was when I was determined to figure out how to do it and better than anyone else enter Milo an inexperienced horse that bachner trainer found in Europe this horse walked off the trailer and I looked at it and went yeah and I looked at this Ima mangy creature Milo needed somebody to believe in him and bachner did not only did Milo carry her over jumps he guided her through the countless mental and emotional obstacles as they traveled the country together competing and winning where was Milo ranked in the country with you in 2004 uh we won the country I get the chills just listening to you say that well not only that now I've got the chill we were so in tune with each other and we went for 3 months where we didn't lose a class the pairs extraordinary bond is told in her book Milo's eyes while she was at the top of her game she says she misunderstood a conversation between her mother and stepfather that led her to think the competitions were costing too much money so bachner suddenly sold Milo I thought I was bleeding everyone dry I wasn't contributing it was a lot of money in hindsight the decision to sell him was worst decision of my life because You' lost more than a champion you lost I had lost my best friend I had lost my savior but three and a half years later and I very quietly said Milo really and if horses could cry I could feel his body heaving and of course I was a mess and I walked down I said I don't understand and my mom said I bought Milo back for you I found him him and I bought him back for you and I looked at her and I said he's mine again and she said he's always been yours together again Milo carried bachner to one more Victory we walked in the ring and they announced us the entire Coliseum went silent wow and hearing our name together and so three classes 100 people in each class one every single one you did mhm on this horse that was now 16 almost 17 years old that was their last hurrah before Milo died at the age of 17 I knew the moment he was gone because I felt him go through me it was awful nothing will replace Milo left here but Lisa may have found her next best partner this has a magnetic owned and shown by Elissa bachner now with less than 5% of her eyesight remaining she's putting her trust in a new horse she calls mango good job last month we were there as she and mango won first in their class at the world Equestrian Center in Okala Florida Now 49 years old Lisa bachner is riding and she's riding with the intention of helping others to the people who will watch this and say oh my gosh I'm inspired by this woman what would you say I would tell them I knew myself well enough that to know that I could not exist without the horses and that I had to find a way to continue to ride there are people who don't give up and don't take no for an answer and I did not do it myself I had a lot of help and I have no shame in saying that I asked for help and I got it in coffee shops around the country you might want to look out for a little book titled today I am great ful for it's there so that people in search of a latte can also search their souls and write a few words about what they are grateful for a story of coffee in New York City was the first place the book showed up it's so simple it's just a few minutes every day Teddy jeros who for 10 years has written down what he is grateful for every day thankful for the amazing dinner I had with my brother put the book in the coffee shop with the permission of the owner so a story you drop it off and then do you keep going back to the coffee shop every day uh yeah I check up on it and write myself and and what was it like seeing people sitting there writing in it that's always an awesome experience like cuz people would just take it and bring it to their seat and just and just read through it so explain to me what the Gratitude Journal was going to be I was just like oh this is just a tool that I can leave around everywhere to inspire people to practice gratitude it didn't take long before the book filled up and so another one was left there I'm thankful for my pup my health friends and Fam I'm grateful for living room dance parties and nonsexual intimacy I love it I love it and at Bird Rock Coffee in San Diego California he put out more books after he moved there so then how many coffee shops did you end up giving books to around the country I actually don't know my friends would help me out you know when they were traveling they would get books out there and then I started getting random emails from strangers saying hey I saw this in this coffee shop can we bring it to my neighborhood he calls his project grateful peoples and a lot of that gratitude comes right back to him after the books are all filled up how many of them came back at least 100 I would say so when you got your first book back and you went through it how was that I I noticed that when I would feel down I would go pick up one of the filled up books I collected it would like instant make me feel better Teddy Dr by his own admission was not always a grateful person and thinks about that when he comes here where he watched his mother's ashes flow into the Pacific Ocean what did she have she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was a baby uh but eventually passed from cancer his mother's illness robbed him of a normal childhood and it left him bitter he says my experience with her and and her sickness you know Ms impacts the brain and changes Behavior and personality and it was difficult it was kind of hard to be grateful for it at the time but and the thing with why I became so passionate about gratitude and uh started grateful people because the more time I took to write in this journal I realized that everything I was experiencing with my mom was seriously my biggest blessing I'll probably ever have do you have your first entry uh yeah February 29th 2012 I'm thankful I was born healthy into a great family with all Limbs and able to do everything I was was able to as a child playing all those Sports growing up was a blessing if you need a fresh Journal now schools have teamed up with grateful peoples because Teddy jeros has distributed 20,000 books to school children I'm grateful for my father I am grateful for how education changed how I spoke and how I wrote I'm grateful for my little brother doing good in school it turns out that gratitude can foster more gratitude and people actually want to read about it so you ended up writing a book and the book was was written with the entries of all kinds of people yeah it was just like a like a like a collection of of gratitude thoughts and what' you call the book today I'm grateful for and how many entries about a thousand did you read every one of those in the book so I collected 75,000 entries and I read through every single one which was a blessing cuz it was just like 75,000 bits of perspective somewhere in those 75,000 entries was one that said Deanna and today remains part of the Legacy of Deanna mandelo a dancer who died Too Young at 28 years old in a car crash when someone passes you kind of you want to collect everything and every memory and everything that they touched and wrote Jen Freeman a fellow dancer was among the people who knew that a gratitude book at that aoria coffee shop held a link to her friend de so I went to the coffee shop and I asked who was responsible for these journals and they put me in touch with Teddy did Deanna seem to you to be a person of gratitude yes and that is what is really beautiful and sort of serendipitous about this whole connection coming together hearing about Deana was sort of a catalyst for him to actually embark on this journey of creating this book makees so much sense to me because that was the way she lived her life like she always was expressing her gratitude and Teddy's own mother just before she died wrote on July 11th 2019 she wrote I'm grateful to be alive just knowing where my mom was when she wrote that the fact that she was able to just think and feel that way is special to me and and that's why I I love this journal and I'll have it with me forever I got a piece of my mom here it's been 5 years since Teddy dros first left that gratitude book at that New York City Coffee Shop he's still writing at him a new one these days and more often than not about his mother the more you lose the more I gain as your illness took away the simple things it made me realize how lucky I am to have them I'm not sure I'd understand how lucky I am to tie my own shoes if I didn't have to tie yours when you couldn't do it anymore but gratitude taught me it only makes sense to love something I can't change it's the inspiration behind everything I do I just had a big aha moment gratitude taught me to love something I cannot change yeah that that that's what gratitude does it just it allows you to shift your perspective of what already is like I I can't change that my mom was sick but I can look at it as a blessing or I can look at it as something dark but my relationship with her is the best it's ever been it really is even though she's long gone it continues y for sure I'm more connected to her now than I ever was when this baby boy entered the world in Lafayette Louisiana in 2018 his parents Connie despy and Benjamin Hall named him Kingston but they didn't have a middle name it came to them by chance in the form of a handwritten letter that they had received at the hospital Kingston was just minutes old a surveillance camera at Lafayette General Medical Center captured a stranger asking for directions so that she could deliver that letter who was she to my dad's Angel even though I will never know your name you are the first child born here after my Dad's passing when one life is taken another is given please keep my dad in your prayers his name is James thank you this was that stranger Jamie fno you see shortly after her Father 86-year-old James Lee grimit died in the hospital Jamie heard sweet music it's a lullabi that plays throughout the hospital families of newborns come here and they press that button in the labor and delivery a ward playing the lullaby letting everybody know a newborn just arrived on January 12th 2018 Kingston Hall was born right after Mr gmit died the timing seemed more than coincidental somebody said well then that's Dad's Angel so with no escort you just took your letter and I just took my letter and I went to the ob unit I said my dad passed away about 10:40 so give this to the first baby that was born after that time Dr Jennifer Pugi and nurse Sydney begno Reed Jim's letter Dr pugy gave it to Connie and she started reading it silently and she just had tears streaming down down her face and um it was really beautiful I came in and the dad says oh we found our middle name and I'm like great what is it and he says well it's James of course and I'm like oh yes of course my nurse followed me to that side and she was like well do you mind if we get your information and give it to miss Jamie we asked Connie do you remember who that nurse was I know her name was I think Miss Cindy Sydney Sydney yes I think it was syney Miss sney so that's my mom really what a coincidence that's awesome thank you Mom yes it was my mom who helped to deliver baby Kingston and then told me the story of how a stranger wrote a letter to Connie who then decided that the best middle name for Kingston was James named in honor of Mr grimit oh my gosh I'm so happy you came I'm happy to meet you don't you think I was going to meet you I think I'd never see you either the best part for Jamie holding Kingston James a what are we to take away from a story like this family is everything and if you don't have faith you don't have anything you just never know when a blessing is going to come and fall in your lap so y'all will stay in touch oh of course of course we all want to clap so we're just going to clap well that was four years ago how are you now good good great every body's great yes blessed hi how big you are this is actually the first time they've each other since the pandemic started he got it mastered mom baby Kingston just started prek there you go when you see him do you think about your dad always yeah yes yeah always and my name Kon James Hall what does it do for you when you hear him say his name do you think about her dad yes and how far he's came and Kingston he he loves to say his name does he yes he'll tell you I'm Kingston James Hall and I said well go ahead baby I can't even describe it cuz he's here and on top of that he was blessed with an Angel that's right that's right coming into the world jimie has been following every Milestone even putting together a special picture book for Kingston's baptism he was 86 years old I wanted something you know sort of set in stone that he could have through the years that he could look back at when he was born and the story behind what happened what's happened between the two of you in the last four years well we've we talk we text she sends pictures what do you hope this story does for other people share that good things still happen that strangers can become family they're like everybody can come on one Accord and love one another unconditionally without even knowing each other that's it yes yes [Music] defitely When Alan HW goes to work at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston he brings with him a special ability a talent really that he uses when he cares for the sickest of the sick covid patients he takes pictures of what you and I would usually never see because before he became a nurse 11 years ago he spent 23 years as a newspaper photographer and that gives him the ability to tell the stories of these patients this is a gentleman named Ryan Simpson we had to send him emergently to our cardiac ICU and yall believe covid is what damaged the heart so severely oh yeah his heart was beating so fast for many days the how fast 135 to 165 and this is his wife Sarah so this is the first uh moment that she saw him that day and was I think kind of taken aback by all the people in the room as they're preparing to take him to the operating room you know so many Frontline workers have said to us if only the public could see what we see well Alan hws convinced one of the largest hospitals in South Carolina to allow him to give sight to what those caregivers routinely see this is a woman who was very sick she was with us for a long long time and her family brought in this prayer cloth the family wasn't able to visit but this prayer cloth was sort of their represent resentative mhm and what happened to the lady she didn't make it his pictures document CO's grip as it tightens and he was totally there as you can see he's texting people on his cell phone telling them what's going on but why did you want to capture this I felt like I knew where he was going and what happened this is what happened so 2 days later I walked in and there he was vaccinated he is unvaccinated so you're now at a place if I'm hearing you right where you're like say lovey it is what it is don't want to get vaccinated wind up here I have quite a few times had a patient who's unvaccinated and I'll think to myself you did this to yourself but that doesn't last long it's part of being a good nurse is having empathy once you hear the stories of some of our patients from their family members you can become a fan of that person and you just know that they may a bad decision you humanize them yeah you're mad at them when they come in the door and then you start to find out who they are I've had some really hard times with that I mean nurses are broken right now emotionally are you I feel like I am yes every time he gets permission to photograph either from the patients or their family members I think people have a message that they want to get out there the mother holding a picture of the newborn she can't touch the girlfriend who keeps a bedside Journal this is Allan's colleague a nurse he's triple vaccinated but a lifelong asthma patient with all due respect this is one example where a picture doesn't actually do a Justice no it doesn't this is a picture where I was like man I wish I had video my um give anything oh yeah you slow down well our producer was in the room with a video camera read it I anything else ex exacerbated anymore I do wonder whether some people are going to be like put that camera down and pay attention just like full-time nurse yeah well when I'm doing that they're not my patients I don't take pictures of my own patients finally this is uh Mr croon he had the heartstrings of about every nurse in our unit I think when he was there Joel David croon was 72 years old when he died this was the nurse who broke down after she called called his wife to tell her it was time to come in and say goodbye his wife Sandy holding his hand a nurse holding an iPad while a chaplain prayed with him this was the picture of croxton that worried Alan hws would it be too painful for his wife to see then again HS usually never sees the families again someone would like to see you on this day they did Alan hws saw Sandy croxton again how are you doing this time they just held each other no pictures needed just thank you to each other that was 7 months ago now hey David how are you I'm doing good busier in a different kind of way not the amount um of patients that we had before and they're not as um generally not as sick uh as they were before right after our story about your work aired what happened oh my goodness uh I mean my life changed for sure how so I heard from people all across the country I got handwritten notes sent to my house thanking me for everything that I do I heard from healthc care workers across the country saying that they felt like I was speaking for them it was just an outstanding experience so you've had an exhibit of your work at public library in town since we saw you how did that go that went well it was at the Charleston County Public Library they took just about all my pictures from my project and it toured around to the different branches a lot of your pictures showed people who were non-believers they didn't believe covid was that serious or they didn't believe in the vaccine are you still experiencing that a lot I am um although I don't I find myself not asking as much as I used to because a lot of times I don't want to know the answer and he is still capturing powerful images inside the ICU tell me about this photo you took with the mom and daughter at the bedside of this man I was working in the medical ICU at the time and one of my co-workers was telling me how sick this gentleman was and that they were planning on withdrawing care from him on that day the were taken back in March his name is Victor Rodriguez I approached the family and asked them if I made some photos of you in the room with him during his last hours and they uh agreed to allow that it was uh gut-wrenching um there was a lot of love there his wife climbed in the bed with him to be with him for the last time where does that picture stand in terms of impact on on you that was a really hard one to take I didn't want to disturb anything and when his wife Diane got in the bed with him I just thought that that was one of the most beautiful things that you could do during the last minutes that you're going to have with your loved one I'm a 35-year-old houstonian and I suffer from a gor phobia I seemingly lead a normal life as a local store manager but no one knows that I haven't traveled Beyond a one M radius from my home in over 10 years my childhood was extremely limited due to my mother's suffering with agoraphobia and my adult years have been no difference since my diagnosis at the age of 19 you just read that on National Television how does that feel it feels freeing finish the sentence for me for me agoraphobia is for me agoraphobia is prison you work across the street from your house I do you eat across the street tell me some of the things you've missed all of my sisters grad graduations U my niece's graduation tons of birthday celebrations um two grandmother's funerals my sister's wedding she sends me an email right as she's about to walk down the aisle in the email she said uh I know that you would be here I'm sorry I haven't talked about this Cecil found an online lecture from Dr Karen C the owner of the Chicago based anxiety treatment center this year he emailed her while I have never met you it became clear that you understand some of the challenges that many of us face I want to reclaim My Life Dr cassid arranged for a Houston therapist to treat Cecil with online sessions but he was not prepared for what we had up Our Sleeve meeting Dr cassaday for the first time in person you are the bravest man I know right now I've been so excited to see you I'm going to be your exposure coach today she flew to Houston at our invitation tell her what you'd like to do I'd like to ride an escalator yeah uh I'd like to go to the grocery store part of Dr Cassidy's therapy would be to provoke Cecil's anxiety by intentionally hyperventilating that this is done to get him used to the sensation of panic and learn that he can handle it and teach his body to not respond with panic attacks my goal isn't to make this easy okay it's to step into the heat okay and to discover you can take it okay so where's the first place we're going Cecil so the first place we're going to go is to the mall we're going to ride an escalator he was last on an escalator 4 years ago so let's do it he'd rely on exercises to induce dizziness in order to push through fantastic you are acing this what did you feel um the sweaty Palms the dizziness the um the sensitivity to light I think I stood there for like 3 minutes talking to or 2 minutes talking and it just subsided next up was the grocery store now Cecil hadn't been to one of those in 3 years until now he is doing so it's amazing it's amazing to be here lines overwhelm him even the smallest purchase was a big accomplishment yes yes yes yes I think that sometimes when you suffer you feel like nobody sees you when you deal with a goreaphobia people write you off and you're often hidden in the shadows we see you Cecil we see you thank you that was almost 5 months ago how are you now amazing what's changed one of the things I remember distinctly um discussing with your writing in the letter was about you know those obligatory trips to the grocery store or Target you know those simple things and now that's just a part of my life I'm learning to go towards fear and I think that honestly the the biggest thing for me has been really accepting the freedom that was always there um I I just didn't know how to operate in it there's something about the way you're sitting and holding yourself that is even more confident yeah absolutely and when I initially met with you that my issue was just agoraphobia um and that if I only solved that then that would be the answer to everything little did I know that opened the door to self-discovery what else have you discovered who I am what I like what my hobbies are the ability to say no um the freedom and saying in in in the power and being able to finally say yes to know that feelings aren't facts um to know that feelings aren't my ultimate Authority Tick Tock through where you've been that you never would have gone to before before you started on this journey to to give a short list I've been on the freeway I've been to a preserve I've been to a number of parks I've been to visit friends that L could go on and on it has been absolutely amazing and many of these things are things that just happened they weren't planned I just woke up and said today I'm doing what I want to do today but it seems to me you found the way to go Inward and find that you have the answers to unlocking the issues you needed to unlock anyway you know it's crazy I always thought that I needed something that there was something that was going to come and rescue me whether that was a person or a thing and I thought that that would be the magical thing that did it and I waited for a long time for that thing to come and what I discovered in this process is that the missing part was me I needed me and I hadn't connected that link and when I realized that I understood that everything that I needed was already inside of me it had been there all along is there a struggle or a boundary that you haven't been able to cross yet absolutely I want to be clear in that it's still a process you know there are still things that I struggle with of course there's still places that I haven't gone such as what are you still struggling with I haven't been on a plane um there's still places here that I have yet to go but I think that for me the difference now is that I'm okay with being afraid and still doing it I know it took a lot of courage to sit down and do the interview with us and to write to me in the first place and tell me your story you feel like it was worth it oh absolutely there was something so transformative about even that experience for a long time I thought that I could heal from this and then come back out and say okay look at what I went through and I never told a soul I understood for me that I couldn't heal and hide simultaneously and it's been absolutely amazing my job is usually asking people sometimes many times uh to tell their story you came to me saying I'm ready to tell it and that was such a unique experience even for me to witness I thank you for that I thank you with with everything in me I thank you I think that this will be a I know that this will be a moment um that I will never forget I I know that my life has not been the same it will never be the same and I'm excited by the way do you want to get on a plane absolutely first person I'm coming to see is [Laughter] you among the coastal Hills of Northern California right in the middle of wine country my favorite part of my day is my donkey hug Ron King has created a Donkey Sanctuary it's the weight of the head that lets you know he is like happy this is so sweet this 75 acre ranch is a nonprofit dedicated to their rescue and Rehabilitation they're intelligent and they have very high emotional intelligence I give them love and they give me love back I'm a donkey guy now it's a far cry from his pre-pandemic life attired and Gucci shuttling between New York and Los Angeles as a senior VP for time Inc he managed sales and marketing for some well-known Brands was there a moment in your life where you thought damn I've made it yeah I think it was when you know I was flying first class to Milan to sit front row at Versace that was a big deal but in 20 8 the sale of time led to the elimination of King's position so he freelanced but then covid hit the work dried up and the despair set in then came a call from an old friend Phil sway a prominent pop art dealer he hired Ron to move to his Ranch and sell it because it wasn't being used I thought it would be a win-win he could help me tremendously and it would help him give him another project King took the job and while hiking around the property he felt something new this sense of calm my head is always like a snow globe that's being shook it never stops that sense of sort of Chaos in my head was just normal for me when the snow globe stops after 20 years you feel that but you were still enough to recognize it I was still enough to recognize it and respectful enough to act on it I had no thoughts in my head except this beautiful surrounding and I realized it's the first time I felt Serenity in 20 years well serenity at Serendipity King discovered a story about the plight of donkeys known historically as strong pack animals capable of hauling Goods but they've outlived their usefulness so donkeys which could live around 30 years are sold at auction slaughtered and then skin for their hides to be used for traditional Chinese medicine they don't have any Advocates they don't win Races they don't feed a food chain and I thought I need to help donkeys so I said bill I have an idea that I want to run by you I want you to take it off the market not sell it and let me turn this into a Donkey Sanctuary that sounds bananas and he he will tell you he also said it sounded bananas the first thing I thought when Ron was giving this presentation was that he was crazy and I would be crazy to go along with this it's absolutely blown me away and I could not be happier donations support their cause every donkey here would have been killed patches was dying of starvation the only way to help a donkey that's been abused emotionally recover is to love it back to health and I had this moment where I realized that there's a difference between things that I enjoy and things that bring me joy and I was 52 years old when I realized those are two different things it's a whole different way of living you will never be this sick again and in helping donkeys to heal he may be healing his own invisible scars King's struggles began at an early age when this son of a Southern Baptist preacher first realized he was gay they were young and they were religious and they had a little boy so that didn't go well all I really wanted all along was to matter come on by his 20s he was homeless addicted to drugs and alcohol he got sober only after surviving an overdose understanding the power of resilience you wanted to take the donkeys hiking yes sir keep these guys fit King rebuilds the donkey strength and Trust so that they're ready for adoption for a long time proving that I could be someone or be something motivated me that part has gone but I want a matter to the world to the donkeys to people you know changing lives may be a heavy burden for a lot of people but it is a load that these animals seem to haul with Grace I was pretty accomplished by all those standards and I found myself with the rug pull out from under me and for that level of Despair to be so close so recent is really an important lesson in resilience and and turnaround good morning there is light at the end of the tunnel and it's not always a freight train sometimes it's donkeys that 7 months ago Ron how are you now yeah things are going great we have been flooded with donations and volunteers and adoptions so it's been super busy and super fun hi she's brand new here she's just learning to trust us with the surgeon donations they've gone ahead and built five new pins for quarantining animals when they arrive that's to protect the health of the herd we've taken in five donkeys in the last three weeks do you still feel like what you were doing matters what I really realized is as long as we stay true to what we're doing and why we're doing it that that mattering starts to amplify and then we now have 91 volunteers all of our volunteers share how much they feel like they matter and his vulnerability struck a cord he was invited to share his story with a group of medical professionals who help troubled teenagers I really spoke about different ways in which teens could feel like they matter why mattering is of such importance as you know I was a struggling teen and so that was really meaningful to me hi baby girl it's never too late for a new start and chasing Joys it's Amplified out to literally thousands of people and once that happens you really feel like you're making a difference oh my [Music] baby we going to give you $500 no no no no less for word can I give you a hug of course if you were to just scroll through Isaiah Garza's social media account you would get what feels like a lesson in random acts of kindness [Music] why my God thank you sir this is one of the best days of my life every day garal Lin's a helping hand to strangers and a lot of them are homeless I got you a brand new cell phone sweetheart phone food clothes money anything that might brighten their day to build an actual connection and a heartfelt love for a human being it it makes me feel really good and sometimes he gives them what they need most I raised you guys $25,000 you guys are getting a home you guys are no longer homeless I got kind of like obsessed with seeing people happy and seeing the reactions on people's faces who like maybe live on the streets or struggling you know because I myself as someone who struggled for so long Garza grew up in Washington state his parents immigrated from Mexico and he says life from the very beginning was not easy at one point we you know we got our house taken from us and we had no money and we had to sell everything and we were living paycheck to paycheck and just that I was like I'm going to find a way to get out of here and I'm going to save the day he eventually got a scholarship to fashion school in Los Angeles but for almost a year he lived on the streets of downtown LA coming back here it's just like facing your demon it's just uh it was tough that it was tough at that time maybe that's why you are so comfortable among who are exp absolutely you know absolutely I tell I tell that to people all the time it's almost like a comfort those tough years didn't break him he'll tell you it made him a better person and enabled him to do what he does today so selflessly if I didn't become homeless and struggle and suffer I would have never have done what I'm doing today it would have never have happened that way there's no chance there's no chance cuz it just gave me so much you know of what passion and drive maybe some weird energy that I can't you know that maybe suffering gives you I'm going to go to the store right now I wanted to see if you needed anything are you serious I'm dead serious he turned that suffering into a business as a well-renowned celebrity loved jewelry designer I actually became my own publicist and started contacting their managers and stylists myself and I would just tell them like hey my name is Isaiah Garza you know I grew up homeless and I you know I've experienced homelessness and this is my story and people were crazy enough to say yes but I love that you didn't try and whitewash the story sure you didn't try and sugarcoat it you like leaned into your homelessness I leaned into it because that's what makes like my story special in a way Isaiah Garza has garnered close to 10 million followers on social media he secured deals with Brands like KFC he's raised money through GoFundMe and in some cases he uses his own money to give back how do you make sure that when you go out and shoot that video you don't come off like a used car salesman there's always going to be people that are going to be skeptical no matter what you do I think I know inside of my heart and soul that but I'm coming from an angle of love and and as long as you approach things with love that's all that matters ice cream ice cream get your ice cream on the day that we were with him he rented an ice cream truck handing out free ice cream to people who are homeless on Skid Row in Downtown LA we're all the light sometimes but he's the light sometimes without him flashing his light we'll get lost in that dark he told us that he hopes to build lifelong connections and even friendships with people like the herar family I forgot my wallet today okay and I wanted to see if he'd be able to like possibly buy my lunch for me so he surprised the family by first asking them to give him money how did you feel about being asked by a stranger for money well that was surprise and then all right It's Only Money I could earn that one again as long as it helps you that makes me feel better and that's when Garza turned the tables I would love to buy you and your family's Christmas presents I'm going to give you guys $500 wow so for Christmas man it turns out the herard had just moved to America and they were struggling financially and emotionally their daughter Sophia has cerebral paly since December Garza has helped to raise over $36,000 for the family what would you want people watching this story to know about Isaiah and his idea it's like his um angel said from above um here I am answering all your problems how much was this this only $5 $5 I'm actually going to give you [Music] $500 what do you get from these videos I mean life life and love it's like a really generic answer but that's what it is what are you hoping to do next my goal is ultimately to become one of the greatest philanthropist of my generation I want to build schools in third world countries and I want to build my own shelter someday or shelters I think that I was born to do this and when you're born to do something you're going to do it until like the wheels fall off the life story of Deanna shrs was a story without a beginning at least she didn't know the beginning but she was determined to find out I have to know where I started and I have to know who else out there is a part of me that desire never never never left schs was adopted as an infant she was 27 years old when she found her biological mom she was not open to meeting me and then I went and met her personally I just showed up knocked on the door so you meet her and you guys end up having a relationship for how many years 20 years until she died you had one question for your mother which you kept asking yeah and it was who is my father and her answer was I'm going to go to the Grave with the name had no idea she was sick had no idea that there was cancer Brewing weeks later she was diagnosed and a couple months later she was dead she took it to the Grave she took it right to the Grave Just give me a call now the story almost ended right there but her mom did tell her two important things about her dad he was Greek and from Richmond Virginia so she set out creating a private Facebook group finding Mr Greek she gathered a group of friends and volunteers who would help search for him and she signed up for multiple DNA Registries hoping that science would lead her to her father how many years do they try to find Mr Greek well it's been 10 years I got maybe five matches on my father's side so I'm like this is terrible like we don't have anything to work with here on the DNA side just open yourself up for just a new level of healing and restoration in your life she is an ordained minister so she prayed a lot I told my husband I told my best friend Laura I said listen guys you might think I'm crazy but I was in prayer God spoke this to me your father's name is Gus well sure enough in May of this year after nearly a lifetime of wondering her prayers were answered there was a match to a cousin she never knew she had I reached out to this cousin and I said uh we've just matched on 23 and me and he said I think you're my uncle Gus's daughter and I said I think that [Music] too his name is Gus Gus Nicholas 92 years old he lived in Richmond all his life a bachelor who was never married he was a retired ballroom dance instructor I prepared myself to find a grave and I now found a person and it was just absolutely mind-blowing couldn't believe that I had found a person schz called him the very next day my heart was beating out of my chest I was like what is this going to be like and is he going to accept me is he going to want to see me when I found him he was so excited to be found he said I woke up this morning and I was alone now this afternoon I have a daughter I have a son-in-law I have three grandchildren I have great-grandchildren he said I'm not alone in the world anymore and I said no you're not you're not within a week she was at Gus's bedside well I'm here glad I'm glad I'm here too as it turns out just four months before they met Gus had fallen at home he was found lying on the floor he could no longer care for himself so the state placed him in a nursing home and that's where they first met Gus would say to me please don't let me die in here don't let me die in here and I said you know what I'm going to make sure yes they are father and daughter but still strangers which makes what happened next absolutely remarkable Dian said to Gus would you like to come and live with me to which Gus responded how soon can we go and so 56 years after she was adopted and 75 short days after she first called him shrs and her husband Pastor Larry schs took Nicholas out of that nursing home and drove him to their home right outside Tampa Florida okay you got the orang juice yep they now provide for him fulltime she cooks his meals Greek he always prefers and she feeds them to him her guest room is now his bedroom there are the momentos that he asked her to bring from the Richmond home his trophies dancing shoes favorite hat and a picture from the good old days I love you so much 9 2 years of memories are packed into this 80t room it is just big enough for his hospital bed but intimate enough for the conversations they have I knew your mother for 60 some years I knew her hi Gus I even got a chance to say hello how does it feel to have your daughter find you it feel good yeah I didn't found my daughter my daughter found me she found found you yeah to the man who gave her life she is prepared to give back to him until the end of his okay she's asked just one thing of him will you tell me all about you it is the most worthwhile thing I've ever done in my life it's the hardest thing it's the most worthwhile thing it's the most incredible Miracle I've ever had the privilege to live out yeah I'm living the dream isn't that wonderful yes we've got a story straight from the heart this morning it came to us from our Houston affiliate kou a boy with autism whose name is Carson blew a bubble one day and gum popped all over his face bully swarmed his wrist was broken and so was his heart he suffered the kind of bullying that millions of other kids endure some daily but the world can be an incredibly generous place I put out a call on social media looking for for video game designers who jumped in quickly to help us make Carson feel special he loves me we're best friends so this started as a story about what's wrong with the world what's broken so I was walking home from the bus stop and a kid made me fall and I broke this does it hurt your feelings that he did that yeah yeah it sort of does Carson Thompson a 13-year-old boy with autism left with his arm in a sling so I called Carson's mom and asked her what is the one thing that would just set his soul on fire and she said well if he could meet a video game designer that's what he hopes to be one day in fact when he's not playing games he's pacing through the backyard planning for the games he'll create what did you tell him I didn't tell him anything whates what does he know so far he knows nothing on this day he was in for a big surprise video games are the highest form of art you got art music in the future I want to make games like um I have a lot of ideas he had no idea that he was on his way to meet a team of designers who do just that hey Carson hi car welcome to 6ot Studios you know what we do here make games we make games games this place is awesome this is just a Lobby swords [Music] there you go we had before I can see I just use those to be able to all the Cs are going in his mind he thinking don't worry about bullies don't worry about any of those things okay thank you so much you're welcome how was today for you today was awesome I'm pretty inspired I think that I am going to make the best game ever created I like that I like that attitude best video game yet and you know video games are a real high form of art you can see them pacing think through the story the combination of creativity the engineering its narrative yeah he's going to do something great you know what's interesting when we air stories like this on broadcast we usually don't know what impact they'll have but this thing we did a little differently we posted Carson Story on social media first and I got tell y'all the reaction was priceless uh let me share a little bit of it Carrie Kaylee actually wrote my son Carson is 11 same name Carson he has ADHD and autism and this touched my mama heart the world needs more kindness like this Katie commented I love this so much this precious boy these beautiful guys I feel like my Grinchy heart two sizes today and there was a lot of support for Carson in his future Joshua wrote the skies the limit Carson can't wait for the best game ever I'll purchase it but the best part is what it did for Carson that's what I like out out of all this to go through something he comes out on the other side yeah and I got to tell you this came to us from our cameraman Dwayne who lives in Houston he saw it and he sent it to me and I called Carson's mom and I how's he doing and she's good she said good and I said has there been an outpouring of support she said well people want to give him material things but because of his autism material things don't really matter to him and I said well what would just throw him over the edge and she said to meet a video game designer and I put out a call on social media and instantly they started popping up and six studios in Houston thanks guys within 48 hours open the doors wow that's the positive side of social media yes there you yes that was awesome D so we need more of that David beg on the positive side coming up coming [Music] up as much as Gregory hop tried he was unable to outsmart time Let It Go his song 369 loves of mine was a tribute to his three children It Was Written after he was diagnosed with colon cancer and told he had just months to live tell me about that song I listen to it and I love it so 369 is the ages of the his kids so Jane Max and Henry yeah Henry being the oldest and he just goes through and describes um Heather sorry they're each each a love of his and why he loves me just a little about [Music] them what Greg didn't know when he wrote that song was that he and his wife Megan we're both Running Out of Time Christa Liber is Megan's twin sister what happened she just died suddenly she was sitting on the couch with um her brother-in-law and all the kids were playing upstairs and she just took her last breath and died four months after Greg died from cancer Megan died due to Cardiac Arrest she was just 40 years old she had an undiagnosed heart condition Christa was tasked with telling her twin sister's children how did they react Henry had tears right away I just told him you know we're just going to be a bigger family now and we're going to be here for you and I want you to know you're never going to be alone ever you're going to be taken care of seemingly overnight 40-year-old Christa and her 37-year-old husband Dave went from three children to six one dog to two and they did it all without even hesitating can I have those they're just one big gang you know the cousin crew everything in this house comes in pairs now mhm the dogs the twins love everybody the girls the boysa Henry for Henry who is now 11 the memory of his mom and and dad is ever strong I used to have like long talks with like Daddy Emma we'd like walk talk everywhere we just like talk about the future like what what would will happen like you nice and calm everybody miss about mommy just watching chills with her talking to her like mostly just talking like little things I I miss that it's been about 4 months since Megan died can you know to and Henry and his siblings are now easily settling into a life with their aunt uncle and cousins and that's in part because of the community that swarmed in when their world came crashing down after Greg died and then after Megan died there was this Village of people some strangers right who came together and said what to you how can we help what can we do some people would do something as small as help with a cat other people donated lots of money there was nothing too small and nothing too big and I it all added together to like be this kind of unified front of stability for the kids and because of that support in the midst of insurmountable grief there has been Joy the laughter of the children just being kids extended family all huddled together around a Thanksgiving table decorating the Christmas tree taking the new family Christmas photo can you say to there have been lessons too for everyone like making your health a priority you see shortly after Greg died Dave was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease had you been putting off how you were feeling for a while yeah I was feeling things and things were happening and I just chocked it up to stress then came Christa's Health shock that she thought was stress you started feeling something funny I had been feeling palpitations and shortness of breath since either the pandemic or Greg's cancer diagnosis both the same time but that's around when I started feeling it and I thought like my sisters is just anxiety but after her twin sister died Christa decided to get her heart checked just in case and what did they tell you I have uh Long QT syndrome which is your heart has an electrical conductivity issue it can cause sudden death fainting seizures I told Dave I my sister saved my life you know her I say her death was not in vain there's a bigger picture here and how old are the twins one one everything that this family has been going through reminds them that life is fragile but with the help of a village and with unwavering love life marches on because it has to because the alarm clock still goes off in the morning the school bell still Rings watch out beyond the grief the hop kids have found happiness in this hole how would you describe the kids now I love him so much um they are really resilient they're okay they truly are they're okay and no we may not be able to outsmart time but maybe it's not about that anyway who's that me see looks like me yeah what is the takeaway from this story don't wait for tomorrow to come be here in this moment rely on the kindness of strangers when it comes thank goodness for counseling and the school's involvement and the kindness of these strangers and all the friends and family that have surrounded us and made us feel the love cuz these kids feel it too we all [Music] do here's my room aha enter mine's world world and you come under the mystical spell of a mythical creature what is it that makes unicorns so special that their magical horn it grants you magic wishes if you ask yeah double rainbows in the sky magic purple butterflies at 7 years old she is obsessed with unicorns they live in the magical forest of Scotland that fictional Beast so beloved and popular is the real national animal of Scotland in Celtic mythology it is a symbol of Purity innocence and power and have you been to Scotland no so what's the plan to get your unicorn well I'm going to take a airplane okay and then I'm going to find the unicorn in the magical forest and bring it back on the airplane meline has been SMI with the Unicorn since she was 3 years old and could tell you anything you want to know and what else is involved in taking care of it making sure it sees rainbow sunlight and moon beams so I'm going to make the bar and have a glass roof one back in November meline told her mom Leilani that she wanted a real unicorn so Mom suggested that meline learn the rules about owning a large animal by writing to the the Los Angeles County Department of animal care and control I would like permission if I could have a unicorn in my backyard if I could find one now Mom there are things over the course of our life that we explore and come to understand what's your intention sort of behind going through the process with meline Well mine's a very curious little girl anything that she proposes we want to encourage and support so when she came up to me with this idea I thought okay we can do this but let's do it through the proper measures of seeing what's required to maintain such a large animal you're so cute enter Marsha mayetta the director of Animal Care and Control for LA County she got mine's letter and she wrote her back the first requirement is that she comply with all County regulations about keeping animals that she had to feed the Unicorn watermelon at least once a week cuz that's their favorite trait she had to polish the unicorn's horn at least once a month with a soft cloth and any Sparkles or glitter used on the Unicorn must be non-toxic and biodegradable of course well after agreeing to follow those rules meline visited the Animal Care Center on her seventh birthday to get her unicorn license the first ever issued by LA County it is bigger than me I think the takeaway for parents is to support your children's dreams you know don't stifle them I think it's really important that adults do that when LA County shared mine's story on social media it went viral touching Hearts around the world I would just like to thank you for reducing me to a blubbering weeping mess when I read about your beautiful piece of kindness to meline I'm a 6' 240lb piece of British meat who has seen his fair share of savagery and nastiness in the world animals and humans alike should be grateful as you make the world a better place we're just kind of riding on that wave of Joy while our fascination with the Unicorn goes back to ancient times they are as popular as ever today and what's the takeaway for everybody who felt something from this story that there's really still a lot of that innocence and just pure joy uh still out there and it's a lot of fun to follow oh I have an idea I'm going to go get a book to read to you after all a child's imagination is boundless I think I've learned if you want something then you have to ask for it and to ask for it you have to do something to ask for it I love [Music] it this is the first time that Ivonne white is going to see the home where her brother was treated like family Hi how are you by a woman who rescued him put it in perspective you saved his life you saved another human being's life during the blizzard last month in Buffalo New York shakyra ay took action when others might be less willing what you did was just beautiful just beautiful I just did yeah but you know he made him comfortable he felt the love he was at my door banging when I woke up um I Heard help help it was Christmas Eve shakyra looked out her window and saw that man struggling in the snow he keep screaming hope I don't know what to do I feel so terrible it was 4° outside he can't even walk like the the wind is so bad the wind was gusting 53 mph he had no gloves on looked lost and in pain the 35-year-old and her boyfriend Trent s Jr took him in 64-year-old Joey white has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old according to his sister he lives in a group home just a few blocks away from Shaky's home that morning Joey left home headed for a movie theater where he's worked as a custodian for 40 years it's unclear how long he lingered in the cold he was so Frozen his clothing was completely froze what were his fingers like they were in a it was bed up with the bag in his hand I told him I walked him through I said I have to cut the bag because the bag was froze he had ice literally ice B around his hand after bandaging his severely frostbitten hands shakyra called 911 again and again but the weather conditions made it impossible for First Responders to reach them I was waiting for the National Guards and I still was waiting for 911 paramedics fired I was waiting for anybody and nobody ever came as the hours passed the snow just kept piling up so Joey spent Christmas with shakyra Trent and their kids she did his laundry fed him even played movies for him we got to get some help all the while his hands were literally changing color and the pain was becoming unbearable I was thinking if there's going to take them this long to come and get him yeah and he's alive how long is it going to take him to come and get a dead body if he was to pass I couldn't wrap my head around I I just couldn't do it this young man's fingers is going to fall off on Christmas night she turned to social media panicking I had to use these to cut the ring off of his finger I'm not no Sergeant I'm I'm right here Joe about 36 hours after their ordeal began I thank these men for helping two Good Samaritans answered her plea yeah we all love you we right here with you you hear me cuz what you tell me I'm your friend right we're friends right we're friends forever and drove them to the hospital when I got in the truck I he told me he was scared and I said I'm scared too I I'm scared too Joey and I said you know we got help we're going to go the doctors are going to take care of you and then when he told me he loved me I knew I knew he really felt safe this man could have died 64 years old could have died outside I wasn't letting that happen on my watch and he wasn't going to die in front of my kids what do you think the takeaway is I feel that especially nowadays the way our country is everything is just you know the weather is terrible this is terrible and then to see the compassion and the love with two strangers yeah is is just amazing so you tell me where the connection is it's here it's it's it's not here it's we got him to theery room in the spirit of that first Christmas more than 2,000 years ago shakyra ay made room in her home and in her heart for that Stranger in need I'm right here when you think back back on it all mhm what makes you emotional I knew we needed help and I just kept thinking about what if it was my family member Christmas wasn't even about gifts about my kids it wasn't it was literally him Christmas was him he was a very good Christmas gift and now for the rest of my life I will remember him what would you say to people watching this who will encounter something down the road people should be kind be loving we'll take a lesson from you so thank you you're welcome I didn't want to do this story and have you look like a fish in a fishbowl that we were just looking at okay and I appreciate that because respect is a good starting point meet Cashman Cashman Whitley you have had an incredible amount of kindness shown your way here lately I sure have and I am grateful for every bit of it Whitley has no home but for the past few weeks he's been sleeping here at the home of Carmen Flores and her partner Tatiana Guerrero they had seen him on the street looking really sick and sleeping in front of a church on a cement cold slab and the church didn't open its doors I was like okay if our institutions aren't doing it then we have to do something as a Young Man whitle traveled America working carnivals see here but money he says was always tight and after a divorce the life of this father of three spiraled in 2000 he landed in Southern California didn't have money to uh rent a place to live I didn't have you know a way to get started so I simply wound up on the sidewalk could you find a job no after 10 years with the carnival I have no verifiable job references I have no address and at the time no phone number no the employers got they have their standards and I'm below it I have been told go away no you can't have a job application because you're homeless and how does that feel cash actually if I hear one more time I'm going to melt down because it's wrong cuz if I'm actually a human being I should have the same chances as everybody else the 59-year-old avoids homeless shelters I have ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder I am not accepted by other homeless people I don't drink I don't use drugs I'm different than they are this is the story about how a group of people in Claremont California who did not know each other stepped up to help help him and in the process they saved his life starting with Flores and Guerrero who housed him and fed him Jesus left us this Sacrament Jesse Smith is a part of that group too she is pastor of St Ambrose Episcopal Church where whitle showers twice a week and attends Services Pastor Smith who along with her husband has taken whitle to multiple doctor's appointments says he gets offended when people don't treat him as if he matters I saw it over and over going to the emergency rooms with him calling the paramedics having the police called him on him here or there or wherever he's not seen as a human he was seen as a nuisance Whitley had been ignoring a growth on the left side of his face until the pain became unbearable it was so bad that I I just scream uncontrollably I mean literally at top of my lungs and people would call the police and the idea was get rid of him they would take me to the clinic the clinic would send me to a dermatologist the dermatologist would just say well just put this cream on it or take these antibiotics which weren't working and then I'd be screaming again and this went on for a year Dr David NASA is a retired pathologist who met whle on the street he called some of those agencies that were giving him the runaround that calling and it eventually threatening and what makes you emotional well seeing somebody suffer like that in front of everybody and nobody was taking any initiative nobody cared about him he tried to get something done now for that I can say that he has tried to be a good friend the diagnosis was skin cancer he wanted immunotherapy but his Medicaid insurance plan didn't cover that so that's when counselors at City of Hope a comprehensive cancer center gave him just that hope they helped him to change his insurance so that he would qualify for the care he wanted Flores and Guerrero who both work in the healthcare industry went with him to advocate for him this is much better that immunotherapy is working wonders how do you feel well I feel a lot better than I did three weeks ago three weeks ago I feel like I was done D and I probably was if you ask him how he feels about Flores and Guerrero I think they they saved my life because he probably did so much changed in your life just in those 3 weeks you were with them it's only because of one thing they really do care Reverend Jesse Smith she really cares my friend Dr Dave nesa really cares why don't we end this with me giving you a hug why not okay come on with people like these in my life I've I've got to land on my feet I can actually see a brighter much brighter future it's in good shape oh you better believe it only has 82,000 miles on it well that future got even brighter back in January Flores and Guerrero took him to look at a vehicle and he liked it we asked that it be something that help him in his journey moving forward an anonymous owner gave Pastor Smith the money for Whitley to buy it in the name of the father and the son and the very next day some members of the congregation were there when it was blessed how much money do you have now I got about $20 and 34 of tank gas not too bad where are you sleeping I'm sleeping back into the car right now you know it's cuz I'm still in transition P right now he is convinced that better days are ahead for him and it is partly because of those people who showed him that he matters month ago was like you know well somebody just hurry up and pull the plug on me and just get it over with you CU I was just exhausted I can see myself getting better now yeah I can see myself getting back to doing some type of meaningful work you know and and that that I find very helpful [Music] we met Cash 5 weeks ago and I am happy to report that as of today the skin on the left side of his face is healing wonderfully I took him to lunch last weekend and I also took this picture of a big old smile on his face it all started with this Tik Tock it makes me so sad to see my parents just wait for customers to walk through the door at their Vietnamese restaurant Jennifer Lee posted that back in January along with some reviews and it's like my favorite it's so good of her favorite dishes from her family's restaurant and we give a lot of portions too so good so good in Santa Rosa California just come check us out I really hope to see you guys there thank you Lee's noodle house has been open for 20 years but financial trouble started in 2017 when the Dead tubs fire then the largest wildfire in California history devastated Santa Rosa their building survived but left the leaf family out of business for a month then there was the pandemic their dining room was forced to close for 6 months to go food only Jennifer's father is Wong Lee especially we cannot afford High employee so hard so we have to hang in tight and took me and my wife and just hang there and try to survive Lee and his wife cook the food they serve it too and their children help when they can Jennifer a grad student in Southern California thought maybe my Tik toks will go viral and that might help the family business so this is our Yelp review if you guys can take photos of your food and upload it it would really help my parents' business so thank you guys all so much for the support and love thank you it worked more than a million people viewed her first video and you know what happened after after that I was shocked to see how many people were here almost immediately new customers were walking through the door packing into the tiny 50-seat restaurant heck even the long time customers couldn't believe it it's a little too crowded for me at the moment so much so that Jennifer ended up flying home to Northern California just so she could help her parents serve the food wow the power of social media is like insane okay come with me to Lee's Noodle House when Erica Al to saw Jennifer's Tik Tok she activated her own audience of more than 100,000 people on Instagram to help but first she took her family to eat it Le so they could try the food I realized I live less than 2 miles from this place and so I decided to call on my audience cuz I have a big local following and ask them if they would like to contribute to a larger tip after I'm done with my meal and pay for my meal and pay for my tip the meal was so delicious so fresh the bun was perfection you've got to go here the best part though are these guys the owners the tip ended up being I ended up raising $2,000 to give to the family for their restaurant you know my community did that for for them how is it being a local being someone who likes to contribute to the conversation locally to watch the goodness that has come about for this restaurant from strangers thanks to social media I know it's just it's incredible cuz not only did people donate near and far to go towards the tip but people you know came in for lunch and they're continuing to come which is so cool to see that there's so much momentum still behind it and it wasn't just like one solid weekend of business it's been weeks of business which has I think you know changed their entire business from closing and being able to stay open which is incredible it's no secret I love the food oh so your favorite thing still the pot stickers I think so but I mean I I would eat everything Mr Lee served us and everyone else that day his wife was back in the kitchen cooking and that's where I first met them oh hello Dam it nice to meet you nice to meet you thank you for coming that donation from Altus is going to help the leaf family start making some improvements around here be honest you that money that's going to have like fix the AC central air conditioner buy a new ice machine that's carry on cuz my I machine broke down my central air broke down so hopefully I use this money to repair this summer meanwhile if you're ever in Santa Rosa and you can't get a seat there's always takeout and this takeaway I think it just gives you kind of a restored faith in humanity right I think with so much going on in the world that people want some good news and we need to get it more into the mix so I love that you guys are doing this and you're highlighting this because it may make people do this in their own communities and try to support restaurants in their own communities or any business in their Community that's struggling and so I think that's the takeaway is one small act can go a far away to that yeah it's just bring so much love and joy to my family because without the the people from Community I I don't know if I can survive and to think it all started with a daughter just trying to give back to her own family since Jennifer posted that video Revenue she says is up 30 to 40% if you look at the Yelp reviews online it's good 4.5 Stars nearly 300 reviews and take it from me who was eating like a pig on camera that's some tasty food we did notice that David Patty said smaller B DAV small right no we all wanted to be there a couple of those buns those pot stickers look great Eric Larsson is packing for a trip he never thought he'd make a journey to the North Pole it's not the destination that he assumed Was Out Of Reach he's been to the North Pole six times already North [Music] Pole what's incredible is that he's able to travel again at all you see back in 2021 the 51-year-old Larson was diagnosed with colon cancer he says the doctors told him it was terminal hearing that [Music] news and trying to think about what those few years would be like with my family and my young kids was to say it was difficult is is a extreme understatement but the prognosis was wrong the cancer was survivable though the treatment was debilitating six rounds of chemotherapy radiation and 14 in of his colon removed what was your lowest point during the cancer I mean how much time do you have there there are so many low points when I had uh surgery to remove the cancerous area of my colon I had a very difficult recovery I was on ox codone I was in bed I couldn't sleep and I would um uh wake up in the middle of the night and just try to walk around the room I could barely get out of bed it was so much pain Larson always had a major advantage on most people because years of Adventure taught him how to survive in the harshest conditions he is after all one of the world's least leading polar explorers in 2006 he and a partner did the first ever summer expedition to the North Pole in 2010 he became the first person to Journey to the North Pole the South Pole and Mount Everest in the same year long day cold wind I think with the wind chill it was close to 60 below how many times have you almost died doing this I've fallen through the ice I've been stocked by polar bears I've been in a lot of very precarious situations over the years and you get a little bit of a Gallows humor with that you know in the sense like oh that was close let's just keep going the cancer is what grounded him one of the chemo drugs diminished what he calls his superpower the ability to withstand cold opening the refrigerator to putting a glass of cool water to my lips and have intense pins and needles um instantly impact whatever area that coal was was touching was debilitating and and I live in a cold environment too so it's not just about opening the refrigerator but it's going outside like actually getting to the chemo treatment was uh a major obstacle still though he never lost his passion for Polar exploration even though he calls it one of the most boring Sports what is it about going to the extreme that really does it for you what I do is just part of who I am I don't stop to I don't wake up in the morning and say oh why am I going to do this I just do it and so it's just how I was built what makes it boring though you're traveling across a a big vast white nothingness often times you know I've spent days and weeks in conditions where the visibility is like being on the inside of a pingpong ball you can't even see the Horizon but now he's looking clear across that Horizon back to Adventure and back to the North Pole I get the notion of doing this before you have cancer but after you survive cancer why put your body through that again that's a good question um and it's one that I'm wrestling with quite honestly I don't like being away from my family as much anymore but to be able to go back to a place that has been such a important part of my life to see it again when I thought I would never do anything again for me feels like the right thing to do this time he's headed to the North Pole as a guide to show others what most of us will never get to experience you see we can't all relate to his record setting life but we can relate to pain and Newfound perspective I'm talking to a man who set out to explore some of the far-flung places of the Earth but am I also looking at a man who's still searching to find himself yeah yeah yeah you know I used to go on these trips and I thought if I could do the hardest thing for as long as I could I would have an epiphany where it all came clear that I would know everything and what I've realized is that's never going to happen I'm still looking for the answers that I know I'll never find but the search has value and the effort has value in my mind and coming back has value when Bradley Arrowwood first came to train my dog visit it sent me on a very unexpected Journey when you killed your victim you were how old 23 he was by his own admission a hardcore Los Angeles biker who killed a man he said had had an affair with his wife you lured him to a house you beat him you duct taped him and he suffocated because of that that and a broken nose yes and I was honest with you and I said had I known the facts before you came here I wouldn't have had you here you wouldn't have called and I thought well here's my opportunity to actually live the walk I talked the second chance talk but can I walk it there are so many people that come back out or could come back out that educate themselves and they don't get the same breaks I got the breaks he got led to a successful service dog training business thanks to his own decision to change I Jerry Brown and someone else changed too Jerry Brown commuted arwood's life sentence in 2017 but he earned it he was certainly the the record was very impressive Jerry Brown now retired and living on his Northern California Ranch knows about second chances and let me just add up to you but when he was elected as the nation's youngest governor in 1974 he was very tough on crime he passed the first mandatory sentencing law in the in the state that then led to uh a lot more of those laws being passed president of the alliance for safety and Justice Lenor Anderson advocates for Criminal Justice Reform many people are really not aware of the history of the movement for tefon Crime it originated here in California the result of that was from 12 prisons that existed when Reagan was governor we went after I left to 33 prisons so we went from about 25,000 people in prison to 170,000 that Legacy Jerry Brown left when his first term ended in 1983 directly affected Bradley Arrowwood when he was sentenced 10 years later to life in prison with no possibility of parole I had a death sentence basically death by incarceration the crime was almost 30 years ago and talking about it like we are now makes you feel how lost still lost why I lived a lifestyle feeding off fear hatred and what has changed what really hit home was 7 years into my sentence finding out I had a daughter that was placed in the foster care system she was told that I don't love her don't want her and hurt people for a living she's seven I never even knew about her how did you find your purpose in prison trying to do better for my daughter I wanted her to not be ashamed at who I was I had to be example even though there was no chance of me getting out I wasn't able to tell her that I wasn't getting out ever because I didn't want to destroy any hope that she had but why you were never going to get out because I didn't want her to be able to say that her dad was a failure then in 2010 Jerry Brown was elected California's governor Again by then he wanted to undo the heavy sentencing laws he had championed as a young Governor when you were Governor the second time it wasn't just sort of your morality and your conscience that led you to think we need to give people a second chance you also the federal courts telling you your prisons are overpopulated and you've got to reduce that yes that was a big nudge without the the without the federal court it would have been very hard to do as much as we did by then California's bulging prisons included 4,000 inmates who had no possibility of parole including Arrowwood who had become a model prisoner and was given a new opportunity specifically the program was to train dogs to be service dogs no not originally it was just to give dogs a second chance dogs that were in high kill shelters like we were in prison to give them a second chance at being adoptable the prison's program was fittingly called pause for Life those dogs gave us back our Humanity it brought emotion back into prison but to come back out here if it hadn't been for that the dogs I wouldn't have been able to function dog training was also a prize program of the warden who recommended that Arrowwood sentence be reviewed by the governor the only man who had the power and now the conviction to commute an inmate sentence in commuting your sentence Brown didn't free you brown just said I will give you the opportunity to prove yourself to my board when he faced the parole board in 2018 the Los Angeles County district attorney objected to his release saying his offense was especially heinous and his history of abuse of drugs makes him an unreasonable risk still though members M of the parole board unanimously agreed to release him saying he had a good background to succeed on the outside by then he had served 25 years in prison when I say the name Jerry Brown it's a miracle ever met him no I haven't want to I would love to so we invited him to travel with us good to meet you Woody come on by to meet the man who had the biggest impact on giving him a second chance so Woody how are you feeling uh kind of amazed I had a million things written in my mind but I don't even know how to say how much thanks and gratefulness for you taking a chance had you applied before no so you just there was never any hope tell the governor what you've done with your life since you got out when I first got out I went to a transition home um to adjust after 25 5 years from there I attended Cal State LA as a full-time student and graduated with a bachelor's degree in organizational and applied Communications I got married to a girl I've known since 8 years old started my dog training business you got any ideas on what we ought to be doing with our prisons well I think we need to kind of go back a step to where it used to be that people get a chance to earn their way out not necessarily just get let out without any skills or being able to move on and go right back to what they knew before was granting commutations in some way cathartic for you you know I've had I was in the Seminary for four years I'm very sympathetic to Redemption I wouldn't say it was a cathartic process it was it was a very intensive process bu yes before we left there was another opportunity for some Behavior correct directions what yes come for the Governor's own dog yes we could train this dog in no time yes I can do wonders in a couple of weeks while Arrow Wood's dog training business continues to thrive thanks to dog owners willing to take risks on him he's so happy to see you the risks that he has taken has led him to be the father he never was to the daughter he hardly knew she is now 29 years old with a son they are a whole family living a second chance everybody wants hopes somewhere in the back of their mind that they can be good that we not all bad that little bit of investment in somebody gives a person a lot of incentive to go a long way Bradley Arrowwood has not reoffended ever since he got out of jail five years ago he's never been rearrested and he is now off of parole we met meline Quinn on a chilly drizzly morning in Southern California and quickly found out there is nothing that's going to dampen this girl's Spirit when she's out on the golf course what I like about it is um whenever I hit a driver I'm I just like feel pumped up and I'm ready and I just like really like the challenge do you feel like golf is your passion yes it's your calling yes I I love it meline first picked up a club at two whack starting with a toy but quickly moving to the irons the Love of the Game has grown the passion has grown and now I get to teach the little girl I love more than anything in the world she has a great built-in teacher and Dad and caddy all in one her dad a former PGA Pro started showing Maddie videos of Tiger Woods golfing as a child and says that's what inspired her this is the girl girls junior Club championship trophy there it is yeah there it is meline Quinn whenever I have a tournament my dad always says what's the goal today I say to have the most fun out here you love doing it more than anything else yes to go along with that Unstoppable smile is a heart that is something of a modern Miracle you see meline was born with what's called a ventricular septal defect a hole in her heart she could not gain weight her breathing was very very rapid meline underwent three open heart surgeries as doctors tried to fix her tiny heart it was the hardest thing I've I've ever had to go through and then it kept getting worse and worse and worse at 18 months old Maddie was put on a transplant list a complicating Factor was that doctors said she needed a bigger heart to maintain function perhaps from a 5-year-old well 4 months later they got the call A perfect match had been found the surgery was a success and for the first time little Maddie had rosy cheeks and even an appetite all right so this heart's doing well for you yeah and I just had my eighth heart birthday oh you have heart birthdays yeah I love that I've been living my best life I'm so happy and thankful meline wanted me to feel the joy she says she gets from golfing and she told me I needed the proper attire so I asked if she could help me out you look amazing baby a this is it yeah with a 9-year-old driving on we went I don't even know where it went so much for this guy's golf dreams look at the look on her face but Dad wants Maddie to continue to live hers drive for show but fro she wanted to see tiger play in person so Dad bought the tickets and Maddie made a bucket list poster heart transplant check meet Tiger Woods and play at Augusta every golfer's Dream well as luck would have it Tiger's caddy spotted Mattie's sign and he whispered something to woods and tiger looked she read it and took out a Sharpie signed his glove and then came toward me with a pen and he checked the box and gave me the glove tiger oh my goodness I'm usually really polite but he handed me the glove and my dad said say thank you and I'm like the thank you when he signs it and walks away what were you thinking I was thinking wow that really just happened I really just meant the best golfer in the world oh these are golf medals yeah these are my tournament medals that I won and her prize possession that's his signature wow girl all right yeah we're going to um frame it and about that final item on her bucket list someone close to Augusta spotted her store story on social media and invited her to the Masters it was just so special that I got to go there it was just so green beautiful I wanted to go back on the airplane and get my clubs and then fly back and play all 18 holes while play was suspended at times due to rain meline says she didn't mind get wet because she was focused on the golf I was just like picturing me like swinging like them and I'm like I could as good as them or even better one day pushing through adversity from the very beginning is what seems to have given young meline a sensitivity that transcends her age I tell my story to make people feel happy and not so stressed out so you're happy to share it yeah that's wonderful and in first place with mine Quinn her parents say they will never forget the kindness of strangers especially that family who gave their young daughter her heart there is hope there is some good that can come from everything think of being a parent and saying we want to give someone else life and Maddie got to live a lot of gratitude so grateful it's beyond words it was 1956 Elvis was playing on the jukebox Ike and M were in the White House and Caroline and Eddie well they were in love oh I just thought he was the cutest boy on campus you know and once I saw her uh it was all over Eddie lamb was earning 65 cents a day delivering the Nashville Tennessee in the newspaper that would one day tell their love story when I took her out all I could do was coke and french fries and that was about it that's the only meal he ever bought me was french fries in a Coke known around town as Eddie's Girl Caroline Reeves wasn't looking for a fancy dinner she had her eyes set on his high school class ring and all that it would signify it was an engagement ring and I was the type of person that would have committed myself to him for the rest of my life with that ring when you didn't get the high school ring it was just really broke my heart and I just thought he just didn't care enough about it about me and what came of that well not a whole lot whose fault was that uh that was probably mine look at y'all and I made all of the dresses Eddie set his sights High joining Roc at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with dreams of flying planes in the US Air Force it was her senior year in high school and Eddie couldn't find the words to tell a proper goodbye to Caroline so he didn't we pulled up in her driveway and I said may I kiss you and so I kissed her good night then not knowing that that's the last time I would kiss her in 6 64 or 65 years and I got out of that car and ran up the steps and slammed the door and went upstairs and cried all night that was it their lives would follow far different paths she became Miss Nashville 1959 two years later they were married to other people she to Charles Wallace he to Polly Piper Eddie would go on to serve 21 years flying KC 135s for the United States Air Force car oline traveled the world she was an interior designer a magazine writer and wrote three novels things changed in December 2021 Eddie's wife pully the mother of their two children died from ALS lugaric disease they'd been married two days shy of 60 years I heard you were her caretaker yes I was for about year and a half to two years it's just a shows you his strength and how sweet and kind and gentle this man is after her marriage to Charles Wallace ended in the 80s Caroline married a man named George Kennedy he died in 2001 over the course of your life did you wonder how Eddie was all the time all the time Eddie did you wonder how she was yes I did in April 2022 Eddie was living in California Caroline in Nashville and all at once something hits me I said I've got to call her I had nine calls and I don't answer unsolicited calls Eddie you called nine times nine times yeah I'm not going to give up I love it yeah not going to give up just what she wanted to hear that third night he told me he still loved me and I knew my life had changed he flew to Nashville to see her this time she was in the driver's seat and I heard you didn't make it too far from the airport no no no he peaked his head into my car car and I just he took my breath away I've never seen anything like it in my entire life I just can't even explain it so I got out of the parking lot zoom zoom zoom went around and found the FedEx parking lot and it was the warehouse it was closed at night and they had all these security lights and I got out and jumped around and we hugged and kissed and I remember looking up at the security lights and insects were swirling all around the FedEx lights wow so FedEx does deliver at the age of 84 Eddie popped the question he said well we'll get you a ring and I said no this is what I want and he put this on my finger and that's his high school class ring that you wanted 60 years ago it's my engagement ring and the girl got it yeah I love it I love you her Dream came true if you had to title your story what would it be miraculous that we found our love again we asked God all the time why did you do this and now we know to take care of each other good morning good morning here is your ticket where are we going oh Providence Rhode Island that should be fun 9:30 flight so once I knew where we were going I had to get there and find a story in in just 48 Hours have good day thanks you too wish us luck here we go and to kick things off after I landed in the city that is known for its art and food scenes My Team surprised me with a little Adventure hi very nice to meet you sir very nice to meet you marel the Gondolier David nice to meet [Music] you who knew you could take a gondola ride in Providence but hey let's go Santa l I don't know what the heck they said but that was beautiful what is Providence treasured for our founder Roger Williams found that a settlement where anybody who wasn't welcome anywhere else was welcome here we felt that walking around Providence David begno nice to meet you David Beckham uh no that's the soccer player begno oh begno begno uh I'm looking for a story you are yes ma'am and Greg Stevens has a lot of stories as the fourth generation owner of only Ville New York system which boasts Rhode Island's best Hot Wieners okay so it's a German sausage topped with meat sauce mustard onion and celery salt woo being the picky eater that I am I was a little hesitant but hey Steven said try it there's a lot of flavors in there keeping it the same that's our [Music] secret now before I boarded the flight in New York York I posted on social media asking people hey you got any story ideas for us s and there were hundreds of people who responded saying cooking con Omi or cooking with Omi so I said to my team hey you want to go by her house and surprise her hello Omi oh my gosh how are you good how are you nice to meet you nice to meet you surpr she had already heard on social media that we were in town looking for a story and naturally she started cooking she gave us that Puerto Rican favorite toone with a little ciche thank you she's become popular for cooking on Tik Tok and it all started with an Instagram post at the height of the pandemic I was at the grocery store I was in the parking lot it's where I often went to go cry because we were struggling and I said I'm going to going to go in here and I'm going to get get what I need and I'm going to go home and I'm going to cook on that very day I turned on my camera and I said anybody want to cook with me I'm lonely since then Omi built an online community cooking right from her kitchen it earned her a spot on the second season of the TV show next level Chef it made me feel like I was supposed to be doing what I was doing I just love when people find their purpose well another bite down more to come so we headed for Federal Hill that's the Little Italy section of Providence to see who we'd meet next I love a meat Paul and then this happened car right here when I left the Italian food market I noticed a man who was helping a woman who was clearly struggling to walk so I offered to help them I'm Mitchell your name David begno with CBS News nice to meet you so we're actually in town looking for a story what do you do for a living I'm a watch maker a watch maker a watch maker yes I don't feel like I've ever met a watch maker Mitchell and his mother were in the valley parking Zone and I didn't want to hold him up so we said our goodbyes thank you so much take care take care good evening so as Mitchell and his mom drove away that day I kept thinking about him something about the way he spoke his articulation and diction and I thought I wonder what this guy's backstory is I had given him my number and sure enough about five minutes later he texted me and based on what he said in that conversation I told him Mitchell we want to make you our story and the timing was perfect so first of all nice to see you again it as well I mean the way we met is wild it was uh sendit is oh you think so I think so me to be Mitchell invited us into his Workshop here at Providence Diamond I learned that Mitchell Thompson is part of a small and Elite group of Rolex certified watchmakers in the United States and he's just 25 years old Mitchell Masters the craft of both repairing and rebuilding luxury watches who gave you your first watch my mother how old were you I was eight or nine and uh she said well you're going back to school you need to know how to tell the time with with hands no digital watch he now owns 25 watches and it turns out studying languages was his first love luxury watches came next he enrolled in watchmaking school in Pennsylvania fully funded by Rolex with only 11 students in the graduating class what is it that you love about watches I love Innovation and I love the cultural significance of the watch what is the specialty that a watch maker possesses passion if if you don't love this there's no place in this business for you you have to love it why it's very similar to the focus you have when you thread a needle you have to do something over and over and over again biggest example is a loose screw in a watch and you're checking every single one every time and if you miss one that can stop the watch you know 50 years ago Rolex says there were more than 30,000 watchmakers across the country today there are less than 2,000 and we just happen to run into one of them so what is your takeaway from this experience meeting us telling your story being the one who we decided we wanted to tell the story about well I find it uh a reinforcement for a belief I've always held and that things have a way of finding their place and it never hurts to ask hi what's your name because you never know where it leads as you did and I'm glad you did well thank you so thank you pleasure you as well you know in two decades of telling stories I've learned that Random Encounters can lead to some pretty meaningful moments you just have to be willing to lean into it time and time again I literally would stay up at night and pray to God that one day I would go to college and leave all of this trauma behind and start a new life for myself I was like I'm going to be that I'm going to be a news anchor it's not that Aiza Schuler didn't have the talent to be on camera it's that she spent most of her television career doing it with a secret I just thought okay that's something that I'm going to keep buried forever that secret is alopecia diagnosed at just 12 years old with the autoimmune disease all of her hair fell out as a child and from then on she hid it I wear a wig every day day personally and professionally but in September during alopecia awareness month she broke the news to the viewers of CBS News Philadelphia who know her as a weekend anchor I would spend hours in the mirror meticulously styling my hair so that my wig would appear As Natural as possible but I'm tired I'm tired of hiding I'm tired of living in fear and that starts with living without my WI how is that to watch it back now it still makes me emotional yeah um emotional in a different way though I can't believe I harbored so much fear and anxiety about revealing this secret that no longer is a secret now it was her boyfriend Von pole who encouraged her to expose her truth we were about to go to the gym and he's just like randomly so are you going to take your wig off I think I felt like I was waiting for him to ask me that question I don't know why and so when he did what did you respond with I think I just said okay and I took it off and he's like okay now let's go outside I looked at him and I was like no at that time I'd never been outside bald ever in your life no never outside never went outside I didn't know how it would feel for the wind or air to hit my bald scalp I didn't know when was the moment where you felt some relief when a woman stopped me and said girl you look beautiful and then another man stopped and said sister you're rocking that bald head and then someone else stopped me and was like I love your haircut literally within maybe a mile these people gave me affirmations that they didn't even know I needed the city of reading is looking for a new police chief but still at work Schuler continued to hide behind behind the Arsenal of hair pieces did you think you could be an anchor Today bald no because I didn't see other Anor who were bald I didn't see women on TV who were bald she realized that the only way to liberate herself personally would be to reveal herself publicly so she told her general manager Kelly Frank and news director Kathleen jro the very personal reason she wanted to do a story about alipa and I said well I really want to do the story because I have alopecia and I'm bald and I no longer want to wear wigs you weren't really going to ask for permission no I wasn't wow but I was fortunate that I work with women who are my cheerleaders who are uplifting who were ready to see something like this on their television screen we sat down and everything was whatever you want to do let's tell your story but beautiful woman Inside and Out the public unveiling was such a triumphant moment for a woman who was born into trauma you were born inside of a jail yes yes my mother was in jail for theft Schuler says both of her parents battled drug addiction by 5 years old she and her six siblings were living in the foster care system there she says she was physically and sexually abused what do you think when you see that girl on the left right there I see someone who doesn't really know how beautiful she is that little girl went on to compete in pageants and graduate from St John's University a thief simply walked up to this Ford F-150 she got her first job in television in Yuma Arizona before eventually making her way to Philadelphia where the telling of her story has been so telling Newsroom in conversation she just seems so much more relaxed much more comfortable in her own skin when I think about how far I've come it makes me emotional her story picked up nationally has impacted women like Jamie Flack who wrote to Schuler mine was totally hormone monthly had the hysterctomy at 31 took a few years and hair back but then still got to do my brows myself you're beautiful and you make me feel that way this lady lives in Montana oh she does yes and she was waiting to surprise her stop it oh my gosh [Music] hia beautiful lady oh my gosh I wasn't expecting that thank you for sending me that message I just want to know was it a surprise to see a woman bald on air when you turn on your TV screen when when I went through it there was not a lot known about alipa and so there was a stigma attached and it was very um humiliating um you know very uh made you very insecure but I can tell you girl I cannot rock it the way you can I can't even put into words how much meaning it brings me to know that people all across the country are reaching out and embracing me with such support you feel the love yes I do so you may be wondering how are is's parents they are sober still together and have a great relationship with her I'm just in awe of Aiza number one I think it's so brave for her to do especially for a black woman we have such a primal connection to our hair you know we always say it's your crown go ahead it comes with such judgment and it comes with such judgment number one she is spectacular clearly gorgeous one she really is and for to have The Bravery to tell the story and to see how it's affected other people too that you can be on TV you can have a job and be very successful you go as easy I like her boyfriend that encouraged her I like Kathleen the general manager and the news director Kelly who encouraged her and stood by her there's so many layers to this story as always David right didn't you guys think that too it was incredible I my eyes got watery David that was unbelievable yes Aiza you go this is a story about a small chair but it's got a big impact the kind of chair that gives Mobility to children with disabilities meet Jackson he's a four-year-old boy from Covington Louisiana look at that big smile he has Donia it's a condition that affects his muscles and he has a developmental delay he doesn't walk or speak when they offered you this wheelchair was he mobile at all at that time Elizabeth and Brian Fab go are Jackson's parents they say after 8 months in that chair Jackson has been able to sit up on his own and now he's moving around independently so it gave him a more ground level view yep that's what made me happy because it's like he's included with everything the parents say that the toy-like chair has been wonderful because it created a playful experience with Jackson's older brother Brody and has been the bridge from not walking to now using a walker okay so give us the report card how would you grade it a A+ I mean it's helped Jackson you know become more mobile and be able to be adapt into the other things that he's going to be offered it's helped his development now meet the man at the front of this creation no him Platt he's an architect in New Orleans who heads up an organization called make good they focus on assistive technology the kinds of devices people can't find in the commercial workplace or can't can't afford pull this out Platt came across the design for the chair on an Israeli website that lists open-source information for developers like him you just called the hospitals and said hey I'm making this might you have a need for it yeah I mean I have a previous relationship with some of these health systems through my work as an architect and part of it is really empowering the clinicians to understand that we can go beyond what's commercially available we can really create almost anything get those bells Sebastian Grant he was born premature at just 24 weeks old he spent 10 months in the neonatal ICU he has gone through more in his 15 months of life than adults have gone through their whole life Sebastian needs a tra to breathe and he's still being fed through a tube Sebastian look need your little chair we were there with Sebastian's parents Tamara and Shane Michael when he got his customized chair this is is a chair that he could be in and go around the house and actually be in control of himself a little bit right yeah I'm scared for when we get to that point I hope your heels are ready cuz he going to be running into y'all with that little chair all day that's why they put bumpers on the front they here's a baby who spent most of his life on his back and now he's sitting up straight his therapist says it is a game changer yay Sebastian this costs how much to build in total I believe each of these was under um $200 to buy a wheelchair for a kid this small through an insurance company could go for how much do you know ,000 to $110,000 the labor to build these chairs was free plat organization partnered with tlane University to find students who would volunteer their time and skills to build the chairs 15 chairs have been made over the past year oh it's so moving two-lane student Alyssa Bachmann is part of that team for me it's very grounding you can come in somewhere here like the maker space and make such a huge impact on a child with only a couple hours of effort the design is really simple the base and the wheels are made out of wood the plastic attachments are 3D printed it's all assembled by hand those bright colors are intentionally childlike and right before Sebastian got his chair the two-lane students and Noam plat went back to customize it we're putting the name tag right here you got your hand on the Wheel so smart so that it could hold his little ventilator and the tubes that make it possible for his 24- lb body to keep going and here I want to show you this too is that they're all signed by the people who make them which is also really that's Wonder really neat and it's just that extra bit of personal touch that really connects kind of through time to the people who made this to the people who use it so that chair was made with love from multiple strangers who will never meet Sebastian wow that's great that's crazy but definitely need it that says a lot like just how everything comes together to help my son it's it's overwhelming what would you want to say to them the sense of gratitude I have they would never understand you really mean the world to us what you've done for him is make his life a little more [Music] easier look at that Bravo gome Platt and his team David they thought of everything everything yeah listen and I want everybody watching to think of Tom global.org that's the open- source website this should be happening everywhere in America because Tulane was telling us that when you're that Young insurance won't pay for wheelchairs unless a kid can operate a wheelchair independently so these little Mobility trainers you guys help the kids build up some strength and some coordination but for for Jackson and Sebastian they went from not being being able to move on their own to now having some Independence I mean can you imagine what that does for a family no you know what it's a reminder to me guys of how much we take for granted and by that I mean something as simple as sitting up like we're all sitting up straight right now that now these kids can do that you know sometimes in life the remarkable can look so unremarkable awesome do you have my number to send it to me take for instance that red-headed young man enjoying himself at a small social gathering in New York City what might not seem noteworthy is in fact a huge leap forward if you recognize 18-year-old deedo it is because we first introduced you to him 11 months ago how are you feeling good pretty good Callum had just gone through what he and his family hoped would be a life altering brain operation to tame the involuntary ticks movements and outbursts caused by a severe case of Tourette Syndrome doctors in inserted wires into callum's brain and a neuros stimulator under his collar bone hoping small currents of electricity would bring his worst symptoms under control the results how are you since I last saw you I've been a lot better I had a really good point of time where I was just my ticks were at a minimum it was probably the best summer I've had in four to 5 years what in life has changed for you now I am just able to go out with my friends more I don't get weird looks at places I go to my like even playing sports is a lot easier um I play tennis so it's really nice to be able to hold the racket without shaking all the time and it my social life has just gotten a lot better and I don't have as many problems or ticks that take my attention away from the classroom or from Reading it's wonderful I really can go and start doing activities and not take multiple breaks throughout it Mom what's your report card how do you see it I think everything is still a little bit of a work in progress but how much better is he oh I mean it's just night and day from where we were a year ago when you say night and day better list off for me why uh at home especially you just he's more functional he was laying in his room a lot you know like he would try to do everything to kind of remove himself from even our family and Society like spent a lot of time kind of hiding away trying to control the ticks and now we don't see him a lot now but we don't see him a lot because he's going out with friends when we first met the family Callum would scream in the middle of the night Tourette's Syndrome drove him to hit himself in the face his mother's desperation was so obvious it's really hard when have a kid this age who's really looking forward to doing things in life and you're fitting as a parent saying I don't know if you can but now it seemed like before the surgery y'all were going towards a cliff yes yes now we're backing away from that Cliff like we're we're pretty far away from the edge of Cliff right now I think you're pretty far away I think it's easy for us to see Callum having a future and I think when we spoke last year that was one of the big things is I mean it was very hard for us to see how he would even be maybe independent doctors don't ever promise Miracles but callum's doctor is thrilled with how her patient is doing his results after deep brain stimulation have been really amongst the best that we've seen it's not 100% but I think the substantial benefits that he has had from the surgery were things we would not have been able to see with just regular medications and as a celebration of his progress at the Tourette Association of America's recent Gala I invited Callum to the podium to do what was once Unthinkable address an audience tell everybody what life is like now with the device in the brain so it has just improved my social life to a point where I cannot describe it has made my life so much better and it has really improved my quality of life allows me to hang out with friends but also further my education and help Advocate more uh consistently and not have to take breaks throughout the day and it's really a wonderful thing proud you for Callum and his family it has been a year of enormous strides where there was once anguish there is now hope I'm really excited for my future because I'm able to express myself in full sentences I'm able to stay engaged in society and be part of groups and do group activities and even just stuff by myself I feel a lot more comfortable I feel perfectly fine to be me
