Frank Somerville, the anchor of KTVU News, asked for people’s inspirational stories. As people sent in numorous emails with their stories, this one from a young mother of 4 daughters touched his heart so much, he couldn’t help but to post it on Facebook.
Tawny Nelson, single mom to four precious girls, had wrote her story with a letter to Somerville. Nelson went on to explain that she had been going through a rough time since her spouse walked out on her. Her girls are 9, 5, 2, and 6 weeks old.
They own a truck, but it is in a rather run-down shape. The tires were always flat, it reqiored a new alternator belt, and the driver’s window would not roll down.
Nelson never took the truck unless it case of absolutely necessary. But one evening, she was so desperate for food for her child that she had to make a trip to the store — which was only nine blocks away from home.
As she put the girls and the groceries in the truck after their shopping finished, the rain was pouring down and sky was dark. She tried to start the engine, but it kept silent.
“One of the girls accidentally left a light on. Now my battery was dead,” Nelson wrote in her message. “My phone was also disconnected. I have no family to speak of and was on my own,”.
She finally had to step out in the pouring rain and asked for help from bypasser, but everyone ignored her plead. No one stopped and acknowledged her situation.
“They all ignored me. Not even a no. Just acted like I didn’t exist,” explained Nelson.
Her three smallest children were all broken down, only in different stages, and were crying their heart out while the eldest precious 9-year-old did her best trying to support her mother. Still, Nelson broke down and began to sob.
“I was bawling and felt like the worst Mom ever,” Nelson shared. But that’s when a miracle happened: someone knocked on the car window.
She opened her door to find an older man with a plate of hot food and bottles of water from the store. “Feed those babies and yourself, young lady. I have a tow truck on the way and my wife will be here shortly to take y’all home,” the gentleman told Nelson.
The next morning, the older fellow arrived to Nelson’s home, bringing along a mechanic to get her truck fix. He repaired the alternator belt, the window, and replaced the battery.
As he was leaving, Nelson asked if she could pay him for the installments. The mechanic smiled at her and told the bill was covered by the older gentleman.
Apparently, the good Samaritan had mentioned that the only payment he ever requested was that Nelson “never give up and keep being an amazing mom.” Nelson broke down, tears overflowed from her eyes and sobbing over the care and concern of the man who’d so generously supported her family: “I’ve never cried so hard in my life.”
Nelson went on “And without knowing us or our situation this kind man helped us in ways he will never know,”.
“What he did revived my faith when I was falling apart. But he wouldn’t even take a hug.”
Nelson had met what we could call a “guardian angel” here on earth that she shall never forget. This act of kindness even inspired Somerville.
Somerville finished his post “Someday I’m going to do something like that, I can just feel it. And it’s going to make me so happy.”
I love Somerville’s hashtag… #GoOutAndMakeADifferenceToday. This is such a good example for us all to not ignore what is happening around us and strive to be a blessing to someone now!
Jeannie Joseph is a neonatal nurse working at SwedishAmerican..
Teen Walks Down Hall Holding Shoebox. Then Nurse Sees 3-Lb Baby Wrapped In Dishtowel Inside
In 2004, she had already worked for a decade, and she is currently still working at the hospital today.
After walking nearly 8 miles through the city streets, a small boy with his shoebox came in the hospital. Terrified in a hooded sweatshirt, he made his way toward the nursery.
Joseph notice the boy and his small age. When the health workers found out what was inside the box, rolled up in a dish towel and the onesie of a doll, they immediately put into isolation the the 6-week-premature infant.
The boy was asked by Joseph that it would be helpful if he could provide some information regarding the circumstances of the birth, as well as if he could provide anything relating to the birth mother, at the same time making sure he knew it was not necessary for him to give up any names. “We were sad, of course, but we had to work very fast with this baby,” she said.
The baby was in a critical condition with an extremely frail body temperature of only 94.7, and Dr. Martin Anyebuno, who treated the baby since he arrived, said he was so surprised to find the infant could even breath on his own. He was treated for hypothermia, dehydration, and due to the umbilical cord was severed by the mother using a house scissors, an infection.
Joseph then told the baby’s father, who had been hanging around crying for three hours, until he made certain the infant was stable, that if he relinquished his rights under the law, right then and there, he could never receive any further updates concerning the child’s health. She went on to tell him that he did not need to make his decision right away, and handed him a pair of parental bracelets so he and the mother could visit if they chose to.
15 years old Cherish Coates, the baby’s mother, had given birth to the child in her bedroom, using her grandfather’s scissors to cut the umbilical cord and tying it off with a shoestring. She lived with her grandparents, but manage to hide her pregnancy as she had never gotten very big.
Joseph first met Coates when the young mother was walking toward the nursery, keeping her head low. Sympathising with the girl, she placed her hand on the young mom’s shoulder and told her, “I’m taking care of this cute little guy.”
Lading her to the incubator, Joseph then told her, “You know that you saved his life, right? I don’t want you to hang your head. You gave him the best chance you could.”
During the baby’s month-long stay in the hospital, he had to battle meningitis and jaundice, struggling over the odds. Thanks to Joseph’s kind words, Coates and the father visited the nursery every day, and she brought bottles of chilled breast milk.
Coates had been afraid to tell her grandparents and her mother about her pregnancy, knowing that her mom had also had her at 15 and ended up dropping out of school due to it. She knew they did not want the same thing for her.
Because Joseph was never judgemental on her and was so nurturing and motherly, Coates told her about the fear of telling her grandparents, and she encouraged her to do so, which Coates finally doing it.
Coates’ mother came to the hospital and immediately wanted to get a hold of the baby, and her grandmother had an identical reaction shortly after. They told her they just wish she would not have kept her pregnancy a secret.
Coates knew everyone was afraid she would drop out of school like her mother had done if she kept the baby, but was surprised when her family offered to watch little baby Allen while she attended classes. Coates not only graduated high school, she even graduated from Rock Valley College as a certified nursing assistant, and now working as a law clerk while attending law school in hopes of becoming a mental health attorney.
A year after her baby had been born, Coates went back to the hospital to thank Joseph and the rest of the nurses. She told Joseph, “I want you to be proud of me.”
Joseph and Coates lost touch with one another over time, but it was because of Joseph that Coates chose to become a nursing assistant. But after 12 years, Coates wanted to tell Joseph how much of an impression she had made on her, so she reached out to her on Facebook from her home in Arizona where she now resides.
She let Joseph know that her “shoebox baby,” Allen Corey, is doing just fine and that she is now a mother of three. Allen began reading late and was born with a slight speech impediment, but by the fourth grade he was reading at a ninth-grade level in mainstream classes, is now in the eighth grade, plays soccer, runs cross-country, and is currently a member of the Navy Sea Cadet program.
The father is unfortunately no longer in their lives and has not been since the child was four. Coates and Joseph stay in regular contact with each other but are not certain when they would get to visit.
Joseph had this to say, “It just makes me think, Wow, every interaction you have with anybody is so important. to be able to be in this position where I’m part of someone’s story of their life – that’s such an honor.”
The Safe Haven law was enacted in 2001. The law allows parents to abandon newborn babies at any location allowed by law and not be prosecuted, provided that the child is unharmed. Safe Havens consist of hospitals, firehouses, and police stations.
The SwedishAmerican hospital in Rockford, Illinois, did not have their first abandoned infant at their facility until 2004. According to Dawn Geras, Save Abandoned Babies Foundation’s executive director, ever since the law was introduced, the state of Illinois has had 120 babies placed for adoption under its guidelines.