Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Double vision: The story of a Detroit priest and his past lives - Metro Times
Samonie has a doctoral degree in metaphysics from University of Detroit and two master's degrees. He meditates and practices yoga — has been for more than four decades — and his quest for truth has led him to study Eastern traditions in which religion coincides with personal mystical experiences. But it took him years to come to terms with the out-of-body sensations — the visions, the visits from spirit guides and spontaneous trances that brought to his mind vivid memories of past lives as a concert pianist, a Mayan architect and the 17th century painter Diego Velásquez.
As fantastic as his tales seem, it's hard not to believe the man. He's a persuasive and witty storyteller, and he's extremely intelligent without being at all arrogant. He speaks Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, French and German. He teaches about the importance of following your conscience no matter what the Bible says, and lectures on the difference between being religious and being spiritual. Remember: He's a Catholic priest. ...
Samonie has a doctoral degree in metaphysics from University of Detroit and two master's degrees. He meditates and practices yoga — has been for more than four decades — and his quest for truth has led him to study Eastern traditions in which religion coincides with personal mystical experiences. But it took him years to come to terms with the out-of-body sensations — the visions, the visits from spirit guides and spontaneous trances that brought to his mind vivid memories of past lives as a concert pianist, a Mayan architect and the 17th century painter Diego Velásquez.
As fantastic as his tales seem, it's hard not to believe the man. He's a persuasive and witty storyteller, and he's extremely intelligent without being at all arrogant. He speaks Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, French and German. He teaches about the importance of following your conscience no matter what the Bible says, and lectures on the difference between being religious and being spiritual. Remember: He's a Catholic priest. ...
Labels: past lives
Star-crossed lovers quit West Bank - BBC News
She is a 26-year-old Jewish Israeli. He is a 27-year-old Palestinian Muslim, Osama Zaatar.
Jasmine and Osama's is a love story, and it tells you so much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
They met when they worked at the same place in Jerusalem, and three years ago they got married.
First they tried to live in Israel, but the Israeli authorities would not allow Osama to join his wife there.
Then they tried living in the occupied West Bank, but some Palestinians made life difficult for them.
Now they've given up and are moving to Europe.
...
Neither Israeli nor Palestinian society has accepted their marriage.
On official Israeli documents, Jasmine tells me her marital status is described as "under investigation".
...
Osama cannot go through the checkpoint with Jasmine. They don't know when he will be able to join her in Europe. ...
She is a 26-year-old Jewish Israeli. He is a 27-year-old Palestinian Muslim, Osama Zaatar.
Jasmine and Osama's is a love story, and it tells you so much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
They met when they worked at the same place in Jerusalem, and three years ago they got married.
First they tried to live in Israel, but the Israeli authorities would not allow Osama to join his wife there.
Then they tried living in the occupied West Bank, but some Palestinians made life difficult for them.
Now they've given up and are moving to Europe.
...
Neither Israeli nor Palestinian society has accepted their marriage.
On official Israeli documents, Jasmine tells me her marital status is described as "under investigation".
...
Osama cannot go through the checkpoint with Jasmine. They don't know when he will be able to join her in Europe. ...
Nine lives of Rulon Gardner: Ex-Olympic champ has another close call - San Jose Mercury News
Swimming for his life in a frigid lake, Rulon Gardner recalled his brushes with death.
He had punctured his abdomen while playing with a bow and arrow in elementary school. He had lost a toe to frostbite after a 2002 snowmobile mishap. He had walked away from a 2004 motorcycle accident in Colorado Springs.
In his scariest ordeal to date, the two-time Olympic medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling survived a plane crash last weekend, swam more than a mile in 44-degree water and spent a night on a deserted shore.
Gardner said this week that he suffered only a half-inch cut on his right index finger and a bruised hip after crashing in a single-engine plane into Good Hope Bay on Lake Powell near the Utah-Arizona border. ...
Swimming for his life in a frigid lake, Rulon Gardner recalled his brushes with death.
He had punctured his abdomen while playing with a bow and arrow in elementary school. He had lost a toe to frostbite after a 2002 snowmobile mishap. He had walked away from a 2004 motorcycle accident in Colorado Springs.
In his scariest ordeal to date, the two-time Olympic medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling survived a plane crash last weekend, swam more than a mile in 44-degree water and spent a night on a deserted shore.
Gardner said this week that he suffered only a half-inch cut on his right index finger and a bruised hip after crashing in a single-engine plane into Good Hope Bay on Lake Powell near the Utah-Arizona border. ...
Labels: karma
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility - Washington Post
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.
This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss.
...
The soldier, [19-year-old] Cpl. Jeremy Harper, returned from Iraq with PTSD after seeing three buddies die. He kept his room dark, refused his combat medals and always seemed heavily medicated, said people who knew him. According to his mother, Harper was drunkenly wandering the lobby of the Mologne House on New Year's Eve 2004, looking for a ride home to West Virginia. The next morning he was found dead in his room. An autopsy showed alcohol poisoning, she said.
...
Family members who speak only Spanish have had to rely on Salvadoran housekeepers, a Cuban bus driver, the Panamanian bartender and a Mexican floor cleaner for help.
...
"I hate it," said Romero, who stays in his room all day. "There are cockroaches. The elevator doesn't work. The garage door doesn't work. Sometimes there's no heat, no water. . . . I told my platoon sergeant I want to leave. I told the town hall meeting. I talked to the doctors and medical staff. They just said you kind of got to get used to the outside world. . . . My platoon sergeant said, 'Suck it up!' "
...
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.
This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss.
...
The soldier, [19-year-old] Cpl. Jeremy Harper, returned from Iraq with PTSD after seeing three buddies die. He kept his room dark, refused his combat medals and always seemed heavily medicated, said people who knew him. According to his mother, Harper was drunkenly wandering the lobby of the Mologne House on New Year's Eve 2004, looking for a ride home to West Virginia. The next morning he was found dead in his room. An autopsy showed alcohol poisoning, she said.
...
Family members who speak only Spanish have had to rely on Salvadoran housekeepers, a Cuban bus driver, the Panamanian bartender and a Mexican floor cleaner for help.
...
"I hate it," said Romero, who stays in his room all day. "There are cockroaches. The elevator doesn't work. The garage door doesn't work. Sometimes there's no heat, no water. . . . I told my platoon sergeant I want to leave. I told the town hall meeting. I talked to the doctors and medical staff. They just said you kind of got to get used to the outside world. . . . My platoon sergeant said, 'Suck it up!' "
...
Labels: war
Friday, February 23, 2007
Tragedy plagued fire-setter suspect - Seattle P-I
A man accused of trying to light random people on fire in Seattle has suffered from mental illness and endured a major family tragedy -- his brother shot his parents to death in 1985 and then killed himself in a gunbattle with police.
Paul Pearson frantically called an ambulance on that February day more than two decades ago when his older brother, George, shot their parents in their Ravenna home and tried to speed away.
Both brothers were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now Paul Pearson faces possible criminal charges for allegedly dousing pedestrians with lighter fluid on Seattle streets Wednesday, then lighting two people on fire. ...
[Related article: Bizarre attack: 'He lit her on fire!'Man sets two women ablaze downtown; elderly man smacks assailant with cane]
A man accused of trying to light random people on fire in Seattle has suffered from mental illness and endured a major family tragedy -- his brother shot his parents to death in 1985 and then killed himself in a gunbattle with police.
Paul Pearson frantically called an ambulance on that February day more than two decades ago when his older brother, George, shot their parents in their Ravenna home and tried to speed away.
Both brothers were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now Paul Pearson faces possible criminal charges for allegedly dousing pedestrians with lighter fluid on Seattle streets Wednesday, then lighting two people on fire. ...
[Related article: Bizarre attack: 'He lit her on fire!'Man sets two women ablaze downtown; elderly man smacks assailant with cane]
Labels: mental illness
Woman turns tragedy into personal mission - MSNBC.com
Son’s cardiac arrest prompts crusade for portable, public defibrillators
Stop by any big gathering of health care workers or educators, and you'll probably see Rachel Moyer sharing hugs and information with anyone who will listen.
Her personal mission is fueled by a memory she'll never forget — the day six years ago when her 15-year-old son collapsed during a high school basketball game. ...
An automated external defibrillator, or AED, could have restarted his heart, but like most American schools, Greg's didn't have one.
So Rachel Moyer started a nonprofit group, Parent Heart Watch, that's paid for more than 1,000 defribillators and lobbies states to require them in schools. Five states now do.
Son’s cardiac arrest prompts crusade for portable, public defibrillators
Stop by any big gathering of health care workers or educators, and you'll probably see Rachel Moyer sharing hugs and information with anyone who will listen.
Her personal mission is fueled by a memory she'll never forget — the day six years ago when her 15-year-old son collapsed during a high school basketball game. ...
An automated external defibrillator, or AED, could have restarted his heart, but like most American schools, Greg's didn't have one.
So Rachel Moyer started a nonprofit group, Parent Heart Watch, that's paid for more than 1,000 defribillators and lobbies states to require them in schools. Five states now do.
Labels: compassionate people, grief
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Needless goodbye: A young widow wants you to know about suicide prevention - Seattle Times
Ten years after my husband killed himself, I still remember certain moments from his last days that make me ache for another chance.
Like many suicide survivors, I struggle with feelings of guilt. I also have a growing understanding for what people can do to prevent suicide — warning signs we should know and steps we can take to help someone through a suicidal crisis. I learned these things too late, largely because the stigma surrounding suicide prevents us from talking about it. I'm sharing the story of Stu's death, along with advice from experts, as a way of breaching that silence. I want you to know more about suicide than I did before my husband died. ...
[includes a sidebar with useful tips]
Ten years after my husband killed himself, I still remember certain moments from his last days that make me ache for another chance.
Like many suicide survivors, I struggle with feelings of guilt. I also have a growing understanding for what people can do to prevent suicide — warning signs we should know and steps we can take to help someone through a suicidal crisis. I learned these things too late, largely because the stigma surrounding suicide prevents us from talking about it. I'm sharing the story of Stu's death, along with advice from experts, as a way of breaching that silence. I want you to know more about suicide than I did before my husband died. ...
[includes a sidebar with useful tips]
Labels: suicide
UN alarm at Palestinian poverty - BBC News
... At the same time large, extended Palestinian families are rallying as they traditionally do to support their weakest members.
And many of Gaza's poor are doing everything they can to help themselves.
The Iyad family is raising rabbits. And sometimes the children go out selling on the streets.
But this is a family with a special problem. It is locked in a feud with another clan.
Mrs Iyad's husband, Sami, would risk being killed if he left the house. He has not been able to drive his taxi for a year.
Confrontations of this kind are all part of the deepening poverty and rising social tensions in Gaza.
The feuds have become increasingly common and more and more violent as law and order has gradually broken down.
Mrs Iyad has been unable to find work herself and she says that she would sell anything in the house if it was worth selling.
This is a common response to the economic crisis.
The WFP report talks of families selling off their most prized assets - like work tools and even land.
And many months ago desperate women began cashing in their jewellery at the gold market.
The UN says that extreme coping mechanisms like these can only be stretched so far.
Ultimately, the report says, there have to be political solutions that eventually give rise to economic growth.
... At the same time large, extended Palestinian families are rallying as they traditionally do to support their weakest members.
And many of Gaza's poor are doing everything they can to help themselves.
The Iyad family is raising rabbits. And sometimes the children go out selling on the streets.
But this is a family with a special problem. It is locked in a feud with another clan.
Mrs Iyad's husband, Sami, would risk being killed if he left the house. He has not been able to drive his taxi for a year.
Confrontations of this kind are all part of the deepening poverty and rising social tensions in Gaza.
The feuds have become increasingly common and more and more violent as law and order has gradually broken down.
Mrs Iyad has been unable to find work herself and she says that she would sell anything in the house if it was worth selling.
This is a common response to the economic crisis.
The WFP report talks of families selling off their most prized assets - like work tools and even land.
And many months ago desperate women began cashing in their jewellery at the gold market.
The UN says that extreme coping mechanisms like these can only be stretched so far.
Ultimately, the report says, there have to be political solutions that eventually give rise to economic growth.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Her Autistic Brothers - N.Y. Times
Tarah Perry wishes her brothers would remember to put on deodorant. Other 16-year-olds, after all, don’t need to be reminded of that by their 14-year-old sister. Other families don’t keep a stick of Degree in the glove compartment to enforce deodorant compliance on the way to school in the morning. Granted, Justin and Jason are different from other brothers — they are autistic twins — and Tarah’s family is therefore different from other families, and generally speaking she is perfectly O.K. with that. It’s all she has ever known. But lately she has been fighting more with her brothers. They irritate her, she says. They stink. She tells them as much, and they squabble about it, as any siblings might — only when you’re 14 and your brothers are disabled and you don’t know whether they’ll ever make it on their own or whether you’ll be responsible for taking care of them, then even the little things take on greater weight. Because what Tarah also wishes is that her brothers will one day manage to hold jobs and find friends and live the kind of life that regular deodorant-wearing people live, or some semblance of it. And in the meantime, it would be nice if they didn’t smell up the car.
...
Subsequent research suggested that when one child has a disability, siblings may in fact benefit. After all, they receive what amounts to an intensive training in tolerance and empathy. In various studies, parents in such families have characterized their typically developing kids as more caring and mature than average, while college-age siblings have described growing up with someone with a disability in favorable terms. ...
Tarah Perry wishes her brothers would remember to put on deodorant. Other 16-year-olds, after all, don’t need to be reminded of that by their 14-year-old sister. Other families don’t keep a stick of Degree in the glove compartment to enforce deodorant compliance on the way to school in the morning. Granted, Justin and Jason are different from other brothers — they are autistic twins — and Tarah’s family is therefore different from other families, and generally speaking she is perfectly O.K. with that. It’s all she has ever known. But lately she has been fighting more with her brothers. They irritate her, she says. They stink. She tells them as much, and they squabble about it, as any siblings might — only when you’re 14 and your brothers are disabled and you don’t know whether they’ll ever make it on their own or whether you’ll be responsible for taking care of them, then even the little things take on greater weight. Because what Tarah also wishes is that her brothers will one day manage to hold jobs and find friends and live the kind of life that regular deodorant-wearing people live, or some semblance of it. And in the meantime, it would be nice if they didn’t smell up the car.
...
Subsequent research suggested that when one child has a disability, siblings may in fact benefit. After all, they receive what amounts to an intensive training in tolerance and empathy. In various studies, parents in such families have characterized their typically developing kids as more caring and mature than average, while college-age siblings have described growing up with someone with a disability in favorable terms. ...
Battling Epilepsy, and Its Stigma - N.Y Times
Nora [who is 12 years old] has epilepsy, and as with 30 percent of those with the disorder, her seizures are not controlled by existing treatments.
She often has more than one seizure a day, mostly at night. Her seizures, called tonic-clonic (what used to be known as grand mal), cause her to lose consciousness for a full minute while her body convulses.
While some people feel an “aura” of symptoms before a seizure, Nora’s happen entirely without warning. When she seized at the top of a staircase in her home in Yardley, Pa., it was plain luck that her parents were at the bottom and caught her as she fell. Though she is on the brink of adolescence, she is rarely, if ever, left alone.
Fifty million people have epilepsy worldwide, and more than 2.7 million in the United States, half of them children. Especially in its intractable form, also called refractory epilepsy, the disorder — and the side effects of epilepsy medications — can cause problems in learning, memory and behavior, and indelibly alter development.
...
The critical struggle in Nora’s care, as for many children with epilepsy, has been to safeguard her cognitive life. Children with intractable epilepsy display a wide range of abilities, from normal functioning to profound retardation; Nora falls somewhere in the mid-high range. Her speech is extremely slow and very soft; she often frowns before answering a question, as if struggling to formulate her response. While her answers are usually accurate, her response time is very slow, and she sometimes is not aware that she has been asked a question at all.
...
In October 2002, Nora went on the ketogenic diet. It is like the Atkins diet in overdrive: it mandates vast quantities of fats — like oil, which Nora drinks from a small bottle — and almost no carbohydrates. Every morsel is weighed, and no deviations are allowed. Within weeks, Ms. Leitner says, they saw pronounced changes in Nora’s abilities and attention span. Over the next 21 months, she had only two seizures.
But in the summer and fall of 2004, there were three more, and that October, while swimming at school, Nora had a seizure and nearly drowned. Within a year, she had begun to have a seizure or two a month as she entered puberty. Last March she had a vagus nerve stimulator implanted, but her seizures became so frequent that by May the Leitners had the device turned off. Since then, she has often had more than one seizure a day. ...
Nora [who is 12 years old] has epilepsy, and as with 30 percent of those with the disorder, her seizures are not controlled by existing treatments.
She often has more than one seizure a day, mostly at night. Her seizures, called tonic-clonic (what used to be known as grand mal), cause her to lose consciousness for a full minute while her body convulses.
While some people feel an “aura” of symptoms before a seizure, Nora’s happen entirely without warning. When she seized at the top of a staircase in her home in Yardley, Pa., it was plain luck that her parents were at the bottom and caught her as she fell. Though she is on the brink of adolescence, she is rarely, if ever, left alone.
Fifty million people have epilepsy worldwide, and more than 2.7 million in the United States, half of them children. Especially in its intractable form, also called refractory epilepsy, the disorder — and the side effects of epilepsy medications — can cause problems in learning, memory and behavior, and indelibly alter development.
...
The critical struggle in Nora’s care, as for many children with epilepsy, has been to safeguard her cognitive life. Children with intractable epilepsy display a wide range of abilities, from normal functioning to profound retardation; Nora falls somewhere in the mid-high range. Her speech is extremely slow and very soft; she often frowns before answering a question, as if struggling to formulate her response. While her answers are usually accurate, her response time is very slow, and she sometimes is not aware that she has been asked a question at all.
...
In October 2002, Nora went on the ketogenic diet. It is like the Atkins diet in overdrive: it mandates vast quantities of fats — like oil, which Nora drinks from a small bottle — and almost no carbohydrates. Every morsel is weighed, and no deviations are allowed. Within weeks, Ms. Leitner says, they saw pronounced changes in Nora’s abilities and attention span. Over the next 21 months, she had only two seizures.
But in the summer and fall of 2004, there were three more, and that October, while swimming at school, Nora had a seizure and nearly drowned. Within a year, she had begun to have a seizure or two a month as she entered puberty. Last March she had a vagus nerve stimulator implanted, but her seizures became so frequent that by May the Leitners had the device turned off. Since then, she has often had more than one seizure a day. ...
A life without fear - Seattle Times
... The former pro skateboarder suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal, progressive degeneration of the nerves and muscles, for which there is no known cause or cure.
He was just 25 when he and his girlfriend, Kori, learned he would die young. Dave and Kori had to decide: What kind of life did they want to live?
They married quickly and had two children — even though Dave would not live to see them grow up. A finite fatherhood, they figured, was better than none at all.
Now — in his last days — Dave lacks the strength to hold his young sons. Kori, 28, considers how their boys will handle it when Dave's no longer around. ...
... The former pro skateboarder suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal, progressive degeneration of the nerves and muscles, for which there is no known cause or cure.
He was just 25 when he and his girlfriend, Kori, learned he would die young. Dave and Kori had to decide: What kind of life did they want to live?
They married quickly and had two children — even though Dave would not live to see them grow up. A finite fatherhood, they figured, was better than none at all.
Now — in his last days — Dave lacks the strength to hold his young sons. Kori, 28, considers how their boys will handle it when Dave's no longer around. ...
Labels: faith
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Heather Sherwin, 1972-2007: Colon Club poster child 'truly was a blithe spirit' - Seattle P-I
A few years ago, Heather Sherwin was serving a salad of home-grown greens, when she noticed a small slug in her lettuce and tossed it in the trash can.
Regret soon overcame her, and she rushed back to the garbage.
"She dumped out the trash to find this little, itty-bitty, tiny slug, and released it," said Sherwin's mother, Barbara Lidster, who saw the whole thing and still laughs about it.
...
Sherwin lent her radiant youth to The Colon Club, a non-profit group that educates mostly young people about colorectal cancer. It selected her as this year's Mrs. September for its annual calendar of survivors, in which she bares her surgical scars with a mischievous grin.
...
"She really got that she wasn't her body, that her body had cancer, not her. That's why she could be concerned about everyone else. She added such a light."
Three days after celebrating her 10-year anniversary with her husband, Sherwin died at home. Her family scattered her ashes over Mount Si and her favorite blueberry patch.
...
In the fifth grade, she suffered from a sometimes-fatal neurological disorder that caused muscle spasms and profound weakness, which confined her to a wheelchair.
It didn't silence her. She wrote a will, on stationery adorned with a rainbow, asking people to remember her as a "strong trooper." When she eventually recovered, she emerged recharged in her faith, and driven to help others. ...
A few years ago, Heather Sherwin was serving a salad of home-grown greens, when she noticed a small slug in her lettuce and tossed it in the trash can.
Regret soon overcame her, and she rushed back to the garbage.
"She dumped out the trash to find this little, itty-bitty, tiny slug, and released it," said Sherwin's mother, Barbara Lidster, who saw the whole thing and still laughs about it.
...
Sherwin lent her radiant youth to The Colon Club, a non-profit group that educates mostly young people about colorectal cancer. It selected her as this year's Mrs. September for its annual calendar of survivors, in which she bares her surgical scars with a mischievous grin.
...
"She really got that she wasn't her body, that her body had cancer, not her. That's why she could be concerned about everyone else. She added such a light."
Three days after celebrating her 10-year anniversary with her husband, Sherwin died at home. Her family scattered her ashes over Mount Si and her favorite blueberry patch.
...
In the fifth grade, she suffered from a sometimes-fatal neurological disorder that caused muscle spasms and profound weakness, which confined her to a wheelchair.
It didn't silence her. She wrote a will, on stationery adorned with a rainbow, asking people to remember her as a "strong trooper." When she eventually recovered, she emerged recharged in her faith, and driven to help others. ...
Labels: compassionate people
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Man sues estate of Mega Millions lottery winner - A.P.
A man who says a multi-state Mega Millions winner stabbed him is suing the millionaire's estate.
Timothy D. Doan is suing the estate of Ralph Stebbins, who he says stabbed him in the chest Oct. 1 during an argument at an auction in Leelanau County.
Stebbins was charged with assault, but the case never went to trial because he died of a heart attack at his Arcadia Township home near Lapeer Dec. 23. Stebbins was 43.
His attorney, David Black, told The Flint Journal that Stebbins was unhappy that Doan was engaged to Stebbins' daughter. The engagement was called off, and Black said Doan suffers night terrors from the attack.Stebbins and his wife, Mary, won a $208 million lottery in April 2005. The Port Huron couple quit their jobs and bought a home Lapeer County after deciding to take a lump-sum payment of $124.7 million, less taxes.
A man who says a multi-state Mega Millions winner stabbed him is suing the millionaire's estate.
Timothy D. Doan is suing the estate of Ralph Stebbins, who he says stabbed him in the chest Oct. 1 during an argument at an auction in Leelanau County.
Stebbins was charged with assault, but the case never went to trial because he died of a heart attack at his Arcadia Township home near Lapeer Dec. 23. Stebbins was 43.
His attorney, David Black, told The Flint Journal that Stebbins was unhappy that Doan was engaged to Stebbins' daughter. The engagement was called off, and Black said Doan suffers night terrors from the attack.Stebbins and his wife, Mary, won a $208 million lottery in April 2005. The Port Huron couple quit their jobs and bought a home Lapeer County after deciding to take a lump-sum payment of $124.7 million, less taxes.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Madrid terror trial will dig at deep wounds for survivors and mourners - International Herald Tribune
Jesus Abril lost his teenage son in a maelstrom of dynamite and shrapnel in the Madrid train bombings of 2004. As 29 suspects in the attack go on trial Thursday, Abril is seeking a semblance of closure so he can grieve in peace.
Abril, a former teacher, is eager to learn more about the motives of the attackers. His 19-year-old son, Oscar, was on one of four crowded commuter trains ripped open by bombs that March 11 morning by suspected Islamic militants as he traveled to a university.
"It's the only way we the victims can mourn in peace, although I am aware that the damage caused to us will never be repaired. Nobody is going to bring back our loved ones," said Abril, who is 54. "You go through the rest of your life feeling you have been stabbed with a dagger."
...
For 31-year-old Laura Jimenez, who lost the baby she was carrying and was left paralyzed in the attack, the prospect of taking the stand is simply too much.
She is resigned to accepting that fate placed her on one of the doomed trains that day and she will never know why. And she questions whether she will ever know for sure if the suspects on trial are really the ones behind the attack.
Lawyers want her to testify. But she says her pain is still too raw and seeing the suspects will do her no good.
"Why should I go? To tell people that I've been left in a wheelchair? People see that by themselves. I have nothing to say," Jimenez said.
Of the suspects, she said: "I don't hate them. To me they are like nonexistent entities." ...
Jesus Abril lost his teenage son in a maelstrom of dynamite and shrapnel in the Madrid train bombings of 2004. As 29 suspects in the attack go on trial Thursday, Abril is seeking a semblance of closure so he can grieve in peace.
Abril, a former teacher, is eager to learn more about the motives of the attackers. His 19-year-old son, Oscar, was on one of four crowded commuter trains ripped open by bombs that March 11 morning by suspected Islamic militants as he traveled to a university.
"It's the only way we the victims can mourn in peace, although I am aware that the damage caused to us will never be repaired. Nobody is going to bring back our loved ones," said Abril, who is 54. "You go through the rest of your life feeling you have been stabbed with a dagger."
...
For 31-year-old Laura Jimenez, who lost the baby she was carrying and was left paralyzed in the attack, the prospect of taking the stand is simply too much.
She is resigned to accepting that fate placed her on one of the doomed trains that day and she will never know why. And she questions whether she will ever know for sure if the suspects on trial are really the ones behind the attack.
Lawyers want her to testify. But she says her pain is still too raw and seeing the suspects will do her no good.
"Why should I go? To tell people that I've been left in a wheelchair? People see that by themselves. I have nothing to say," Jimenez said.
Of the suspects, she said: "I don't hate them. To me they are like nonexistent entities." ...
Labels: grief
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Soldier who blinded man forgiven - BBC News
Derry man Richard Moore, who was blinded by a rubber bullet as a child in 1972, has said he forgives the soldier who shot him.
He has now stayed with the soldier as a guest in his home and met him on three different occasions.
...
Mr Moore said he wanted the retired major to know that "I have no resentment or hatred towards you".
"He said thank you, and he said to me that he regrets what happened, when he heard the next day about the damage that was caused.
...
"What I was doing was meeting a human being behind the gun that was fired at me."
...
Richard has now invited the retired officer to visit Derry.
"I like him, and I would like to remain friends with him."
Derry man Richard Moore, who was blinded by a rubber bullet as a child in 1972, has said he forgives the soldier who shot him.
He has now stayed with the soldier as a guest in his home and met him on three different occasions.
...
Mr Moore said he wanted the retired major to know that "I have no resentment or hatred towards you".
"He said thank you, and he said to me that he regrets what happened, when he heard the next day about the damage that was caused.
...
"What I was doing was meeting a human being behind the gun that was fired at me."
...
Richard has now invited the retired officer to visit Derry.
"I like him, and I would like to remain friends with him."
Labels: forgiveness
Hero dog wakes couple, saves them from blaze - A.P.
Plucky pooch senses fire and rouses sleeping owners, who escape
Greg Weaver, a resident of this western Ohio town, said the family dog likely saved him and his fiancee from a weekend fire at their home.
The dog, named Katie Bell, was sleeping near the couple after they went to bed in an upstairs room. She woke them around 4 a.m. Sunday by whining and acting restless, said Weaver. ...
Plucky pooch senses fire and rouses sleeping owners, who escape
Greg Weaver, a resident of this western Ohio town, said the family dog likely saved him and his fiancee from a weekend fire at their home.
The dog, named Katie Bell, was sleeping near the couple after they went to bed in an upstairs room. She woke them around 4 a.m. Sunday by whining and acting restless, said Weaver. ...
Labels: animals
Skydiver's farewell: 'I'm dead ... bye!' - Daily Post
Taupo skydiver Michael Holmes knows he should be dead - and his rescuers tend to agree.The skydiver, who plunged more than 3600m when his parachute failed to open properly late last year, told Britain's Mail on Sunday "I should be dead, absolutely".He told the newspaper he'd certainly given up hope and knew that even if he landed in the lake "the sensible part of me knew it wouldn't be all right - that I'd probably be knocked unconscious at best and drown".
St John area manager Graeme Harvey said last night's TV screening of the gut-wrenching plunge confirmed what a miracle it was that Mr Holmes survived.His injuries were a collapsed lung and fractured ankle.Mr Harvey, who was one of the first to reach the scene, said he was "still totally amazed" that Mr Holmes survived the huge fall."There was obviously something or someone looking over him."
...
[There's a] video record of the moment when he tugged the ripcord and discovered his parachute would not open. It shows frantic efforts to release the twisted parachute, as he spins so fast that movement is almost impossible and then his attempt to release his reserve parachute - and the horror as he realises that, too, has become entangled above him.
...
He missed the airport car park by less than 30m and instead landed in a blackberry patch which cushioned his fall just enough to save his life.
Taupo skydiver Michael Holmes knows he should be dead - and his rescuers tend to agree.The skydiver, who plunged more than 3600m when his parachute failed to open properly late last year, told Britain's Mail on Sunday "I should be dead, absolutely".He told the newspaper he'd certainly given up hope and knew that even if he landed in the lake "the sensible part of me knew it wouldn't be all right - that I'd probably be knocked unconscious at best and drown".
St John area manager Graeme Harvey said last night's TV screening of the gut-wrenching plunge confirmed what a miracle it was that Mr Holmes survived.His injuries were a collapsed lung and fractured ankle.Mr Harvey, who was one of the first to reach the scene, said he was "still totally amazed" that Mr Holmes survived the huge fall."There was obviously something or someone looking over him."
...
[There's a] video record of the moment when he tugged the ripcord and discovered his parachute would not open. It shows frantic efforts to release the twisted parachute, as he spins so fast that movement is almost impossible and then his attempt to release his reserve parachute - and the horror as he realises that, too, has become entangled above him.
...
He missed the airport car park by less than 30m and instead landed in a blackberry patch which cushioned his fall just enough to save his life.
Labels: karma
Monday, February 12, 2007
There Is No Blame; There Is Only Love - NPR essay by Ann Karasinski
You don't expect your child to grow up to be a heroin addict. From the moment of her birth, you have hopes and dreams about the future, but they never include heroin addiction. That couldn't happen to your child, because addiction is the result of a bad environment, bad parenting. There is most definitely someone or something to blame.
That's what I used to believe. But after failed rehab and long periods of separation from my heroin-addicted daughter, after years of holding my breath, waiting for another relapse, I now believe there is no blame.
After Katie admitted her addiction, I struggled to understand how this could have happened to my daughter — a bright, beautiful, talented and most importantly, loved young woman.
...
Katie and I meet for breakfast on Friday mornings now. We drink coffee and talk. I don't try to heal her. I just love her. Sometimes there is pain and sorrow, but there is no blame. I believe there is only love.
You don't expect your child to grow up to be a heroin addict. From the moment of her birth, you have hopes and dreams about the future, but they never include heroin addiction. That couldn't happen to your child, because addiction is the result of a bad environment, bad parenting. There is most definitely someone or something to blame.
That's what I used to believe. But after failed rehab and long periods of separation from my heroin-addicted daughter, after years of holding my breath, waiting for another relapse, I now believe there is no blame.
After Katie admitted her addiction, I struggled to understand how this could have happened to my daughter — a bright, beautiful, talented and most importantly, loved young woman.
...
Katie and I meet for breakfast on Friday mornings now. We drink coffee and talk. I don't try to heal her. I just love her. Sometimes there is pain and sorrow, but there is no blame. I believe there is only love.
Friday, February 02, 2007
From tennis to nunhood to Making a Difference - MSNBC.com
Former tennis pro Andrea Jaeger has been touching lives for decades
Dawn Fratangelo: "You said that even as a little girl you felt as though God was calling you."
Jaeger: "I felt that in nursery school. And, as I developed there, obviously the relationship grew."
It seems a natural progression for Jaeger, who, for two decades, has been inspiring sick children, like those in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., hospital when injuries ended her tennis career.
...
Jaeger used her winnings to start a foundation and a camp for kids with cancer, giving them breaks from doctors and dreaded news.
Alicia Harding was at the camp in 1994. "I had ostero sarcoma," she says.
Today, at 26, her health is back and she's working with Andrea to help others. Like Samantha Miller.
"It gives me hope to let me know that there's someone else that made it," Miller says.
Cancer survivor Tripp Robbins still considers the camp home. "This is the only place where I've been, you know in all of the world, that I feel total peace," Robbins says.
Now an Army Ranger in Iraq, he and Andrea exchanged gifts. She gave him her Olympic ring. He gave her his dog tags.
"This is Trip saying, 'I'm right there in your heart, and you're right there in mine' " Jaeger says.
Sister Andrea is still a free spirit, and proving that devotion has no limit.
"When you touch a person's life once, in a pure way, genuine way, it's so powerful it can last forever," she says.
Former tennis pro Andrea Jaeger has been touching lives for decades
Dawn Fratangelo: "You said that even as a little girl you felt as though God was calling you."
Jaeger: "I felt that in nursery school. And, as I developed there, obviously the relationship grew."
It seems a natural progression for Jaeger, who, for two decades, has been inspiring sick children, like those in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., hospital when injuries ended her tennis career.
...
Jaeger used her winnings to start a foundation and a camp for kids with cancer, giving them breaks from doctors and dreaded news.
Alicia Harding was at the camp in 1994. "I had ostero sarcoma," she says.
Today, at 26, her health is back and she's working with Andrea to help others. Like Samantha Miller.
"It gives me hope to let me know that there's someone else that made it," Miller says.
Cancer survivor Tripp Robbins still considers the camp home. "This is the only place where I've been, you know in all of the world, that I feel total peace," Robbins says.
Now an Army Ranger in Iraq, he and Andrea exchanged gifts. She gave him her Olympic ring. He gave her his dog tags.
"This is Trip saying, 'I'm right there in your heart, and you're right there in mine' " Jaeger says.
Sister Andrea is still a free spirit, and proving that devotion has no limit.
"When you touch a person's life once, in a pure way, genuine way, it's so powerful it can last forever," she says.
Labels: compassionate people, faith
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