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What goes around, comes around
Call it karma. Call it paying it forward. Call it whatever you want, but life had an interesting way of circling back for Tammy Lewis. Lewis, now 34, was the smallest baby ever born in Texas when she came into the world at what is now called McClane Children’s Medical Center Baylor Scott & White, and she spent the first three and a half months of her life under the watchful eye of NICU doctors. Now, Lewis works as a respiratory therapist in the very same NICU that saved her life, connecting ventilators and breathing tubes just like the ones that helped her breathe as a baby. „As I work, I get daily remainders of how blessed I am to be here today,“ she said.
A remarkable chess champ
Eight-year-old Tanitoluwa (Tani) Adewumi just won the New York State Scholastic Primary Chess Championship in his age group. Which is amazing! But what’s even more amazing are the hurdles he’s had to overcome to run the board. For one, he and his family were homeless up until recently, after they fled Nigeria in 2017 under the threat of Boko Haram. Oh, and he only learned chess a YEAR ago. What, like it’s hard? Tani’s story has touched so many people, a GoFundMe for his family has already topped $190,000. His family plans to put the money into the Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation, which will help refugees and immigrants, Tani’s father says. As for Tani, some day he wants to be a chess grandmaster. What a story that would be.
(Very) high and dry
Record-breaking floods have devastated parts of the Midwest, but in situations like these, everyday heroes always seem to rise to the occasion. This week, an impromptu group of private pilots helped evacuate residents trapped by flood waters in the small town of Freemont, Nebraska. And we’re not talking a small handful of flights here — more than 30 airplanes flew into the Fremont Municipal Airport by midweek to help some 500 flood victims.
