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Mail carriers are a vital part of our community.
People in service jobs can become really bonded and connected with the people they serve—as well as their animals.
For a Georgia-based UPS driver, his last shift meant having to say goodbye to two sweet Brittany breed pups that greeted him along his route over the past 10 years. Bidding that decade-long friendship farewell was nothing less than a tearjerker.
In a touching clip shared by @ABC News' TikTok on June 23, the UPS driver (named Mario) makes his way to the house, package in hand, as the dogs welcome him with full tail-wagging excitement. Honestly, without the sniffles of the dog mom capturing the video, you’d probably think nothing of this interaction.
A Brittany puppy.Photo credit: Canva
“Hey Mario,” the woman says, overcome with emotion. “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Mario whispers back, also verklempt.
“I love you man, I really do,” the woman says, to which Mario replies, “Thank you I love you too.”
While the dogs don’t audibly say anything, the love they feel for Mario is also very visible. The entire video is five seconds shy of a minute, yet it packed quite the emotional punch in very little time.
“This should be a UPS commercial," one person wrote.
Even the official UPS TikTok account chimed in, saying “You never expect a goodbye to hit this hard.”
So many people shared their appreciation for some truly positive interactions, especially in such dark and uncertain times.
“THIS is what our world needs,” one person wrote, while another echoed, “this is what this world is supposed to be like, nothing but love.”
“I needed this today. There's so much hate in this world. My heart really hurts,” added a third.
Indeed, there might be many unsavory things happening right now, but so much of the world also looks just like this, full of harmonious coexistence, shared appreciation, easygoing friendships, and love for one another. Those things might not always make headlines, but they do exist, and sharing these moments gives us reason to keep going.
A mail delivery carrier.Photo credit: Canva
It also just goes to show how mail carriers provide not only a vital service, but a sense of much-needed community to animals and humans alike. As folks in the comments suggested, Mario, the woman, and the doggos can hopefully continue their friendship even if his time at UPS is ending. After all, why rob these pups of their BFF?
There is a three hour window of time when most dying people pass away.
Death is hard to think about and harder still to talk about. Some people get panic attacks just imagining the inevitable end of their life. It's an extremely uncomfortable and inescapable fact of living. For some people, learning as much as they can about what it's like and how it works is the one thing that brings them a little bit of comfort.
That's where Julie McFadden comes in. McFadden has been working as a hospice nurse for nine years. She has been educating people about the dying process on social media for almost as long, racking up millions of views with her gentle, reassuring, and highly informative FAQs.
In a recent video, Hospice Nurse Julie tackles a big, scary question: What time do people usually die? And can we actually predict someone's time of death?
"When is the most common time to die? I think you might be surprised what research says," she begins the video.
McFadden says even she was surprised when she started digging into the data and research. She noted that in her own work, she hasn't really seen a trend, but after poring through studies and speaking to colleagues throughout the hospice industry, she was taken aback to discover there was a clear answer to her question.
"Research and anecdotal evidence... it does show that most people die between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.," she says. She explains that some professionals refer to this window as the "letting go hour."
Other studies and experts have a slightly different take, citing the most common time as 6 a.m.—8 a.m., or even peaking at 11 a.m. But the truth remains that there is a definitive pattern of a high percentage of people passing away in the wee hours of the morning or middle of the night.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
"So, why does that happen? That's where my brain went. And to me, the reason why is the most fascinating part," she explains.
There are a few different factors, McFadden says, that explain such a narrow death window. The first relates to the normal cycle of our body's energy and alertness.
"Biologically, we have a circadian rhythm... And between the hours of two and five, that is when our body's energy level is the lowest. Our temperatures drop, our blood pressure drops, and our breathing slows."
She mentions that those late night/early morning hours are also typically very quiet, without a lot of interruption and stimulation that might unwittingly keep a patient engaged with the outside world. "There's less people kind of trying to hold you there."
The dying person's personality also plays a role. McFadden says she sees over and over that some patients will wait until the entire family arrives before they "let go," while others will wait until things are quiet and they're alone. More outgoing people may wait to be surrounded before they pass, while introverts may prefer to pass in solitude. For the folks who prefer peace and quiet, those nighttime hours make a lot of sense.
Learning about death is uncomfortable, but it helps us in the long run. Photo by Sijmen van Hooff on Unsplash
McFadden then shared a pretty wild story of a patient of hers who "chose" when to die. Viewers then chimed in with their own.
Most people who have lost a loved one absolutely insist that dying people are aware of, and have some level of control over, when they decide to let go. You should watch McFadden's video to hear her best story, but the comments were full of even more.
"My good friend Donna was dying in hospice from a brain tumor and a week before she passed things looked pretty grave so she wasn't expected to last another 2 days. Her sister was by her side and said it's okay you can go but she opened her eyes and said no I'm not going yet I'm waiting for my birthday, I'm dying on my birthday. Her birthday was a week away and no one thought she would make it but she did. Her sister whispered in her ear 'today is your Birthday Sis you made it' and then she passed within the hour," one user shared.
"My grandmother was actively dying for two weeks and held on until the wee hours of the first of the month. She was concerned about getting her social security check to help the family," said another.
"About a week before my 93 year old mom died, she adamently said a few times to me and others she was leaving the following Tuesday. At first I thought she meant she's going out... That Tuesday comes and it was clear she was probably not going to make it to end of the week. I was aware of her comments from the week before but didn't think it would happen that day. She died at 11:12 pm that night, on the day she said she was leaving. She knew."
"While not quite the same thing as 'predicted,' my mother said 'they' told her when she was going to pass away -- to the minute. 'They' being the people visiting her and promising to help her during her visioning experiences. She said they had shown her where she was going to go. She died at exactly the time her visioning-visitors had told her."
The stories shared by the hundreds in the comments to McFadden's video are heart-wrenching, but ultimately extremely hopeful.
@hospicenursejulie Replying to @skinnysketch19 the transitioning phase #hospicenursejulie #caregiversoftiktok #dementia #education #medicaltok #learnontiktok #science #STEM
McFadden doesn't want her viewers who may have a loved one who's dying to be more anxious and nervous during the night, worrying and potentially losing sleep.
"People are going to do it when they do it. Their body is going to let go when the body is ready to let go. All you can do is be there for your loved one the best you can."
She reiterates that, even for someone like her who has seen and helped many patients cross over from this world to the next, that death is a mystery. As much as we can continue to learn and understand new aspects of it, we'll never fully know what it's like until we experience it ourselves.
A kid shopping with their parents in the 90s vs parents today trying to keep their kiddos entertained 24/7
Yes, yes, we know that parenting looks a lot different than when we were kids. And yet, there’s always a new revelation that modern parents seem to discover once it’s them doing the child rearing.
In a clip posted to his TikTok, comedian (and dad) Jack Skipper shared how very different parenting today looks when it comes to keeping kids entertained.
"Nowadays you gotta do what your kids wanna do. You gotta keep them entertained,” Skipper noted. “But when I was growing up, you just did what your parents wanted to do. You just had to sort of follow them around... and make your own entertainment.”
He then compared a typical modern day task of “going to an adventure playground” or a scavenger hunt on the weekend to his childhood, which basically consisted of him following his mom around while she shopped.
“Trying to help mom find a size 14 dress…that was the closest I came to scavenger hunt, “ Skipper quipped.
Another example he used was going with his mom to get her hair done. Hopefully the hairdresser would have kids (it was the 90s, folks got their hair done in houses) so that he could find some toys to play with. Otherwise, he’d just have to deal with being bored.
Clearly, Skipper wasn’t the only millennial to have a childhood that looked like this. And as one commenter noted, perhaps things don’t look that way anymore in part because “people are just trying to give their kids the childhood they wish they’d had,” which is pretty much the entire reason behind gentle parenting in the first place, right?
“People are just trying to give their kids the childhood they wish they’d had.”Photo credit: Canva
However, while the intention to provide a nurturing, stimulating environment for our kiddos is certainly a good thing, there might have been something lost along the way. Good old fashioned, unstructured boredom isn’t fun, but it does help kids develop important skills like tolerating discomfort, problem solving, developing imagination, and critical thinking. According to many parents and educators, nearly all of these qualities have dwindled in younger generations, who can easily rid themselves of uncomfortable boredom at the swipe of an iPad.
Plus, not succumbing to providing entertainment for kids every minute of every day gives parents a much needed sense of autonomy as well. This is something folks in other cultures haven’t forgotten. Spain, for instance, is well known for having parents simply bring their kids in strollers to whatever group they’re attending and letting them fall asleep there, rather than packing up everything to get their kids in bed by seven p.m.
Still, there are plenty who would argue that even with its potential flaws, the new strategy far exceeds the old one. One person even recalled, “I got dragged around and learned that I was not important at all. I felt like a ghost for most of my childhood. There's a reason we’re all struggling with self love.”
“I got dragged around and learned that I was not important at all."Photo credit: Canva
Okay, so maybe parents shouldn’t revert back to dragging our kids around to places where they might be miserable, but they don’t need to force themselves to constantly provide engaging activities. In fact, a little boredom might do kids some good.
Disneyland employees bravely stop wedding due to bride's age
No matter where on earth you visit Disneyland, it's supposed to be the happiest place on earth. It's a slogan the park works hard to keep true for their guests who tend to return multiple times during their lifetime. There's nothing like seeing Mickey, Minnie, Goofy or the Disney princesses up close and personal while walking to your next amusement park ride. But recently at Disneyland Paris, there was a scene no one was prepared to witness.
The park was reserved during the wee hours of the morning for a beautifully elaborate wedding, complete with a wedding cake shaped like Aurora's castle. Weddings are not unusual at the Disney parks due to the promise of magic on your special day complete with a princess castle in the background. Except, it became clear to Disney employees that this wedding wasn't typical as the guests began to settle and the bride and groom were visible. The groom was what you'd expect, a man in his 20s awaiting his blushing bride, but instead of a 20-something bride, it was a nine-year-old girl.
Enchanting castle under dramatic skies.Photo credit: Canva
Yes, to the horror of the Disneyland employees, the bride was a young child doing the wedding march towards a grown man. Instead of continuing with their duties at the park, the employees immediately jumped into action to interrupt the wedding and call authorities. The Disneyland employees weren't sure if this was supposed to be real or an expensive, elaborate joke, and they didn't waste time trying to figure it out.
Several people involved in the planning of the wedding were arrested including the child's 41-year-old mother, according to several outlets. Disneyland employees believed the booking was for a real wedding but when they saw the child in a wedding dress with high heels taped to her feet, they knew intervention was needed. The police arrived to conduct interviews and take those responsible into custody, which is when they found out the child and her mother recently flew to France from Ukraine.
The girl's mother informed the police that the $130,000 wedding was only to make her daughter "feel like a princess" according to France 24. But the "groom" who is a 22-year-old British man tellsThe Times that the mock wedding was to make a video for social media. It seems that none of the more than 100 guests were aware that the "wedding" was for a child to marry an adult man. They were paid to attend a rehearsal for a Disneyland Paris wedding according to France 24.
The Times reveals that the guests were recruited online with an ad seeking 100 adults and 100 children aged five to 15 to play guests at a rehearsal for a wedding.
Smiling girl in a white dress with floral crown and veil.Photo credit: Canva
Alexandre Verney, assistant prosecutor for the Seine-et-Marne département tells The Times, "Four people were arrested and questioned: the groom, who was believed to be the organizer of the event and is presumed to be British and aged 22; the mother of the child, a 41-year-old Ukrainian woman; and two Latvian nationals aged 55 and 24. It wasn’t a wedding but a staged wedding that was to be filmed with a hundred extras. They privatized Disneyland, claiming that it was a real marriage.”
In the end, the girl was deemed unharmed by a medical doctor which allowed for her mother and the 55-year-old man playing the child's father to be released. The "groom" and the 24-year-old woman who was acting as the child's sister are still in custody over possible money laundering and fraud charges.
There's no way to know what would've happened if the Disneyland employees didn't intervene, but thanks to their quick action, none of the shocked "guests" had to find out.
