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Family

A cancer diagnosis meant a lot more time together for one mom and daughter

This is beautiful.

cancer, family, medical student, diagnosis, community
Image pulled from YouTube video.

Mother and daughter enjoy each others company on the couch.

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Ad Council + AARP

This article originally appeared on 11.20.15


When her mother was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, this medical student knew what she had to do.

She dropped out of school for a year to be with her mom and help her navigate the procedures, helpers, hospice workers, medications, and so many other things that suddenly occupied her mother's life, 24/7.


"I decided to take a year off from medical school and spend the time with her, and I just feel like I want to grasp at every moment I can, really. A typical day of caring for my mom usually includes preparing meals, running errands, grocery shopping, and picking up prescriptions. I work a lot behind the scenes organizing the nursing, a nursing assistant to come and help us." — Hannah Roberts

It's not something that everybody can do.

It's grueling, wonderful, painful, life-affirming, terrifying, rewarding, and many more things, all wrapped up into one big ball of ... life.

I really hope when my mother reaches the end of her life, I have a chance (and the ability) to be there for her in the same manner.

Watching a relative go through something like this is probably not in anybody's top 10 list of things they really want to do with their lives, but helping them cope is certainly in the realm of being a loving human being.

Getting them through it with grace and dignity — I cannot think of a greater gift to give.

Some facts, all from National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP:

  1. Nearly 1/4 of all of America's caregivers are Millennials, between the ages of 18—34, and they're equally likely to be male or female.

  2. The value — that is, if it were paid — of caregiving by family members was approximately $470 billion per year in 2013.

  3. 40 million family caregivers helped another adult or loved one carry out daily activities
  4. More than half (55%) of family caregivers report being overwhelmed by the amount of care their family member needs.

Caregivers are the unsung heroes of modern life, and sometimes we forget that they're also grieving and suffering as they help their loved ones.

They need our support in any way we can offer it.

Tia Savva has an invested father.

This article originally appeared on July 2, 2019


Sadly, a lot of men go out of their way to avoid learning anything about a woman's period.

(That could be why throughout most of the United States — where the majority of lawmakers are men — feminine hygiene products are subject to sales tax.)

So we should give some love to the guys who make an effort to learn a bit about the menstrual cycle so they can help their family members when they're in desperate need of feminine hygiene products.

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Education

Teacher mispronounces every student's name to get a laugh, but it also serves a bigger purpose

Oddly enough, this kind of silly roll call can make everyone feel equally welcome.

A teacher mispronounced her students' names, which ironically may have made all of them feel more welcome.

Anyone who has lived in the U.S. with a nontraditionally American name knows how hard it can be to get some people to pronounce your name correctly.

My husband's name is Javad, which is only two syllables and objectively not hard to say (juh-VAHD), but I've watched many people mutilate it over the years even after being given the correct pronunciation. I remember one time watching him introduce himself to a man clearly and slowly—twice—and the man still called him "Bob," like he couldn't even digest this name he'd never heard before, much less pronounce it.

As a kid, at the beginning of every school year or every time a substitute teacher came around, it was common for my husband to have to correct the pronunciation of his name. Not the end of the world, but annoying. I can't imagine how much more annoying it is for people with longer names that aren't familiar to many American ears.

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via Pexels

A couple enjoying a glass of wine.

This story originally appeared on 05.07.22


In the 1988 Disney classic “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” the titular character is in an unlikely relationship with his voluptuous wife Jessica. Roger is a frantic, anxious rabbit with a penchant for mischief, while Jessica is a quintessential ’40s bombshell who stands about a foot and a half taller and isn’t “bad,” just “drawn that way.”

When private investigator Eddie Valiant asked Jessica what she sees in “that guy?” she replies, “He makes me laugh.”

This type of couple may seem like something we only see in the movies, but don’t underestimate the power of humor when it comes to attractiveness. A new study published in Evolutionary Psychology found that being humorous is the most effective way to flirt for both men and women.

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via Pexels

Three people engaged in conversation at a party.

There are some people who live under the illusion that everything they say is deeply interesting and have no problem wasting your time by rambling on and on without a sign of stopping. They’re the relative, neighbor or co-worker who can’t take a hint that the conversation is over.

Of all these people, the co-worker who can’t stop talking may be the most challenging because you see them every day in a professional setting that requires politeness.

There are many reasons that some people talk excessively. Therapist F. Diane Barth writes in Psychology Today that some people talk excessively because they don’t have the ability to process complex auditory signals, so they ramble on without recognizing the subtle cues others are sending.

It may also be a case of someone who thinks they’re the most interesting person in the conversation.

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Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

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Health

Belgian Olympic marathoner breaks down in tears of disbelief upon hearing she finished 28th

38-year-old Mieke Gorissen had only been training for three years and the Olympics was just her third marathon.

Imagine deciding to take up a hobby that usually requires many years to perfect at age 35, and three years later ending up in the top 30 in the world at the highest international competition for it.

That's what happened to a 38-year-old math and physics teacher from Diepenbeek, Belgium. According to Netherlands News Live, Mieke Gorissen has jogged 10km (a little over six miles) a few times a week for exercise for many years. But in 2018, she decided to hire a running trainer to improve her technique. As it turned out, she was a bit of a natural at distance running.

Three years later, Gorissen found herself running her third marathon. But not just any old marathon (as if there were such a thing)—the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics. And not only did she compete with the world's most elite group of runners, she came in 28th out of the 88 competing in the race.

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