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After getting sick, this 15-year-old missed her favorite band — until they surprised her.

After playing an amphitheater the night before, the rock band stopped to visit a fan.

On Thursday night, rock band Florence and the Machine played to a packed crowd at the Austin360 Amphitheater in Austin, Texas.

As usual, lead singer Florence Welch wowed the audience with her theatrics and powerful voice.

But something was missing.


Photo by Mauricio Santana/Getty Images.

A 15-year-old girl at nearby Hospice Austin's Christopher House was confined to her bed and unable to attend the concert.

She and her best friend had long planned to attend that night's Florence and the Machine concert. Unfortunately, she landed in hospice and was too weak to make it.

She was crushed, but good news was right around the corner.

The day after the band's Austin concert, Welch and guitarist Rob Ackroyd decided to make that 15-year-old's dream come true — with a private concert.

It's not every day you go from performing in front of thousands of people to joining just a roomful of people in song and celebration — but that's exactly what Welch and Ackroyd did. At the hospice, the two played through songs such as "Shake It Out" and "Dog Days Are Over," with Welch holding the patient's hand and focusing her energy.

Even watching the video takes you into this sort of otherworldly, joyous experience.

Photo via Hospice Austin's Christopher House/YouTube.

There were smiles, there were tears, and above all, there was love filling that room.

Welch was even pretty impressed with the harmonies being sung by some of the visitors.

GIFs via Hospice Austin's Christopher House.

And of course, there was clapping.

In a Facebook post, Hospice Austin nurse Lev Baesh remarked on the experience of being in that room.

"I spend half of my days exhausted after working the other half as a hospice nurse. Today, I dragged myself back to the hospice house after three 12+ hour shifts to witness a gift."

And what a wonderful gift it was.

It was a reminder that no matter how dark the world seems at times, there are moments of great beauty and love sprinkled throughout. When times get tough, remember those moments because they give great hope.

You can watch Florence Welch and her new friends sing "Shake It Out" in the video below.


A size 21 Nike shoe made for Tacko Fall.

A local reporter at Hometown Life shared a unique and heartfelt story on March 16 about a mother struggling to find shoes that fit her 14-year-old son. The story resonated with parents everywhere; now, her son is getting the help he desperately needs. It's a wonderful example of people helping a family that thought they had nowhere to turn.

When Eric Kilburn Jr. was born, his mother, Rebecca’s OBGYN, told her that he had the “biggest feet I’ve ever seen in my life. Do not go out and buy baby shoes because they’re not gonna fit,’” Rebecca told Today.com. Fourteen years later, it’s almost impossible to find shoes that fit the 6’10” freshman—he needs a size 23.

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Joy

10 things that made us smile this week

Did someone order some mood-boosting serotonin?

Upworthy's weekly roundup of joy

Spring has sprung, y'all! Officially on paper, at least. It's still flippin' cold and brown where I live, but we can see the daffodils stretching their way out of the ground and it won't be long before everything bursts into bloom.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Earth laughs in flowers." That feels true, doesn't it? These early days of spring are a bit like preparing to watch your favorite comedy, snuggled up on the couch with your people (or your cat), nummy snacks and comfy pants, smiling in anticipation because you know you're about to have some big laughs.

Hopefully, that's also how you feel jumping into these weekly roundups of joy, knowing you're about to get hit with some mood-boosting serotonin and cant-help-but-smile goodness. (That's how I feel each week pulling these lists together–it's like a little weekly smile therapy.)

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A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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Grandpa, dad and son take a funny photo.

What’s brown and sticky? A stick.

How do you get a country girl’s attention? A tractor.

My wife asked me to stop singing “Wonderwall” to her. I said maybe…

Dad jokes tend to be simple, inoffensive attempts at humor that are often puns and never funny. Except, of course, to the dad who tells them. But he usually gets more of a kick out of the embarrassment it caused his children than the joke itself.

According to a new essay, that’s the exact point.

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Dog does the 'pick a card' challenge and it's adorable.

There are a few kinds of dog parents: ones that only have outside dogs, those who have inside dogs but they're absolutely not allowed on the furniture and dog parents who treat their dog as if they birthed them themselves and give them every luxury invented for four-legged fur children.

Clearly, people are going to have feelings one way or the other about dogs and their place within a household, but I think everyone can agree that seeing a dog be pampered will always be adorable. Opie the Pit Bully is one of those lucky doggos who wound up living in the lap of luxury, and the pooch got to do a "pick a card" day to showcase that his owner loves him the mostest.

In a video uploaded to TikTok by Opie's owner because...ya know, opposable thumbs and all…Opie is faced with two cards that he can't read: 1) because he's a dog, and 2) because the cards are facing toward the camera. That doesn't stop the sweet puppers from playing along, though.

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Photo by David Cadenas on Unsplash

What we imagine the look on Mr/ Pickles' face to be after becoming a dad.

It’s been an exciting time for a couple of tortoises at the Houston Zoo—and really, for tortoises everywhere.

The zoo announced on its blog that their oldest resident, Mr. Pickles, a 90-year-old radiated tortoise, and his 53-year-old companion Mrs. Pickles (that’s quite an age gap there sir, but no judgment) recently welcomed three new hatchlings.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, here are the new baby names: Dill, Gherkin and Jalapeño.

Clearly, Jalepeño is the spicy one of the bunch.

While this news is certainly momentous for Mr. and Mrs. Pickles, it’s also a huge achievement for the entire species, which is currently critically endangered.
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