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Sometimes the simplest gesture can mean the world.

Staying in an Airbnb can be an adventure, sometimes for the worse but often for the better. The Internet is full of both heartwarming and horrible experiences people have had renting spaces from strangers—or having strangers rent spaces from them—but the popular short-term rental platform is a poster child for the "sharing economy" and the human connections that can come along with it.

One example of how staying at a stranger's house can lead to a beautiful interaction comes from two young women who stayed at an Airbnb in Finland. Jessica Judith shared a video of her and her travel companion singing "Happy Birthday" to an elderly man over a cake filled with candles.

"Our Airbnb host was alone on his birthday," Jessica shared in the caption, "and God knew to put two women who care too much about birthdays to celebrate with him." The women clapped and sang, then hugged the man before he blew out his candles.

@jess.judith

Tarmo fue el mejor host que he tenido en airbnb, nos llevo a ver los reindeers y todos los dias nos esperaba en su casa con cafe y galletitas listas, te queremos mucho Tarmo! que honor poder celebrar tu cumpleaños contigo!! kiitos kaikesta


"Tarmo was the best host I ever had on airbnb," the caption reads. "He took us to watch the reindeers and every day he was waiting for us at his house with coffee and cookies ready. We love you so much Tarmo! What an honor to be able to celebrate your birthday with you!!! Kiitos kaikesta."

(Kiitos kaikesta means "thanks for everything" in Finnish.)

The video was viewed over 32 million times as people chimed in with positive feedback on the women's thoughtfulness.

"I learned some people host Airbnb because of loneliness not money. I had the sweetest host one time who was just lonely and wanted company. Y’all made his whole year."

"You guys just gave that man a core memory."

"My soul 😭 he is someone’s baby 😭 I know his late momma was smiling down. All I could see is the little boy in him here. 😭🤍🤎 you two did a beautiful thing that’ll he’ll never forget. 😭💕"

birthday, blow out candles, birthday cake, little boy, babiesHappy Birthday GIFGiphy

"As a mother , knowing he’s someone son and was once just a little boy thank you for being so kind 🩵 I hope if my son was every alone [on] a birthday then someone would show him such kindness as you."

"This is how we’re supposed to live as humans 🥹."

"This should be an airbnb commercial."

"This is literally what airbnb was created for btw to bring people together."

Even Airbnb commented with, "When the guests make the host feel hosted 🥹."

What we don't see in the video is how the women communicated with their host. He didn't speak any English and they didn't speak Finnish, so they used translation apps to talk to one another. In another video, Jessica shared a bit more about their sweet host.


@jess.judith

la experiencia mas bonita


"This is Tarmo," she wrote. "He was our Airbnb host in Finland. He lives alone with his dog Peppi and his daughter set up this Airbnb (little cottage next to his house) which he takes care of the cleaning. He always had the table set with coffee and pastries waiting for us. He doesn't speak English but we used a translator and would have amazing conversations. Everything was so special and at the end of our stay he said, 'I hope this is not the last time I see you in this lifetime.' Best Airbnb experience ever."

As a short-term rental host and someone who has stayed at countless Airbnbs while traveling, I can attest to the fact that some guest-host interactions are truly special. As a host, I once had a guest from China who insisted on cooking my family a 3-course Chinese meal from scratch. As a guest, I rented a home in Greece with my family where the owner's mother, who lived on the property, would bring us fresh-baked Greek pastries from the local bakery every other morning with the warmest smile and most gracious welcome. As both host and guest, my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive.

The sharing economy can be wonderful when people are open and welcoming to the experience of connecting with others, and Tarmo and his kind guests are a perfect example.

A nurse comforts a dying woman.

In 2011, hospice nurse Bronnie Ware wrote the bestselling book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, recalling the lessons she learned as a palliative care nurse. The big takeaway is that when people are in their final days, their regrets are about their relationships and how they failed at being their true selves.

Ware’s Five Regrets of the Dying:

1. "I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."

2. "I wish I hadn’t worked so hard."

3. "I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings."

4. "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."

5. "I wish I had let myself be happier."


a man passing away, older man passing, death bed, hospice, hospital grief, relativesAn older man in his final moments.via Canva/Photos

It’s worth noting that when people are in their final days, they never wish they had worked more or complain that they spent too much time with their families. It seems that when we take a full assessment of life, what really matters are their relationships and experiences, not the car they drove or the number of digits in their bank accounts.

A group of hospital workers on Reddit shared their experiences with the final regrets of the dying, and they were similar to Ware's. However, their experiences are more dramatic because they worked with people who may have just had a catastrophic diagnosis or were in an accident, and their reaction to their final days came as more of a surprise.

Here are 13 of the most common regrets hospital workers have heard from their dying patients.

1. Some people are ready to go

"Some people just want you to let them go. I had a man with terminal cancer break down crying after his daughters left the room because they wanted him to 'keep fighting' and he just wanted to rest and pass peacefully. Learn when to let go."

"So often I see people who are ready to die but feel more tethered to their relationships with others rather than their relationship to themselves in pain. It creates a sort of stagnancy in their transition that I think prolongs their suffering."

2. Some have no one

"He was one of my first patients as a nursing student, named Frank. He was 92. After knowing him a few days, he disclosed to me his regret was outliving everyone he loved.. that he and his wife hadn’t had kids, and he was 'all that was left' and that he wanted to see his wife again. I wasn’t sure how to respond , so I just listened... and it made me realize how living so long isn’t great if everyone you love is gone. He passed away later that week, and while I distinctly recall some of my classmates being upset, I felt relief for him. I knew he was where he wanted to be. I’ve had many patients since, but you tend to remember your first ones."


final days, death, dying hospital, last rights, patients, regretsA doctor checking on a man receving oxygen.via Canva/Photos

3. They regret how they treated their children

"He wished he had been a better father to his daughter. He wished they had reconnected. His dementia prevented him from remembering they had reconnected years before and that she visited often. I wish I could have made him aware that he had accomplished his last wish. But he died not really understanding that."

4. True love to the end

"I worked in long-term care for 12 years. I remember a married couple that shared a room. She had cancer and kidney failure. I was helping her eat lunch one day, with her husband sitting there with us. She looked like death, but her husband looked at her, then at me, and said Have you ever seen a more beautiful woman? I had to leave and go to the bathroom and cry. I cried for days every time I thought of what he said."

5. They regret not having the chance to live

"I worked as an oncology nurse right out of nursing school. I was barely 21 years old. Had a patient about my age who was dying of lung cancer. A few hours before he died, I sat with him and he was telling me how much he wished that he had had more time, maybe fall in love, marry, have kids. He was so young. He asked me to call his parents, and he died shortly after they arrived. It was awful. His regrets were more about the life not lived."

6. ER patients don't want to be alone

"In the ER, it's not something most people see coming when they arrive, but it's usually the same regret when they are coherent. They all wish their family was there. Or they cry out for their SO in a panic. It's gotten to the point recently where we tell them 'SO is right here with you.'The look of relief on people's faces just hearing that gets me every time. People just want to not be alone at the end."

"In a confession subreddit, a dude confessed how he was with a man, during his last moments ( he crashed his truck in the roadside, op was behind him, called the urgencies). As op was waiting the ambulance, even hearing it, the man asked after his wife, where she was, that he wanted to see her. Op tried to comfort it the best he could, saying she was on her way. The man died when the ambulance arrived. Sometimes after, op looked after this man, on social networks. He found out that this man's wife was already passed. And that he said to the man that his late wife was on her way."


car wreck,  cra crash, deadly crash, firemen, jaws of life, broken windshieldFiremen help a motorist in a car crash.via Canva/Photos

7. People regret what they didn't do

"It's very likely that no one ever said, 'I wish I let my life pass by,' or I wish I had been a passive observer in my life.'"

"I second this, worked in hospice for about 5 years."

"More specifically people regret not spending more time with family, spending too much time with the wrong people, and not having children. There are plenty of regrets about not going skiing, not learning a different language, not going dancing more etc...but the majority of regrets are related to relationships with other people."

8. Eat the cake

"AEMT here most patients that I see in my ambulance are too sick to talk in these cases but one sticks with me. A mid-40s male called us for chest pain, put a 12-lead on, and he was in the middle of a massive heart attack( for those that know the term, he was throwing tombstones). The sad part was that he had medical training, so he knew that it wasn’t good. We were screaming to the hospital he looked me dead in the eye and goes, 'I should have ate that f****** cake'when I asked what he meant he told me 'F what others think if it makes you happy do it, eat the cake, pet a squirrel, take a nap. F anyone else it doesn’t matter.' He crashed shortly after we got to er, didn’t come back."

9. I still have growing to do

"'Not yet! I can't die yet. I still have so much growing to do. I want to see my children and grandchildren grow up...' I am a physician trainee who has done a decent amount of palliative care. I have been privileged to hear many stories and be part of many deaths, but I still can't explain why it is that certain lines remain with me and hit me so much harder. The gentleman who told me the line above was in his late 60s to early 70s. It made me reflect on how I view patients in this age group - yes, much older than myself, but still with growing and living to do."


dying woman, final days, woman passing, hospice care, pallative care, hospitalA woman in her final moments.via Canva/Photos

10. They miss their pets

"I had a patient who I was in the room with when her doctor explained she only had a few weeks to live. I knew her well, spent quite a bit of time talking to her up to the news. The days that followed, she seemed to have accepted she was dying. She lived this beautiful, independent, and successful life, maybe not money successful, but just plain happy. Anyways, when I was helping her to the tub on day 10 since receiving the news, she just broke down crying and couldn't stop crying about how much she wished she hadn't put her dog down b/c they could have died together. Come to find out her dog was on his deathbed too. I guess she put her dog down a few days before going into the hospital, she knew her life was over so she put him down first. She hated herself for it and for the fact she blew the opportunity for them to spend their last moments together. Really heartbreaking to watch, to hear that unfold."

11. Should have been more positive

"I shouldn't have spent so much energy on negative emotions / hatred as the things that made me angry now seems completely trivial and I wish I spent my time being more happy and positive in life."

12. The dying reveal their true selves

"You'll find out who they really are when they are dying. Kind, mean, chill, blaming. Just keep asking them to tell stories. They love that."

"I spent a fair amount of time with this man during his last weeks. It’s pretty amazing how different of a person he was just a few months later. Before, he was arrogant, obnoxious, prideful, skeptical, and pretty self-absorbed. He was not a fun patient. But in those last weeks - his whole ego had dissolved. All that was left was just... him. The real him. Or at least it seemed that way to me. The man spent his life working as a writer/reporter for a large political website. He was a very liberal man, and he told me that his biggest regret was absorbing himself in politics."

13. The dying want closure

"I’m a chaplain in hospitals and hospices. Doing everything we can to reconcile people before they die is a large portion of my work. I have a lot of stories. Regrets naturally are expressed at the end of life because people want to close their narratives and they are reflecting on everything they’ve lived. This isn’t scary or heartbreaking, it’s natural and a way to end things with beauty. The important lesson isn’t to focus on the regrets, it’s to live a life now of love, acceptance, and mending bridges because you don’t know when it’ll be your time to tie loose ends."


afterlife, heaven, staircase, god, judgement, religion, final moments, reincarnationThe stairway to heaven. via Canva/Photos

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This has got to be the wildest house tour ever seen—especially the 'toilet paper wall'

A foam pit bedroom? A Blockbuster movie room? A DR. PEPPER PASSAGEWAY?

This just keeps getting better and better

Get ready for a home tour like none you’ve ever seen.

How many movies have we seen as kids featuring houses with crazy, cool hidden passages tucked away behind bookshelves, fireman poles in lieu of stairs, and secret rooms filled with nothing but childish novelties? Enough to where it's a fantasy that sticks with many of us well into adulthood.

For the Flom family, this dream is actually a reality. In a TikTok that has a whopping 18.7 million views, Anna Rothfuss takes us on a tour of the most delightful “Trap-Door-House,” which was created by her husband Justin Flom, who just so happens to be a world renowned magician, known best for his YouTube series and television show Wizard Wars.


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

In the clip, Rothfuss wakes up in the bedroom-slash-foam-pit (a “project” Flom is working on, apparently), and then mosies downstairs using auto belay system to gt to the kitchen to make breakfast. A breakfast which, of course, is in a pantry thant’s behind a “secret moving bookshelf.”

But wait, the day has only just begun. Having had brekkie, Rothfuss has now moved onto laundry, only instead of using a "regular old laundry chute,” she uses one with a fireman’s pole added inside. This home upgrade is very popular with the kiddos, unsurprisingly.

Saving the most magical items for last, Rothfuss then shows us a toilet paper wall in the bathroom (cause why not?), a “cozy” loft made of netting above the stairs for the kids, and a “Dr. Pepper passageway” that leads to a hidden door in the wallpaper that opens to their Blockbuster-fied movie room. No joke.


On his website, Flom describes himself as “just a kid magician with grown up money,” and his home as the physical manifestation of his “creative spirit and ability to transform ordinary spaces into realms of fantasy and fun.” After seeing this tour, we don’t think anyone would argue with that statement.

And certainly, folks had lots of thoughts about this wonderfully whimsical house.

Many jokingly mused about how well the house could handle big feelings. “Imagine being angry and having to go downstairs in the gently auto belay,” quipped one viewer, while another echoed, “I can imagine crying on a bad day and floating down stairs is so embarrassing.” Others hailed it a “thief’s worst nightmare,” what with the many different rooms and all.

Another simply noted something we were all thinking: “Finally I clean the mirror behind the Dr.Pepper passageway is truly a sentence I never thought I would hear.”

And perhaps this was the best comment of all: “I need to remember more often that I have free will as an adult.”

And that really nails it on the head, doesn’t it? Unlike most polished, curated, color coordinated home tours we see go viral on social media, this one reminds us to give ourselves permission to let our homes honor that child spirit within us all. Maybe it won’t look like a giant foam pit in the bedroom, or maybe it will! The point is to open our minds to what’s possible, rather than what’s acceptable.

Follow Justin Flom on TikTok for even more of these awesome videos.

Returning a shopping cart can be one subtle sign of a good person.

The world is filled with genuinely good people who care about their fellow human beings and always try to do the kind or honorable thing. Unfortunately, there are also some charlatans out there who may try to convince people they are good when they're not. Grifters, con men, and narcissists can pretend to be kind, loving, or scrupulous, but it's all in service of some selfish motive. So how can you tell the difference?

It's not always clear, especially at first, but there are some subtle indicators that a person's virtues are real and sincere. People shared the tell-tale signs that tell them a person is genuinely good, and it's a helpful list to run through if you find yourself questioning someone's true character.

from AskReddit

They can admit weakness and apologize

"They’re willing to admit when they were wrong or when they don’t know something."

"They authentically apologize when they are wrong or when they make a mistake without anyone asking them to. They can let go of ego for the sake of what is right. On the opposite side of the same coin, they have a forgiving nature."

"They hold themselves accountable for their actions. They apologize and try to make amends. Are willing to learn from their mistakes and misconceptions."

They do the right thing when it's not convenient

"One of my favorite sayings is 'Principles only mean something if you stand up for them when it’s inconvenient.' When people stand up for what’s right at a time when it isn’t convenient, that’s a good person."

"A favorite of mine as well. I’ve always heard it as 'Values aren’t values until they cost you something.'"

"It's easy to be a good person when things are easy. A true good person will remain good when they are angry, or scared, etc. If your morals evaporate under stress, you don't actually have morals."

kindness, helpfulness, good people, good personGoing out of your way to be kind is a sign of a good person.Photo credit: Canva

They're kind when they don't have to be

"They’re polite to people they have authority over."

"This is the one for me. Kind leaders are everything. Imagine if the leaders of the free world operated on this premise."

"They treat people that cannot do anything for them very well."

They speak well of others when they're not around to hear it

"Complimenting people behind their back."

"This is actually big. It’s super easy to gossip about someone behind their back but it’s always refreshing when people just have nice things to say about others even when they aren’t there."

"Or defending someone when someone is gossiping behind their back!"

i like him good guy GIF by Kim's ConvenienceGiphy

They are selflessly and anonymously kind

"They do good things for others without expecting something in return."

"And may I add that they do it without advertising their good deed, nothing on the internet, news paper, discussion with friends. They do it quietly and humbly."

"They do something kind without telling anyone else about it."

They include those who might feel left out

"They fill you in / include you in an existing convo that you’ve just joined."

"They are the one in the group who stops and waits for you while you to tie your shoe or they hold the door as the rest of the group keeps moving."

"When you say something that immediately gets talked over by the rest of the group or wasn't heard, and they make it a point to stop and add on to/ask what you said."

They return shopping carts

"They always put their shopping carts away."

"Returning your shopping cart. There are no laws that say you have to, & there’s no rewards for doing it either, it’s purely an act of selflessness to benefit the people who have to work at the store & take care of the parking lots/carts."

"Shopping cart theory! Is it polite to return the cart? Does it ease the workload of a stranger? Yes! Are we punished if we don't? No! It's a great litmus test for social responsibility."

Are these diehard rules for what makes a good person? No. Are there other things that could be added to this list? Yes. Can animals always tell if a person is good? Maybe. (People were split on that one, mainly because if an animal was mistreated by someone they may naturally fear or dislike a person who looks like their abuser. No fault of the person themselves.) However, this list can give us some clues about people's character and maybe even help us take a look in the mirror and assess our own.