11 Good News Stories: Mother Rendell Turns 100; Wrestler Turns Farmer

ACROSS AMERICA — Happy birthday, Mother Rendell.

The now 100-year-old Chicago-area woman has led an amazing life, by all accounts. With the deepest respect, people who aren’t related by blood call Josephine Rendell “mother.” Many turned out to celebrate the still spry centenarian who has been alive since Warren G. Harding was president — and counts Barack Obama as the best in her lifetime.

An accomplished painter, beloved Sunday school teacher and all-around lover of life, Mother Rendell is the matriarch of her family and the oldest member of the church her mother founded more than 65 years ago.

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, she was part of the Great Migration of African Americans who came from the South to find a better life in northern cities. She returned to her birth state every summer to spend time with her grandmother. There, she was put to work to “churn butter, feed chickens and slop hogs,” but also came to understand the nuances of Jim Crow racism during Sunday afternoon porch chats with her grandmother’s Black and white neighbors.

What’s the secret to her well-lived life?

“Everybody asks me that," Rendell told Patch. “I do a lot of praying. I read my Bible all the time. God is good. His word is a lamp on to our feet and a light unto our path. I love people. I just give them what the Lord told me to say.” » By Lorraine Swanson for Oak Lawn (Illinois) Patch

‘Saving The Farm, Saving The Land’

The first man in the world to bench press 700 pounds in a powerlifting competition, former WWF wrestler, actor and businessman Ted Arcidi outbid developers interested in a 125-acre corn and hay farm that had caught Arcidi’s eye in the 2000s when he was fishing in the area with his kids. He bought the land for about $1 million and says he has invested about twice that much in repairing it. “When I got here, this was all new to me," Arcidi told Patch. "I knew I wanted to do this work. I knew I wanted to expand the farm. I knew I wanted to help the farmers. That was the big thing … saving the farm, saving the land." » By Tony Schinella for Milford (New Hampshire) Patch

Life-Saving Kidney Just Around The Corner

Joe Boyce started a website in March as his kidney functions worsened. The Wantagh, New York, native cast a wide net in his search for a life-saving organ, but it was his neighbor, Liz Haines, who donated the life-saving kidney. When Haines confirmed she would donate a kidney, Boyce asked if she was sure. "Then I told her, I wish I didn't know her," Boyce said on the “Patch AM” podcast based on the Long Island Patch Facebook page. “We knew the family. So, I didn't want anything to happen to her because we knew her." Haines is fine. She hopes her gesture “shows others that you can really pitch and help somebody else in need.” » By Jerry Barmash for Wantagh-Seaford (New York) Patch

‘You’re Going To Go Blind’

When Mike Zampella crossed the finish line in the San Francisco Marathon Sunday, he accomplished something that had eluded him since 2018, when he crushed his right knee after falling off a ladder while cleaning up storm damage on Long Island. The injury interrupted training for his first full marathon, but not his desire to finish a race. Perseverance is part of Zampella’s DNA. He was 8 when doctors diagnosed a rare degenerative eye disease; he lost his sight as a teenager. “My parents had to tell me, ‘you're going to go blind, and we have to prepare for it.' And I'm a happy kid, right?” he said. “My whole life got flipped upside down.” » By Michelle Rotuno-Johnson for Philadelphia Patch

These Kids Have Heart

Some kids in Tinley Park, Illinois, with philanthropic hearts have opened their own coffee stand, Hanover Kids' Café, in the driveway of one of their family’s homes. They don’t make money for themselves, but for their community or a local charity. Their most recent endeavor was for the family of a 14-year-old boy who died after he was hit by a car while riding his bike, but they’ve also raised $130 for Chicago White Sox charities, $200 for leukemia research, and $150 for a child in a neighboring town who has cancer. “I like to give back to the community,” 12-year-old Mikey Gingras told Patch. “I just feel like it’s good to give back.” » By Lauren Traut for Tinley Park (Illinois) Patch

Christmas In July

Marine Cpl. Joseph A. Hobbins hadn’t seen his mother, Paula DiMeo Stayne, in more than 900 days when he returned to Long Island and surprised her. He had missed a couple of Christmases, so he put on a Santa Claus suit. “Honestly, I didn’t even connect it until I started staring at him and thought, ‘What a skinny Santa,’ ” DiMeo Stayne told Patch. “Then the beard fell and I was stunned. I was overcome with happiness.” Her son had re-enlisted in the Marines, and she didn’t expect to see him for another year. » By Michael DeSantis for Kings Park (New York) Patch

‘They Deserve To Be Seen’

The Blevins family of Manhattan, Illinois, were living a pretty normal life in the spring of 2021. Kaylee and Doug were raising two young children: Haven, 5, and Wyatt, 1. All that changed when Wyatt was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow known s ALL. Doctors hadn’t been too concerned when he first started showing symptoms, but “I had a weird feeling in my gut that it was some kind of cancer,” his mother told Patch. “And I don't really know why. Everybody thought I was going crazy. Everyone was like, ‘It’s probably just a bug.’ Or, like, maybe he had COVID because some people have had long-term effects. But I thought it seriously could be leukemia.” She even had a dream he had leukemia. Doctors barely caught it in time, but Wyatt is in remission now. Kaylee said she hadn’t thought much about childhood cancer until her son was diagnosed, but now she’s a determined advocate for children with cancer. “They deserve to be seen,” she said. » By TJ Kremer III for Manhattan (Illinois) Patch

Tribute To Fallen Officer

After Riverside, California, police Officer Ryan Bonaminio was killed in the line of duty more than a decade ago, a city park was named in his honor. It has a rock garden, but two women who didn’t know him noticed the rock garden at the park was missing something. “There were no painted rocks,” Elsa Pastrano told Patch. So, she and her friend Lynn Venegas decided to change that. They added about a dozen painted rocks to the garden, hoping other Riverside residents will follow their lead. When he was killed, Bonaminio was only 28. Pastrano doesn’t want him to be forgotten. “I hope this [rock garden] will somehow have a positive impact on a person's day,” she said. » By Toni McAllister for Murrieta (California) Patch

‘They Need More Of Us’

The sad reality Darius Brown has come to grips with after years of charity work at animal shelters in New Jersey: Many people don't value the lives of dogs and cats the same as a human's. But according to the 15-year-old activist from Newark — who was recently nominated for a Global Child Prodigy Award — there's no time to let it get you down. “They need us,” said Brown, widely acclaimed for his charity work. “They need more of us.” » By Eric Kiefer for Newark (New Jersey) Patch

'A Beautiful Thing'

When an 8-year-old dog named Dylan got trapped in a storm drain pipe, it took a village to save him. People and organizations all over South Jersey came to his rescue. “They were amazing,” Jericho’s Wish Animal Rescue founder Shellinda Fisher-Hardie told Patch. “I've never seen that many people in the heat. And mind you, this was at 1 in the morning ... to see them all work together like that was amazing to see.” Dylan is recovering and donations for his care “are coming in like crazy for him,” she said. “Everybody’s worried about this dog they’ve never met before. That’s a beautiful thing. …” » By Janel Miller for Moorestown (New Jersey) Patch

A Princess For Life

No one who saw it could look away nearly two years ago when they saw a black-and-white pinto horse, flanked by a caravan of motorcycles, cantering along the local lanes of Chicago's Dan Ryan Expressway, reaching speeds of 12 to 15 mph, as part of a political protest. It caused terrible damage to the mare’s legs and feet. “It ruined her,” Terry Wenninger, who manages Forest View Farms in Tinley Park, Illinois, where the horse has been staying since, told Patch. “It just ruined her legs. She's still not sound, she'll never be sound. So now she just gets to be a princess for the rest of her life.” » By Lauren Traut for Tinley Park (Illinois) Patch