Young at heart: Elderly librarian says kids keep her alive [Video]

Here is a library worker who is older than many of the books on the shelves but she says her elementary students keep her young at heart.

Arlene Greene turns 82 this summer and she credits the kids at Wengert Elementary for her new lease on life. “When I first came here to Nevada I was sitting around, doing reading, watching T.V. and I was slowly dying and my daughter said, mom, ‘you are going to die like this. You’ve got to volunteer.’”

Greene now volunteers five days a week. Wengert’s principal, Suhaila Mustafa, says, ”She is very sweet, very kind to them.’ Mustafa says Greene resembles grandma and provides a family atmosphere.   

Greene is no push over, though, and the kids know it. A book overdue is a book overdue. And she is a stickler when it comes to saying “please and thank you.”

Greene says, “I would encourage everybody who doesn’t know what to do with themselves, who have nothing, their children have married or gone away, jump into a school. Volunteer and work with the kids. It’s like living all over again.”

Read more and watch this story: Cool at School: Young at Heart

Photo: Flickr user apdk

Boy with 176 IQ is 1 in a million [Video]

Pranav Veera can recite the names of the U.S. presidents in the order they served in office. He can say the alphabet backward. Give him a date back to 2000, and he’ll tell you the day of the week.

He’s only 6 years old.

At first glance, Pranav is a typical young boy who is highly competitive at playing Wii video games and likes to play outside. A closer look reveals he’s anything but typical.

Pranav has an IQ of 176. One person in 1 million has an IQ of 176 or above. Albert Einstein’s IQ was believed to be about 160. The average IQ is 100.

When Pranav was 4-and-a-half, his parents noticed he seemed unusually intelligent while playing with alphabet sets. He could even recall which letters were certain colors.

“That kind of puzzled us,” said his father, Prasad Veera. “You have to have not a normal memorization, but some other means of recall.”

Now, he loves all kinds of alphabets.

“He loves to collect them, like different colors, different sizes, different materials,” said his mother, Suchitra Veera.

The Veeras decided to have Pranav tested three months ago at Powers Educational Services in Hyde Park.

“I said, ’Let’s try it out, because he seems to do a lot of stuff kind of not quite normal for his age,” his father said. “He tested 176.”

He seems to have a photographic memory, so keeping Pranav engaged and learning is a big challenge for his family.

His mother and grandmother, Shanta Sastri, work with him at home.

They’re guided by his focus and interests.

Read more and watch video of this amazing little guy: Boy with 176 IQ is 1 in a million

Mother uses tragedy to win lottery [Video]

It’s a big win for a woman with big family.

“I never thought I’d win,” Phyllis Canady said.

Phyllis takes care of her grown children along with their little ones. Making life more difficult, her oldest son Markey was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2005 and now Phyllis helps with some of his six children.

“I’m not going to says it’s been easy because it’s not,” she said. “It’s been hard, but it’s just day by day.”

It was about time her lucky number came up, and this week it did. Five lucky numbers.

“My baby’s 17, my daughter’s 20, my son is 22, my oldest daughter’s 25 and my deceased son is 29,” Phyllis explained.

Her numbers perfectly matched Sunday’s Badger 5 and Phyllis won the $211,000 grand prize.

She’s already got a plan for the money. Phyllis said her son dreamed of building his mother a house before he died.

“I think God has really blessed me because he knows I’ve been struggling,” said Phyllis. “Now I can get the house he wanted me to have. If God were to take me today, at least I could say my grandkids have a place to go.”

Read more and watch this story: Murdered Man’s Mom Wins Lottery

“Miracle patient” survives two days without liver [Video]

This lady has got the right idea. She says, “If you want to live… live. If you want to die… die.”

Doctors in Frisco, Texas are calling a 67-year-old grandmother a “miracle patient” after she survived more than two days without a liver while waiting for a transplant.

Lois Eisemann was given less than two weeks to live after her liver failed.

She got a transplant and that failed too, then had to wait for another liver transplant.

Many patients live only 24 hours without hours, but lois survived 54 hours without one.

She says she never gave up.

“It’s not easy, it’s very hard, but if you want to live, live, if you want to die, die,“ she said.

After facing death, multiple surgeries and months of therapy, Eisemann say’s she feels great, and the feisty grandmother hasn’t lost her spunk.

“I just need to put on some weight, I’m too thin. You don’t hear that very often do you?“ she joked.

Watch this story: “Miracle patient” survives two days without liver

84-year old woman gets the ride of her life for her birthday

What do you get an 84-year-old lady for her birthday? That’s what Carol Brown was thinking a few weeks ago. Her mother, June Pearce, was turning 84. The idea of buying and giving more stuff just didn’t appeal to Brown.

“When you’re 84, what is there?” she thought.

Pearce lives in a slow-paced retirement area near Lake Okeechobee in rural Florida. She’s been married to the same man, Fred, for 64 years. Pearce is a wife and a mother. She’s had a few strokes, which have robbed her mind of short-term memories. Lung cancer has claimed much of her strength.

 

But one memory has stuck with her: riding on the back of a boy’s motorcycle in the 1930s.

“I wasn’t scared at all,” Pearce remembers.

It was exciting, possibly one of the most thrilling moments of her life. Pearce remembered sliding off the bike and the pain of scraping her leg, but loving it just the same. She told this story so many times that Brown can recite it by heart.

“It was during the depression,” Brown said. “Not a lot of excitement happened then.”

Brown thought of that story as she racked her brain, wondering what to do about the birthday. Then she had an idea.

“Come Give Granny A Ride On Your Hog,” she typed into an ad on Craigslist.

In the Internet posting, Brown asked if anyone would be willing to ride out and give Pearce a ride for her 84th birthday. She got one response, from a man named Ron Borowski. He said he’d ride his Harley-Davidson Low Rider — electric blue, with dark blue flames and a chrome kickstand shaped like a skeleton’s foot — from his house in Palm Beach County to June and Fred Pearce’s home, some 65 miles away.

“My mom passed away from cancer, so the ad touched me,” said Borowski, 45. “I just figured it would be an adventure.”

Read more and see more pictures from the wild ride: Woman, 84, gets the ride of her life for birthday

91-year-old sprinter sets track record [Video]

Grace Foster is now known as “Amazing Grace”. The 91-year-old New Jersey resident has set a new world record in the 60 meter sprint, shattering the previous record for her age bracket.

Her son Greg was waiting for her at the finish line.

“When she across the line and gave me a hug, I was happy,” he said. “And then the record on top of that was just a bonus.”

Grace exercises daily, but didn’t take up track until last month.

“I’ve seen a lot of people much younger than I am act much older, so maybe I’ll be a help to some people. Keep moving,” she said.

Read more: 91-year-old New Jersey sprinter sets track record

Now with Video: 91-year-old New Jersey sprinter sets track record

Grandmother runs down purse snatcher with her car [Video]

Here is one from a reader. These stories are popular with readers… and I love them too. Another would-be victim comes out on top! This lady is a firecracker!

A 65-year-old Texas grandmother says she chased down a man who had just snatched her purse, hit him with her car and held him until police arrived.

“I was madder than hell is what I was,” Val Renfro said. “I didn’t think about anything else except, ‘He’s not going to get away with this.’”

Renfro had just finished shopping at Office Depot in East Fort Worth on Sunday afternoon and was getting in her car when Ricky Lee Sample stole her purse.

“The next thing I know, somebody just blindsided me,” Renfro said. She grabbed her cell phone, which she carries in her bra, and called 911 as he fled. “Someone just grabbed my purse out of the car,” she told the operator. “I’m going to chase him down.”

Renfro said she got in her car and screeched out of the parking lot. She spotted the man in front of a nearby movie theater. Her confrontation with the man was recorded in her 911 call.

“Where’s my purse?” she yelled. “You give it to me now. I got the police on the phone right now. You give me my purse.”

Sample tried to walk away.

“And I thought, ‘I’m going to lose this man, and the police aren’t here,’” Renfro said. “So he got right in front of my right fender, and I just pushed on the gas.”

She said he flipped up in the air. “I hit him,” she told the 911 operator. Sample kept running, she said. Like a scene out of a movie, customers leaving the theater joined in the chase. “Now there’s others chasing him,” Renfro told the 911 operator.

Later, when she saw the man again outside the police station on his way to jail, he apologized, Renfro said.

“Apology accepted,” she replied. “God bless you.”

Read more and watch that story: Grandmother runs down purse snatcher with her car

10-year-old golf prodigy [Video]

 

Here is a story from my buddy, sports reporter, Scott Eisberg.

Kyle Spencer is flat out good. 

He’s shot a 71 on 18 holes, something most golfers can never say they’ll do.  Kyle has done it, by age 10. 

 He started at age 2. By 4-years-old, he was taking lessons and soon after playing competitively. 

 His coach says he’s one of the top 300 kids in the entire world. 

For such an established golfer, one of the most important decisions in his life is picking a caddy.  Kyle’s decision, his grandma and Mary Ann Snyder–who is also a pro at Charleston National. 

 It’s a unique bond the two have, but every weekend, grandma follows grandson 18 holes.

Read more and watch the 10-year-old in action: Kyle Spencer–An Aged Golfer at 10

Photo: Flickr user JLMitch