Tell Me Something Good 6/9/19

Tell Me Something Good logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul and Word Clouds.

The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to get caught up in the spin cycle and let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.

This week’s Something Good is a story about a 90 year-old woman – mother, grandmother, neighbor, friend, and volunteer – being saved from a fire by four quick-thinking and brave teenagers.

Catherine Ritchie of Supulpa, Oklahoma, was getting ready for bed when she turned around to find her bed engulfed in flames, CNN reports. She initially tried to extinguish the fire but was forced to flee as the room filled with smoke. Catherine, disoriented by the smoke, could not find the door to the hallway to escape. Feeling along the wall for the door, she ended up in the closet, thinking it was the way out.

Fortunately, a group of football players and friends, ages 14 -17, were hanging out nearby that night – Dylan Wick, Wyatt Hall, and brothers Seth Byrd and Nick Byrd. They were outside Wyatt’s house when they noticed the smoke at the neighbor’s house and quickly sprung into action.

According to a blog post written by Ritchie’s daughter, Missy, one boy tried to get into the house through the front door, another through the back. Another called 911 and the fourth went to a neighbor’s to get an ax. 14 year-old Nick was the one who got to her and, along with his 16 year-old brother Seth, carried her to safety. The fire department arrived and put out the fire soon after.

Jennifer Sontag, Catherine’s granddaughter, told CNN that her grandmother, who volunteers with The Salvation Army, The Boys and Girls Club, and Meals-on-Wheels, is the same calm, confident person she was before the fire.

The experience of helping Ritchie has impacted the young men. Wyatt told CBS News that the experience has changed his life for the better while Dylan’s mother told CNN that he wants to be a firefighter and this experience has strengthened that aspiration.

Catherine is grateful to the boys she believes are very special to have been so young but willing to put themselves at risk to save her. Missy’s blog post closed by eloquently thanking the four heroes for saving the “most precious and beloved woman we know” and for being the “kind of young men who thought about another person above” themselves .

We so often hear about teenagers being selfish and bad but these four young men are genuine heroes. It is good to remember that the future is in the good hands of these young men and other young people like them instead of dwelling on the selfishness of the younger generations that many older folks tend to focus on.

Now it’s your turn… Tell me Something Good.

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*Principle above party * Politically Homeless * Ex GOP * Tribalism is stupid* NeverTrump ≠ Pro Hillary. Anti-GOP ≠ Pro Dem. Disagreeing with you ≠ Liberal. https://universeodon.com/@NoMorePlatosCave https://post.news/nomoreplatoscav Counter Social: @NoMorePlatosCave