Great to see heroes being honoured

[u/SatoruGojo232]

[u/Suicidal_8002738255]

For very personal reasons I needed to hear about good stuff and good people today. Genuinely from the bottom of my heart thank you for sharing

[u/Remarkable-Mood3415 → u/Suicidal_8002738255]

Hey man, I'm not sure what you're going through and I'm not going to pry. But if you'd like more stories I've got a few off the top of my head.

My husband is an addict in recovery. It's a long story but it snuck up on us, ruined our lives and he's been doing his best to better himself. He has found a community in his support program, and honestly is doing far more work than I ever expected. He just started a program from the ground up, nothing fancy, but he finds old cellphones and broken bicycles and fixes them up for other members. 2 of the main things people in early recovery need is a way to find work and a way to get to work. So, it started with our old drawer of dead cellphones. Then he got other members to bring in their old cellphones. Then bicycles. It's still very new, but so far he's helped 5 different people in early recovery to help stay connected and able to get to and from work. He's treating it like a library, check it out and use it. But when you can afford your own, please return it so you can help the next person. Besides the obvious chance of relapse from urges in early recovery, a huge part of relapse is from the stress and shame of trying to rebuild the life you broke. He just wants to ease that burden a bit.

The next story I'll tell you is about my Dad, who is secretly a Disney Princess crossed with a Lumberjack. He is a big animal lover, he lives in an area with a lot of water. The roads have sand along the side and turtles LOVE to lay their eggs in nice warm sand. My father this year has saved 18 turtles so far from traffic. He has a system. He has a very thick wooden stick he keeps on his truck. He will pull over and block the area of road with his truck, get the stick and greet the turtle. Now most of these are snapping turtles and in general they are grumpy. He gently taps their butt to see if they will move. Occasionally they will. Usually they won't. Now, you can't grab a snapping turtle because they can stick their neck out far enough to reach the side of their shell, and they will take a finger or two off. So, if the stick on the butt won't work, he puts the stick in front of them and... Well makes that grumpy lady even more grumpy. He whacks it in front of her on the ground. She will eventually reach out and snap down on it. This is the moment Dad will hold the stick with one hand and grab the tail by the other, lift and very quickly escort her back down into safety. He doesn't get paid, there is no glory, he doesn't take pics or videos. I'll get a text saying "I pissed off another 80 year old lady today" and I know what he means.

So I hope these stories bring you a little joy today. Please, reach out to someone if you need to. Even if you think you don't need to, reach out and just check in with a friend. Go for a slushie. Put your bare feet in the grass. Watch the people around you and know there's still good people out there <3

[u/crumpetxxxix → u/Remarkable-Mood3415]

Appreciate what your dad does but just as an FYI, grabbing them by the tail can seriously injur them, and cause damage to their spine. If he can get them at the shell on their back, between the tail and back legs, that is a lot safer for the turtle.

[u/Remarkable-Mood3415 → u/crumpetxxxix]

Yes he is aware, he only does that method if any other method won't work (I was trying to keep the story short, but thank you for clarifying for anyone else who might read this!), and occasionally if he has a piece of Plywood in the truck he will scootch the old lady on there and shift her towards the side. The bite and tail method is a last resort and only if she's latched on to the stick tightly! Normally if she latches on he can just drag her, but sometimes they will try to anchor down and resist.

He's been doing this for at least 50 years now. I don't know how many he's saved but it's in the hundreds (or maybe the same 20-50 a year lmao), but the roads in his area are very dangerous for turtles, lots of people think they don't need to pay attention as much because there aren't many cars. He called me the other day to chat and said he saw one the opposite way he was going, by the time he could turn around and get back to her she had been run over. 2 mins and he missed her. Kicking himself for it.

[u/crumpetxxxix → u/Remarkable-Mood3415]

Ah ok thats good. Your dad is a good guy.