A good friend of mine has about 4 years ago inherited the house of his grandparents. He decided to live there for the time being till he has decided what to do with the house. He grew up in it, so he did not really want to sell it.
Not even a week after he moved in, he got a visit from a neighborhood committee. They said they are the 3 board members of the HOA , and are here so he can sign his membership papers. They where extremely nosy and rude, for example one tried to get into the garage without so much as asking. When he stopped him and asked him where he wanted to go, he had the audacity to say:“I need to check your garage, if everything there is in order. I have a right to do this biweekly, and denying me access is a an offense that will cost a fine.”
“I think to understand how it happened, you have to know that he adored my mother. They were married for 67 years. He treated her like gold. He always opened doors for her. He did the vacuuming. The grocery shopping. He’d cook us dinner every Saturday. He’d come home from work at 5:30, and anything my sister and I wanted to do—he’d do it: play baseball, go to the lake, anything. I never heard him complain. He never once got mad at me. I wasn’t the best driver, and a couple times I crashed our car into a snowbank. But it was always: ‘Are you OK?’ Not once did he say: ‘What’s the matter with you?’ That’s how he was. He was the gentlest man. My relationship with my mother could be challenging, and Dad knew that. So he tried to make up for it. He was the one who was always there. He was the one that I could go to for anything. He lived to be 96, and not once in my life did I question that he was my father. The truth only came out after his death, when my son decided to get a DNA test. He discovered that he was one-third Italian, which didn’t make any sense. Because nobody in our family was Italian. He did some research and narrowed it down to four brothers. Their last name was Lombardi. That’s when we called my cousin Denise. Her mother had been my mom’s best friend. I asked her point blank: ‘Do you know anything about my biological father?’ There was a long silence. Then I asked her if she’d ever heard the name ‘Lombardi.’ There was another silence, and she said: ‘Mr. Lombardi was your mother’s boss at the jewelry store.’ She went on to tell me that my father had always known. And that he’d decided to forgive my mother. And to raise me as his daughter. And to take the secret to his grave, because he didn’t want to hurt me. I cried when I found out. But that only lasted a minute. Because it didn’t change anything. It didn’t change my amazing childhood. It didn’t change my relationship with my father. Denise told me that she had been there when my parents came home from the hospital. She watched my father carry me in the house. And she said she’ll never forget the look on his face. She’d never seen him so happy in his entire life.”
“Never Use Alone” is a number you can call when you have no choice but to use when you’re alone.
If you call (800) 484-3731, an operator will answer your call, and ask for your first name, location and whether you have any allergies, or medical conditions. After you’ve given us this information you can go ahead and inject your substance. After you’ve ingested the substance, we will continue communicating with you. If you do not respond after 30-45 seconds, we will notify emergency services of a possible overdose at the location you’ve given us.
We will never shame you, judge you, or preach at you to quit. If you are ready to quit though, we have treatment resources for every state in the US. Regardless if you have insurance, or not. We will do our best to connect you with the help you need. please call. We are on standby.
holy shit this can actually save Real Lives like dudes this isn’t a joke and isn’t to be passed off
From the FB page:
We’re starting separate lines for each state in the US. These are the
lines we’ve created thus far. Please share this out far and wide, so
that it may reach the population of people we’re trying to help.
In 1990, the high school dropout rate for Dolly Parton’s hometown of Sevierville Tennessee was at 34% (Research shows that most kids make up their minds in fifth/sixth grade not to graduate). That year, all fifth and sixth graders from Sevierville were invited by Parton to attend an assembly at Dollywood. They were asked to pick a buddy, and if both students completed high school, Dolly Parton would personally hand them each a $500 check on their graduation day. As a result, the dropout rate for those classes fell to 6%, and has generally retained that average to this day.
Shortly after the success of The Buddy Program, Parton learned in dealing with teachers from the school district that problems in education often begin during first grade when kids are at different developmental levels. That year The Dollywood Foundation paid the salaries for additional teachers assistants in every first grade class for the next 2 years, under the agreement that if the program worked, the school system would effectively adopt and fund the program after the trial period.
During the same period, Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995: The idea being that children from her rural hometown and low-income families often start school at a disadvantage and as a result, will be unfairly compared to their peers for the rest of their lives, effectively encouraging them not to pursue higher education. The objective of the Imagination library was that every child in Sevier County would receive one book, every month, mailed and addressed to the child, from the day they were born until the day they started kindergarten, 100% free of charge. What began as a hometown initiative now serves children in all 50 states, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, mailing thousands of free books to children around the world monthly.
On March 1, 2018 Parton donated her 100 millionth book at the Library of Congress: a copy of “Coat of Many Colors” dedicated to her father, who never learned to read or write.
