heartwarming Archives - Ned Hardy

Thought You Couldn’t Hold Mr. Rogers In Any Higher Of An Esteem? Check Out These 6 Wonderful Facts

April 23, 2013 | 90 Comments » | Topics: Uncategorized |

mr rogers

1. He basically saved public television. In 1969 the government wanted to cut public television funds. Mister Rogers then went to Washington where he gave an amazing merely six minute speech. By the end of the speech not only did he charm the hostile Senators, he got them to double the budget they would have initially cut down. The whole thing can be found on youtube, a video called “Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate.”

2. “Certain fundamentalist preachers hated him because, apparently not getting the “kindest man who ever lived” memo, they would ask him to denounce homosexuals. Mr. Rogers’s response? He’d pat the target on the shoulder and say, “God loves you just as you are.” Rogers even belonged to a “More Light” congregation in Pittsburgh, a part of the Presbyterian Church dedicated to welcoming LGBT persons to full participation in the church.”

3. According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

4. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

5. Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she’d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!

6. Once while rushing to a New York meeting, there were no cabs available, so Rogers and one of his colleagues hopped on the subway. Esquire reported that the car was filled with people, and they assumed they wouldn’t be noticed. But when the crowd spotted Rogers, they all simultaneously burst into song, chanting "It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood." The result made Rogers smile wide.

90 Comments »

Awesome Parenting Of The Day: Father Overhears Son Telling His Boyfriend He Plans To Come Out

March 16, 2013 | 4 Comments » | Topics: Heartwarming |

gay son dad letter

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The Story Of Tank The Dog

February 25, 2013 | 1 Comment » | Topics: Heartwarming |

tank the dog

They told me the big black Lab’s name was Reggie as I looked at him lying in his pen. the shelter was clean, no-kill, and the people really friendly. I’d only been in the area for six months, but everywhere I went in the small college town, people were welcoming and open. Everyone waves when you pass them on the street.

But something was still missing as I attempted to settle in to my new life here, and I thought a dog couldn’t hurt. Give me someone to talk to. And I had just seen Reggie’s advertisement on the local news. The shelter said they had received numerous calls right after, but they said the people who had come down to see him just didn’t look like “Lab people,” whatever that meant. They must’ve thought I did.

But at first, I thought the shelter had misjudged me in giving me Reggie and his things, which consisted of a dog pad, bag of toys almost all of which were brand new tennis balls, his dishes, and a sealed letter from his previous owner. See, Reggie and I didn’t really hit it off when we got home. We struggled for two weeks (which is how long the shelter told me to give him to adjust to his new home). Maybe it was the fact that I was trying to adjust, too. Maybe we were too much alike.

For some reason, his stuff (except for the tennis balls – he wouldn’t go anywhere without two stuffed in his mouth) got tossed in with all of my other unpacked boxes. I guess I didn’t really think he’d need all his old stuff, that I’d get him new things once he settled in but it became pretty clear pretty soon that he wasn’t going to.

I tried the normal commands the shelter told me he knew, ones like “sit” and “stay” and “come” and “heel,” and he’d follow them – when he felt like it. He never really seemed to listen when I called his name – sure, he’d look in my direction after the fourth of fifth time I said it, but then he’d just go back to doing whatever. When I’d ask again, you could almost see him sigh and then grudgingly obey.

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1 Comment »

What Is Love?

February 13, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Heartwarming |

What to do after watching this video: lie down, try not to cry, cry a lot.

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Awesome Window Washers At Children’s Hospital Dresses Up As Super Heroes

January 19, 2013 | 2 Comments » | Topics: Heartwarming |

spiderman window washer

Nobody likes to be in the hospital. It’s just not that much fun, especially if the stay is a lengthy one. Three window washers in Tennessee, took on the challenge of bringing smiles to every patient’s face at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis.

According to news, word spread quickly that there were superheroes descending outside the building, and adults and children alike gathered to wait for spiderman and Captain America to appear. The three men behind the exciting surprise are Jordan Emerson, Steve Oszaniec, and Danny Oszaniec, all three of whom work for commercial window cleaning business, American National Skyline.

The men spent four hours visiting windows and spraying silly string at the kids, who, for a brief while, were able to forget about their troubles and to just enjoy themselves. According to hospital spokeswoman Sara Burnett, this kind of distraction therapy really helps kids heal because they are able to get their minds off of the pain. Oszaniec says, "We just went there, put them [the costumes] on and went up. They [hospital staff] brought a lot of the kids to the little family room there so they could see us. It was unbelievable. They just totally forgot they were sick for a minute. They were just ecstatic about it." What a heartwarming and inspirational tale of three real life heros!

spiderman window washer

2 Comments »

A High School Physics Teacher Shows The Power Love Has On The Body And Mind

January 2, 2013 | No Comments » | Topics: Heartwarming, Video |

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The Story Of The Christmas Truce Of 1914

December 24, 2012 | 2 Comments » | Topics: Heartwarming |

Here’s your heartfelt video of the day regarding the story of the Christmas Truce in WWI in 1914, in which a ceasefire took place along the Western Front.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides – as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units – independently ventured into no man’s land, where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing, or famously, games of football.

Like a wise old man once said, ‘War Is Over, If You Want It.’

2 Comments »

Good Guy Eric The Sandwich Man

December 14, 2012 | No Comments » | Topics: Heartwarming, Humanity |

Eric the Sandwich man

This is Eric, for the last 15 years I have been seeing eric on various trains throught the NYC subway system. Every morning he makes sandwiches and loads them into his cart along with fruit and juice pouches.

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Best Of Friends: Misa And Fukumaru The Cat

November 8, 2012 | 1 Comment » | Topics: Animals, Heartwarming |

best of friends

12 years ago, Miyoko Ihara has started to take photographs of her grandmother, Misa. Miyoko wanted to leave a living proof of her. One day, her grandmother found a odd-eyed kitten in the shed. She named the cat "Fukumaru" in hope that "God of fuku(good fortune) comes and everything will be smoothed over like maru(circle)". Even thought she is 87 years old, she still go out into the fields everyday, and Fukumaru always accompany her. Green fields, blooming flowers and plump fruits … in the colorful, diverse landscape, the life of an old lady and a cat is captured in the photographs. It has been 8 years since they first met. The grandmother whose hearing become weak and Fukumaru who has hearing disabilities are always looking into each other’s eyes and feeling warmth each other. When the white cloud float across the blue sky, the grandmother and her cat go out in the filed today too.

best of friends