It wasn’t all bad
■ In 2008, a tornado smashed through Parkersburg, Iowa, demolishing Hope Tomkins’ home and casting her possessions to the wind. Among them was a photo of her grandparents on their 1942 wedding day. But last month, Tomkins was shocked to see that same photo on Facebook. Found in the debris, it had sat in a lost-and-found box at city hall for 16 years before being spotted by administrator Chris Luhring. He posted it online in hopes of finding its owner. Tomkins said she was “in so much shock” when the photo popped up, but delighted to be reunited with a priceless family artifact.
■ Alaska Airlines flight attendant Amber May was getting ready for takeoff from Atlanta last summer when a passenger on the Seattle-bound plane made an unusual request: “Could you help me keep some eggs warm?” An animal keeper at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, the passenger was carrying six Chilean flamingo eggs, and the incubator had failed. May created a nest out of rubber gloves filled with warm water— which she replaced regularly— while other fliers offered their jackets as extra insulation. All six chicks later hatched successfully. May got to name one; she called it Sunny, after her new granddaughter, and the two Sunnys recently met. “I hope to take her [to the zoo] as often as possible,” May said of her granddaughter.
■ When Briana DeSanctis stepped into the cold waters off Northern California’s Limantour Beach, it marked the end of a remarkable 6,800-mile trek. DeSanctis, 40, had set out two years earlier from Cape Henlopen in Delaware, with the goal of becoming the first solo woman to complete the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail. On her record-setting journey west through 15 states and Washington, D.C., the Maine native faced almost every possible type of terrain— from mountains to plains, backcountry wilderness to urban streets. “What a lot of feelings,” DeSanctis wrote on social media after reaching the Pacific. “I’m still trying to process everything.”