It wasn’t all bad
■ As an only child growing up in Philadelphia, Marguerite Koller always dreamed of having a big family. Now, at age 99, she’s achieved her wish, and then some: She has 11 children, 56 grandchildren, and 101 great-grandchildren, with more on the way. “She is there for every high school and college graduation,” says grandson Greg Stokes. “She always makes an effort to be present.” As a teenager, Koller considered becoming a nun, but her boyfriend convinced her to marry him instead. She says she never regretted her decision.
■ As floodwaters rose in hurricane-battered Naples, Fla., Johnny Lauder, who was riding out the storm with his two sons, saw water gushing inside. He moved his sons and one son’s girlfriend to the attic, thinking they’d be safe. Then the phone rang. His 84-year-old, wheelchair-bound mother, Karen, was trapped in a house half a mile away. Lauder jumped out the window into the waters, wading over to rescue her. By the time he got there, the house was filled with 4 feet of water. With his son arriving to help, Lauder pushed his mother to safety—and carried out a neighbor along the way. “I would’ve done it for anyone’s mom,” Lauder said, “Or anyone else in that situation.”
■ When war broke out in Ukraine, Valerie Liscratenko and her mother, Liliana, dodged shelling blasts to rescue dogs from the factory where Valerie once worked as a guard. Then they brought those dogs, along with a set of puppies, to a bomb shelter, where they stayed for 40 days. In May, the Liscratenkos and their 17 dogs escaped to a new animal shelter near the Polish border, which Valerie described as “paradise.” The American volunteer who runs the shelter, Aaron Jackson, said the dogs were clearly in good hands: “I couldn’t help but notice that all the dogs really loved them.”