October 2008 - Posts
In TODAY’s "Everyone Has a Story" this week, we met Dora, a woman who grew up in an unstable, abusive home where her own father told her she would never amount to anything. She escaped to the only place where she felt free and proud – school – where she indulged in the arts. "When I would sing and dance and act, everything lifted," she said.
As an adult, she pursued her talents, but abandoned her dreams after dealing with a manager who stole her earnings and tried to molest her. The following years included more heartbreak: losing both her parents, marrying a man who left her in debt, working odd jobs to keep up with bills, and then ultimately becoming homeless. But throughout all her hardships, she tried to hold onto her love of dance – the one refuge that provided her with self-esteem.
Years later, a chance encounter with a "little angel" in a department store changed Dora’s outlook and motivated her to reclaim her life. "Everything I dreamed I knew was still with me, and I knew could do it and nothing would stop me," she said. "I had to stand up and do it and it helped that I had angels." CONTINUED >>
From John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington
Thomas A. Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, apparently was more at ease in a laboratory than he was mingling among his employees.
Mary Fackino, 104, often saw Edison at the alkaline battery plant he owned in West Orange, N.J., but she was never able to meet him.
"I'd see him in the hallways, but he never stopped," she said recently. "He'd walk by with his head down. He was quiet. I never talked to him. He never spoke to the people in the hallway."
Mary's mother, however, knew Edison's wife.
"My mother couldn't speak English, and she wanted to learn, and Edison's wife wanted to learn how to speak Italian," she said. "But it didn't last long. It didn't work out."
Mary had gone to work for Edison in 1917 at the age of 13. Edison was not only a famous inventor, holding 1,093 patents, the most issued to any individual, but he was also an industrial leader, creating companies such as his battery plant for the manufacture and sale of his inventions.
"I had to go to work," Mary said. "My mother needed help when my father died young. I didn't even graduate grammar [school]."
One of her fingers and a thumb still ache from working on a power press at Edison's battery plant. After three years, she switched to the plant's in-house magazine, the Storage Battery News.
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From Ryan Osborn, Meaghan Rady, Dan Fleschner and Missy DunlopAfter Colin Powell's
endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama on today's "Meet the Press," Obama told Matt Lauer Powell has an "open invitation" to join him on the campaign trail and spoke about a role for Powell if he is elected:
SENATOR OBAMA:
"Here is what I can say for certain. He will have a role as one of my advisors. He has already served in that function even before he endorsed me. Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether there's something that's a good fit for him, I think is something that he and I would have to discuss."
Matt Lauer's exclusive interview with Sen. Obama will air on Monday's TODAY.
“I still remember how I felt the day my husband said he doesn't want to have children,” said Anca Wass, the latest winner of TODAY’s Everyone Has a Story contest. “It was also the day he killed the meaning of Mother’s Day for me.”
The 42-year-old Alabama native recalls changing her entire philosophy on life once she realized she wouldn’t experience motherhood. Everything from career goals to relationships changed. During bad weather, co-workers left her to “hold the fort” as they picked up their kids; strangers showed little sympathy or understanding for her life choices; friendships suffered as old buddies only spoke of one subject – children. Although Anca shared her friends’ joy and made a heartfelt effort to share their interests, she often felt that they took little time to understand her sorrow. CONTINUED >>
From John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington
Centenarian LaGrand Nielsen, who was Dwight Eisenhower's dentist in the Army, remembers the nation's 34th president as a good man with a great set of teeth.
"I met Ike in 1939 at Fort Ord, Calif., and that's where I got to know him pretty well," LaGrand, 101, of Sandy, Utah, said recently. "Checked his teeth a couple of times and cleaned them. Had a beautiful set of teeth. Wonderful fellow. Wonderful officer. He was a lieutenant colonel when I met him, but he ended up a 5-star general."
LaGrand saw Ike again in Washington, D.C., during World War II. Eisenhower and his wife Mamie invited LaGrand and his wife Beatrice to their quarters in Bethesda, Md.
"We spent the afternoon visiting for a couple of hours and had lunch, and we just had a wonderful visit," LaGrand said. "We talked about life and military life and what it had done for him, and I was a career man then myself. I was a captain, maybe a major at the time, and he was a general.
"Mamie and my wife got along real well," LaGrand said. "Mamie was very humble and sweet." CONTINUED >>
From Maria Menounos, TODAY contributorDiabetes has officially become an epidemic of national and even worldwide proportions. In the past few decades, the disease has grown at an alarming rate that continues to escalate today. In addition, there are upwards of 5.7 million people have the disease and do not even know it, according to the American Diabetes Association.
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| Maria Menounos with her parents, Stavroula and Costas. |
For me, the disease and its debilitating effects have been all too familiar, as my father was diagnosed with diabetes over 40 years ago. The disease crippled our family. My mother and I were forced to monitor his sugar level 24 hours a day, and Dad’s ongoing low blood sugar attacks (there were hundreds, maybe even thousands) placed him in deadly peril. Sometimes he would be behind the wheel when his blood sugar dropped, and he would drive off the road. Sometimes he would forget his identity, lose his bearings and wander off. Police who misread his conditions for drunkenness arrested him. He even slipped into a coma, and was pronounced dead by doctors.
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This morning, Hoda and Kathie Lee phoned Kathy Brickman, the latest winner of “Everyone Has a Story.” The 66-year-old homemaker has a particularly interesting and inspiring tale: she credits breast cancer for “saving her life.” A few years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but when she went in for testing, doctors found something even more alarming – stage-4 lung cancer. No one thought she would live long, but she managed to beat both cancers, and this Thursday, she will celebrate her victory with TODAY.
“Cancer can knock your socks off,” Kathy said, “but once you catch your breath, you realize there is so much hope – you should never let go of that.”
Learn more about Kathy’s journey by reading her winning essay: CONTINUED >>
From TODAY producer Josh WeinerImagine losing your vision - and finding a way to ski, sail, bike and continue all your passions. It sounds impossible, right? Not if you're Ed Gallagher. I met Ed recently for our TODAY story. Inspiring is the word sums up this his outlook on life.
Ed grew up near a Michigan lake, and he jokes that he "sailed" out of his mother's womb. A building contractor by profession, Ed always embraced the outdoors his entire life. Sailing became an integral part of his routine. But in his late 40s, Ed was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease. His vision began to fade slowly over several years, and he feared his sailing days were over.
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During “TODAY’s talk” this morning, an emotional Kathie Lee revealed that she had put her beloved pup, Regis Champagne Gifford, to sleep just yesterday. “It was just so peaceful and he was being held by people who love him,” said the host. (To further add to Kathie Lee’s pet trauma, her dog Lola was spayed the same day.)
Gifford went on to tell the story of how her pet acquired his name: “Years ago, Regis used to say to me, ‘Name the baby after me, name the baby Regis.’ And I would say, ‘I can’t believe your parents named you Regis, I’m not going to do that to my kids.’”
But the moniker that wouldn’t suit her children was perfect for the pooch she adopted 13 years ago.
So will Regis’s replacement be named Hoda? Probably not. “I adopted this gorgeous puppy, but Hoda did not want the dog to be named after her,” Kathie Lee said in a June 2008 USA TODAY interview. “So I just call her Hoda at home, not in public.”
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