A couple in South Carolina has been eagerly seeking an organ donor. They haven't found one1 . But they did find something else: friends.

Larry Swilling and his wife Jimmie Sue have been happily 2 for 56 years. So happily, in fact, that Larry has now come to realize he can't 3without his wife. "She's my heart," he said. The problem with Jimmie Sue is that she4a kidney(肾). Jimmie Sue was born with only one, and now that doesn't 5. She needs a transplant but neither her husband, nor anyone tested in her family, is a 6 match.

    Jimmie Sue is trying to get on a donor list, but the7is about two or three years long and that's for a kidney from a dead donor. Transplant patients who get their kidneys from living donors tend to live8. That is why Larry decided to try to ask for it, from total strangers.

"I don't9what people think," Larry said. He tells his wife, "I'm going to10you a kidney." And on the street, wearing a signboard "Need kidney for my wife", he's not shy in asking 11 :"Could I use your kidney?" For the last couple weeks, Larry, at 77, has been walking all over his hometown and the surrounding towns-basically12a kidney. He didn't really think it would work.13he said, "I had to do something." He didn't feel14when the phone rang. "I'm willing to donate a kidney for your15," one caller said. "I'd like nothing more than to help you out," said another.

Believe it or not, over the last few days the 16 hasn't stopped ringing. Hundreds of people who either saw his sign or heard about it have 17 . One volunteer said, "I've got two, but I 18 need one." Larry hasn't found a match for his wife, but at least he has already had enough volunteers and 19 enough awareness to save someone. "If I get a kidney, it's fine. If I don't, I hope someone else does," the wife said. And that's why Larry is still out there, appealing to the 20 of strangers for the love of his wife.

    My daughter and I were driving from Los Angeles to Dallas. We were running1on gas somewhere in New Mexico and 2 we would see a gas station soon enough to fill up.

    But that didn't happen and we3 we were not going to make it to the next town. So my daughter made up a 4 that read “Low on gas. Can u help?”and held it outside her 5 in the hope that a passing driver would 6  it and stop.

    It was about 3:30 pm on a weekday and there weren't too many vehicles 7 us at that time. Then we found someone 8  along ahead of us. We caught up with it in the 9that the driver would notice the sign.

    After a brief expression of10 on his face, he seemed to have noticed the sign and 11down to pull over. We pulled over right behind him.

    When he knows that we don't have enough gas, he12  to buy us gas at the next town Roswell. When we 13  our difficulty of not having enough gas to get there, he said they had a gas 14on his farm about 10 minutes away, so if we could give him 20 minutes, he would 15 back there, get a can of gasoline and 16  up our tank.

    We could not believe our good 17 !We were filled with gratitude(感激)for the18of strangers such as this person as we waited for him to return. Sure enough, he was back with the can. He 19 to take payment for the gas, saying “What good is a man who cannot help another20.”

    It's a family tradition to go to dinner at my grandmother's house for all major holidays. After the meal, the youngest children go to the basement to play games, 1 the remainder of my family withdraw to the living room. For several years, I'd remain at the 2 dinner table, reading whatever book had caught my interest. I'll never forget the day when this all 3. My aunt came into the dinning room and said, “4 that book and talk to me before I hit you with this fork!”

    I'd been content to remain the attentive listener, 5 nothing, but hearing everything. Then came the 6 that I was antisocial, to which I 7 with a silent smile. There was a time when I foolishly believed my family would accept my preference；8, they seem to believe that they should encourage me to 9. In my opinion,  I'm the only one that has adapted well to the familial（熟悉的）talkativeness. What would be the 10 of all these voices if there weren't someone to shut up and 11?

    My 12 isn't the only thing my family finds puzzling. I would scream “No!” at 2 a. m. 13 a character was horrifically killed. I become active at night in summer so I can listen to music, read, and write without the 14 of my brothers and sisters, who seem to think if I want to  be 15 they should come near me and make as much 16 as possible.

    My family doesn't completely 17 all of my actions. They're well aware of what makes me 18 is reading while sitting in one of the black comfortable chairs. I've 19 that reading a book of any great length would make it extremely 20 for my parents to get me from the chair. Fortunately they have learned to accept my actions.

    Ann's neighbor Tracy found a lost dog wandering around the local high school. She asked Ann if she could keep an eye on it. Ann said that she could 1 it only for the day.

    Tracy took photos of the 2 and printed off 400 FOUND fliers (传单), and put them in mailboxes. Meanwhile, Ann bought some pet 3 in the dollar store nearby, and warned her two 4 not to fall in love with it. At the time, Ann's son Thomas was 10 years old, and Jack, who was 5 from a heart operation, was 21 years old.

    Four days later Ann was still 6 the dog, whom they had started to 7 Riley. When she arrived home from work, the dog 8 itself against the screen door and barked 9 at her. As soon as she opened the door, Riley 10 into the boys' room where Ann 11 that Jack was suffering a heart attack. Riley ran over to Jack, and as soon as Ann bent over to 12 him the dog went13.

    "If it hadn't come to get me, the 14 said Jack would have died," Ann reported to a local newspaper. At this point, no one had called to 15 the dog, so Ann decided to keep it.

    The next morning Tracy got a call. A man named Peter 16 his dog and called the 17  on the flier. Tracy started 18, and told him, "That dog 19 my friend's son."

    Peter drove to Ann's house to 20 his dog, and saw Thomas and Jack crying in the window. After a few moments Peter said, "Maybe Odie was supposed to find you, maybe you should keep it."

    Jayce began noticing when he was in kindergarten that he looked different from his classmates. They had two arms. He had one.

    It started when one boy 1 him, said his mother, Lewis. He'd return to his home with questions: “Why am I 2? Why me? His mother recalled he was actually mad at God for making him that way and that it was a heavy 3 to his heart.

    Lewis 4 she didn't know what to do at that point. A few weeks later, Lewis turned on the TV to a news story about an eighth grader, Trashaun, becoming an Internet hit after 5 videos of his slam dunks (灌篮), and, like Jayce, he 6 most of his left arm. Lewis called Jayce in. To her surprise, Jayce was immediately 7. At the time, it seemed that watching Trashaun was 8 an inspiring moment for Jayce—he saw a role model with a similar 9. If it had stayed just that, Lewis would have been happy enough. But little did she know that a family friend had already 10 to the newspaper to help set up a 11 with Trashaun to build Jayce's confidence.

    The boys met and instantly 12 with each other as both of them were in the same condition. They rode bikes, took photos, and shot basketball on the court. Instead of spending the whole day feeling 13 for themselves, they had a lot of fun. However, Trashaun did get 14 with Jayce sometimes. They talked about his left arm. He told Jayce he was perfect the way God made him. He also told him not to let anyone 15 him and not to let those words shake his 16.

    Since that meeting, Lewis has seen a noticeable 17 in her son. As for Trashaun, his relationship with Jayce made him 18 to help more kids. “Honestly, it 19 a lot to know that I changed Jayce's life,” Trashaun says. Still, he never dreamed that his 20 would have such an impact. “I just thought my friends would see them, and be like, 'Oh, he dunked it!'”

    He certainly did.

On that hot August day in 2023, as ash rained down and flames closed in, Jim Rhodes didn't want to be anywhere but Coulterville. "My kid called from Alabama. We first heard ·about the fire from him," Rhodes recalls. "He said, ‘Evacuate（撤离）!'I said, ‘Evacuate? To where?'"

Coulterville is a tiny town located among dry hills where local people raise cattle and other livestock. It has a main street, a park and a museum. It's got a cafe, a grocery shop and a post. And with summer temperatures routinely topping 100 degrees, it has fires—sometimes big fires.

Eventually, this big fire got a name: the Moc Fire, for the tiny town of Moccasin-where it began as a brush fire.

It burnt for 10 days, consuming almost 3,000 acres.

Rhodes woke to find his truck covered in ashand the news was broadcasting evacuation orders. Ranchers（牧场主） across the region were fighting to protect their animals, loading them into the truck or just setting them loose to find safety. Volunteers were readying fairgrounds nearby to shelter animals. Already they were filling up with dogs, cats, chickens, horses, cattle, goats, sheep and rabbits.

As residents and animals were brought out, firefighters poured in. "With them came the biggest bulldozer（挖土机）I've ever seen," says Rhodes. "And they were sent to cut the firebreak that could save the town. We knew that if it made the cut, we'd all have to get out of here."

The situation was clear. The danger was growing. But slowly Rhodes realized that he hadn't come to Coulterville just to leave when the town needed him. He stayed, joining the handful of residents who gathered around the main street where fire officials posted updates. He knew he could help somebody, somehow.

Around midmorning, a farmer he'd never met came by asking for help with animal evacuation. Rhodes's phone was still ringing, but he knew what to do. "I hung up my phone, got in the truck and headed down to his farm," he says.