In 1961, while in Europe for medical treatment, Elizabeth Taylor was introduced to an infant girl by the German actress Maria Schell. The baby was nine months old. She was lying in a laundry basket supported by two old pillows. She was severely malnourished. She had painful abscesses across her body. She had a deformed hip that doctors feared might prevent her from ever walking. She did not cry. She did not make sounds. She lay quietly and watched the room with dark, attentive eyes. Elizabeth Taylor picked her up and did not put her down for three days. She bathed the child. She held her. She cared for her continuously until the infant, slow to respond at first, began to make sounds and reach for her bottle. German adoption officials encouraged Taylor to select a different child — one without the health complications this baby carried. Taylor refused. She later described her position in documented interviews with characteristic directness: the officials wanted her to have a perfect baby, so she had to fight like a tiger to get this one. To her, this child was already perfect. The little girl was named Maria. When Taylor married Richard Burton, Burton legally adopted Maria as well, and she became Maria Burton. The process of healing her hip was long. Taylor took Maria across Germany, Italy, and France, consulting doctors who disagreed about the prognosis. For nearly two years, Maria was placed in a full-body cast as physicians attempted to determine whether she would ever be able to walk. Eventually, a surgeon in Oxford, England, recommended an operation to insert a metal plate into the hip. The surgery succeeded. Maria walked. Then she ran. Then she grew up alongside her siblings — Liza, Christopher, Michael, and Eddie — in one of the most scrutinized families in the world. Taylor has described the moment Maria spoke her first word in documented interviews, saying it was "Mama," and that when it happened she simply fell apart with joy. Richard Burton, a man who kept detailed private diaries throughout his adult life, recorded the texture of family life with Maria in entries from 1966. One evening over lamb stew, he sat down with five-year-old Maria and told her the story of her own life — where she had come from, how she had arrived, what the family had done to bring her home. He noted in his diary how deeply the child listened. Later that same year, he recorded another entry in which Maria told him she loved him and wanted always to be with him. Maria Burton grew up to become a model. She married and had two children of her own, whom she named Eliza and Richard — in honour of her parents. She is now a grandmother. She has worked with children's charities throughout her adult life. The infant who lay in a laundry basket in Germany in 1961, silent and watchful, grew into a woman who passes the same quality of attention to the next generation. Elizabeth Taylor was told to choose a different baby. She chose this one. And this one grew up. Share so the story of Elizabeth Taylor and Maria — one of the quietest and most determined acts of the actress's life — is remembered ♥️♥️

She posed barefoot in nearly every early photo. The real reason had nothing to do with style 😮 Melania Trump grew up in the small town of Sevnica, Slovenia, the daughter of a car dealer and a pattern maker who spent her days sewing clothes for the family by hand. At 17, everything changed when Slovenian photographer Stane Jerko spotted her leaning against a fence outside a fashion show. "She was tall and slim, long hair and long legs, and that's why I found her suitable to be a photo model," Jerko told Voice of America. "I noticed not just her good looks but also, even though it may sound strange, her inner energy." Melania was shy at first, but quickly grew comfortable in front of the camera. "She was shy and reserved at first, not wanting to open herself up. But she quickly got into it and began asking questions," Jerko recalled. One detail from those early photos stood out for an unexpected reason. "I didn't have shoes for her because she had very big feet. The other models had smaller feet," Jerko explained. By 18, Melania had signed with a modeling agency in Milan, swapping her Slovenian name for the more international Melania Knauss. She modeled across Milan and Paris for years, before making a bold decision in her mid twenties, moving to New York City at 26, an age considered "old" in a modeling world dominated by teenagers. "She wasn't the most expensive model, but she was a high end model," her former agent, Irene Marie, said in an interview with Tatler. "What I particularly liked about Melania was that she wasn't part of the nightlife scene. She had a reputation for being serious and focused." That reputation paid off. Melania's face soon appeared on billboards across Times Square, launching a career that would eventually take her from the runways of Europe to the White House. From a small town in Slovenia to one of the most recognized faces in the world, Melania has always said her story is proof that the American dream is still very much alive 💫💕