In late 2019 a man in Michigan paid $70 for a worn couch from a thrift store. Howard Kirby was looking for an inexpensive living room set. His house was in poor condition and the roof was leaking so badly it needed an expensive replacement he could not afford. For several weeks the unusually firm cushion never became comfortable. Eventually he unzipped the cover. Instead of old foam he found thick bundles of hundred-dollar bills. Hidden inside was $43,170 in cash, the forgotten savings of a man who had already died. Lawyers confirmed that because he had bought the couch outright, the money legally belonged to him. No one was likely to come looking for it. Kirby could see the stacks of cash and at the same time look up at his leaking ceiling. Still he said, “It wasn’t mine.” He returned to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and asked them to help find the family who had donated the couch. They found Kim Fauth-Newberry. The couch had belonged to her late grandfather, who had quietly hidden his life savings inside the cushions. After his death the family had donated the furniture without realizing the money was still there. Kirby met the family and returned every dollar. Once word of his honesty spread, local contractors learned that the man who had just given away more than $43,000 was living under a badly damaged roof. A roofing company donated all the materials and labor to replace it at no cost. Neighbors also organized a fundraiser for some of his other expenses. Kirby had every legal right to keep the money. Keeping it would have made his life much easier. He chose not to, simply because he knew it was never his to keep. It was a quiet choice to do what he believed was right when no one was there to make him.

A 5-year-old girl plunged 49 feet from a moving cruise ship into the open ocean. Her father heard his wife screaming and raced toward the railing, only to discover that their daughter was gone. It happened aboard the Disney Dream near the Bahamas, where a family vacation took a terrifying turn when the little girl fell from the ship’s fourth deck. When her father realized what had happened, he jumped overboard after her, plunging nearly 50 feet into the ocean. But when he surfaced, he couldn’t see his daughter anywhere. He began desperately calling out for her, searching the water until he finally heard her calling back. He swam toward her and managed to reach her, but they were still stranded in the open ocean as the massive cruise ship began turning around. For roughly 20 minutes, he kept his little girl afloat, holding her above the water until a rescue boat finally reached them and brought them back to safety. Both survived, although the father suffered two fractures in his spine from the fall. It takes an incredible amount of courage to jump nearly 50 feet into the open ocean, not knowing what awaits you below. But this father didn’t hesitate to put his own life on the line for his little girl. Thank God they both made it home.