Heartwarming moment: Grieving grandma adopts rescue dog after losing husband

August 16, 2023

An Illinois grandma who adopted a rescue dog after losing her husband is melting hearts online, with the pair becoming “best friends,” reports Newsweek.

Mary Lou, 77, met her late husband, Leonard, in high school. The couple was married for 58 years; but sadly, Leonard recently passed away from esophageal cancer at the age of 78.

“They were true soulmates,” their granddaughter Ally told Newsweek. “She was his caretaker for the last several months; but before that, they were a perfect example of love.”

And although Mary Lou was devastated by Leonard’s death, she knew “almost immediately” that she wanted a dog.

“She knew she would need a protector and a companion,” 21-year-old Ally said. “We went the very next week after [my grandpa] passed.”

After falling in love with Luna online, Ally, her brother Zach, and Mary Lou drove two hours to the Humane Society of Logan County to meet her. Ally filmed the sweet encounter and shared the footage to her TikTok account @allykate120, where it went viral—receiving 1.1 million views.

In the clip, Luna seems initially unsure about Mary Lou, barking and backing away from her as she approaches the kennel. However, Ally said her grandma has a “way with animals,” and it wasn’t long before Luna was eating out of the palm of her hand.

“As soon as we brought out treats, Luna plopped herself right up on my grandma and licked her face,” Ally said.

“When we signed the paperwork, she just was smiling ear to ear. It couldn’t have been any sweeter.”

However, the ride home wasn’t smooth sailing, with Luna throwing up in Mary Lou’s lap due to travel sickness.

“My grandma just laughed,” Ally said. “We got it all cleaned up and Luna just laid on my grandma’s lap the rest of the way home.”

A few weeks later, and Luna and Mary Lou are “absolute best friends.” Living on Mary Lou’s 80-acre farm, the pair do everything together.

“Luna is living the dream,” Ally said. “She keeps my grandma up and moving which is great.”

Although Mary Lou still grieves Leonard’s death, Ally is inspired by her grandma’s positive outlook.”I know she misses him so much,” the hairstylist said. “I have never met a [stronger] woman. She just never gives up, which I admire about her.”

TikTok users agree:

“That is so sweet and considerate,” commented mapulesarah4.

“What a great idea,” agreed Inky Plinky Plonky.

“This is so bittersweet,” said stinkstink.

“This got me crying,” wrote Liannaw.

“I’m sobbing,” said Hearts.

Research contact: @Newsweek

August 19, 2024

“Redshirting”—or choosing to delay school entry for a year—seems to be an increasingly popular trend among parents who are trying to give their children a competitive advantage, reports Yahoo Lifestyle.

The growing popularity of redshirting may have been started by Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book, Outliers, which was published in 2008. In this book, Gladwell claims that a child being relatively older than their peers provides an advantage.

Gladwell points to data showing that nearly all players for the Canadian Hockey League have birthdays in the first four months of the year. Because the cutoff for most sports in Canada is January 1, children born in the first four months of the year are older than the other children on the team—thus, making them more likely to be identified as talented and ultimately more likely to play professional hockey. Gladwell argues that this principle extends to children who are older than their classmates having an academic advantage as well.

Sincethis book was published, it seems that children are waiting longer and longer to start kindergarten every year. At the same time, kindergarten seems to be becoming increasingly academic and rigorous.

For parents of children born near the cutoff date, the pressure to delay kindergarten feels intense. So does research actually find that redshirting will provide an academic and/or social advantage for children? The answer may be more complicated than you think.

The research on redshirting

Research on redshirting suggests that it is associated with a small academic advantage (that is, higher academic test scores) and test scores that seem to increase at a greater rate in the first and second grades (suggesting that redshirted children are showing enhanced learning in these grades).

However, this effect may begin to fade as early as the end of first grade. This research is also correlational—meaning we do not know whether it is redshirting that causes these advantages or if redshirting is simply associated with advantages. The latter would not be surprising since parents that choose to redshirt their children are often very different from the parents who do not—most notably, they are often higher income families.

Some research studies eliminate the problem of parent choice by looking at the impact of children’s age within the same grade (such as comparing students with summer birthdays to students in the same grade with fall birthdays). Research finds that students who are relatively older than other children in their grade score higher on math and science tests and, although these differences decrease over the years, they are still present to some extent in eighth grade.

Other research finds that children who are relatively older show less hyperactivity and inattention and greater educational attainment (translation: getting farther in school). However, the impact on educational attainment is greatly reduced when schools do not engage in early tracking (translation: sending children to different schools based on academic abilities in elementary school).

Research also shows that children who are older relative to their classmates are more likely to be in gifted education and less likely to be in special education. These positive impacts seem to extend to high school and beyond.

Children who are older relative to their classmates are also less likely to drop out of high school, less likely to commit a felony, and less likely to experience a teenage pregnancy. Children who are older than their classmates also are more likely to attend a four-year college than younger students.

Yet, it is very important to note that this line of research only involves associations (meaning, we do not know whether being older relative to your peers actually causes any of these positive or negative outcomes). Further research is needed in order to conclude that redshirting actually causes any of these positive outcomes.

Are there any situations in which parents may want to avoid redshirting?

So, research suggests that being older than your peers is consistently associated with at least a small advantage—but are there any situations in which parents might want to avoid redshirting?

Research suggests that when your child has an identified disability, a suspected disability—or even if you are just concerned that they may need some extra help in school—you may want to avoid redshirting. In this case, delaying school entry may be associated with worse academic performance, because it would also involve delaying free essential services through the public school system (such as speech therapy and learning support).

This short delay may have a big impact as research finds that services before age five are more effective in improving a child’s long-term outcome than services after age five.

Research has compared the impact of redshirting on children with disabilities (such as autism, developmental delays, learning disabilities, or health impairments) versus children without disabilities. Researchers found that children with disabilities who were redshirted scored significantly lower in math in third grade when compared to children with disabilities who were not redshirted, while children without disabilities who were redshirted showed improved math and reading scores in third grade. Research also finds a negative impact of redshirting for children with more severe ADHD and no impact for children with learning disabilities.

Is redshirting more important for boys than girls?

In any discussion of redshirting, it is commonly assumed that boys in particular benefit from redshirting. In line with this assumption, research reveals that boys are indeed more likely to be redshirted than girls. So is there any research to back up this trend?

Research does find that girls are more likely to be ready for kindergarten than boys and that this difference is mostly driven by differences in social-emotional development.

Research also suggests that boys seem to show greater gains from redshirting and that boys may not cope as well as girls with having higher-achieving classmates.

Research contact: @yahoolifestyle0