While the world turns (to coin a phrase), many still notice that there are people on the planet who could use a little — or a lot of — help. Three of those are in this article. Every story will make you smile, will encourage you, and will lift your spirit. Like me, you’ll want to tell others about them. I hope you do, because they all qualify as “Beautiful Good.” Enjoy, and be inspired. I’m already smiling….
Still working
April Steele went shopping. Specifically, she went to a Burlington store in Pompano Beach, Florida. The story, first reported on WSVN TV (Miami) and then in People magazine, doesn’t say what she was shopping for, but it does say she noticed a much older woman working in the dressing room area.
According to a GoFundMe page, April spoke to the woman and said, “Good for you for still working!” She didn’t get the response she expected when Muriel Connick turned to her and said, “Would you want to work at 92?” (92 is older than 99.something% of all Americans.)
Naturally April wanted to know more. Muriel’s answer was simple: her pension had been reduced, and her social security check didn’t cover all of her expenses so she needed the income. April didn’t judge, but she also thought that a 92-year-old should not have to keep working. So she “did good” and started a GoFundMe account to help Muriel. Her goal was to raise $10,000, and she used Facebook to help spread the word. People responded and donations came in.
Pretty quickly $5,000 was raised, and April took a check to Muriel. She was shocked by it all, but also very thankful for the help. And, as sometimes happens, the donations kept coming. In fact the total as I write is $131,574! Muriel is now happily retired, and her car and house have both been repaired.
April posted this note on the GoFundMe page just a few days ago: For believers Easter represents a personal “newness of life,” offering hope even in times of suffering or despair. Thanks to each of you for showing hope and compassion to Muriel. Her wish to each of you is for the love she has received.
Much younger, but still in need
I could imagine a 92-year-old woman working in a store. I couldn’t imagine a 4-year-old boy arriving at a hospital for heart surgery without an adult.
But that’s what happened with True, who was born with a congenital heart disease that required surgery. He had spent his earliest years in foster care. On the day of his surgery (in 2022), his social worker had COVID, so True was admitted by himself into Children’s Nebraska Hospital.
He was sitting all alone in pre-op when in walked Dr. Amy Beethe, who would be his anesthesiologist for the seven-hour long surgery. He didn’t know why he was alone and he didn’t know exactly why he was there. Now that I know the whole story, I can tell you he was there for much more than heart surgery.
Dr. Beethe said she kept looking at him during the surgery and thinking about him being alone. She reached out to the social worker to learn more and found out True had five siblings, and none of them were thriving. True would be especially hard to place because of his medical needs.
Somewhere in the conversation, the social worker asked Dr. Beethe, “Are you an option?” Amy and her husband already had six children, three of whom were adopted. She called her husband and said, “When I get home we need to talk, and I need you to keep an open mind.”
Sure enough, the Beethe’s adoption of True was finalized a little over a year later. And it didn’t stop there. Amy and her husband Ryan found homes for all but one of True’s siblings! With just one sibling left, Amy and Ryan had one more talk — and soon added True’s oldest sister to their family.
I read about this on Good News Network, but the story was covered earlier by Steve Hartman (On The Road), and they made a great little video about it, which you can find here on YouTube.
From PTSD to the Winner’s Circle
Many think the context for post-traumatic stress is always combat service in the military. There is plenty of that, to be sure, but PTS can be caused by many kinds of traumas, including having surgery. That is exactly what happened to Gary Woodland, winner of golf’s 2013 U.S. Open.
It seemed then like he’d keep on rising, but the human body has to cooperate and Woodland’s didn’t. In September, 2023, he had brain surgery to remove a lesion that had been affecting part of his brain and causing him severe anxiety and fear for almost two years. He had constant feelings of dread, fear of dying, and nighttime seizures and tremors. So surgeons cut away a baseball sized piece of his skull (a procedure called a craniotomy) and were able to remove part of the lesion. Imagine giving the OK for that when you already have a fear of dying!
The surgery was 30 months ago, and two days later he was hitting putts in his living room. The road to where he’d been was horrible, the road back would be hard in its own way. At least, he noted, he could now fly on a plane without the constant fear that the overhead bin was going to come crashing down and kill him.
But the fight wasn’t over. In the middle of March this year he said in a Golf Channel interview that he had been suffering from PTSD. “I appreciate that love and support. But inside, I feel like I’m dying, and I feel like I’m living a lie,” he said. “I want to live my dreams and be successful out here. But I want to help people, too. I realize now I’ve got to help myself first.”
Sharing that lifted a weight off his shoulders, and he is still making progress. On March 29, 2026, he won the Houston Open — his first win since that U.S. Open in 2019! He cried. His wife cried. I cried. But all of us, and many more, also cheered and smiled.
Here is a man who is hurting, but in the midst of his pain is using that pain to help others. That is beautiful good!
Do good like those people did. It’s in you, and it’s beautiful.