Russ Towne's A Grateful Man

Ashby is one of the heroes of my story.  Her resolve is not strong, and she’s not sure of what she wants, she only knows what she doesn’t want and that’s to stop the intrusion of other kids’ emotions and baggage into her life.

Ashby smiled, feeling that today the cycle was certainly broken, somewhere deep inside her an excited character mixed an elixir of anticipation.  There was a part of her that knew just what to do with this day.  She decided that she would listen to it, not resist opportunities and follow the day in the direction that seemed most promising.  “I’ll be damned,” she thought with a smile, as she turned the corner into the junior high school wing.

The microclimates of Jefferson Middle School were dictated by the winds of adolescent hormones.  Internal pressure systems brewed into moody storms in classrooms and hallways; storms that always…

Joshua Wade needed an endoscopy last Friday. His favorite stuffed animal, “wolf,” meanwhile, needed stitches for a hole in his right leg. The 9-year-old asked his doctor at the Children’s Hospital Colorado, Christine Waasorp Hurtado, if his stuffed friend could get surgery too.

“His parents said, ‘No, no, no, they don’t do wolf surgeries here,'” Hurtado told The Huffington Post. “They said they’d get him fixed up at home.”

But Hurtado and Joshua’s anesthesiologist, Tom Strandness, decided to surprise little Joshua. When he woke up, his pal had a fresh set of sutures, a hospital mask, and a new bandage. His father, Kevin Wade, posted a picture of of the adorable scene to Facebook.

“I saw Joshua a few minutes after he’d woken up,” Hurtado said. “He was still pretty sleepy but he was very excited. He was full of smiles and happy with his wolf.”

Kevin Wade was clearly…