[PennySerenade]

Female jockey makes history in famous Boxing Day steeplechase



Bryony Frost made horse racing history as she became the first woman jockey to win the prestigious King George VI Chase with a "dream" Boxing Day success on 20-1 outsider Frodon.

The 25-year-old Frost led from start to finish to give trainer Paul Nicholls his 12th success in the race at Kempton Park on the outskirts of London as more fancied contenders fell away.


"I have just won the King George!" said a clearly emotional Frost after crossing the finish line. "He has just smashed everyone's expectations. I don't argue with him too much as he is his own personality," she told ITV Sport.



Frost had previously enjoyed a landmark Grade One success at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival on Frodon and the pair worked their magic again despite being the least fancied of Nicholls' four runners in the race.
"I cannot stress how much this horse means to me -- he is my life. You dream as a little girl to ride a horse like this," added Frost.

Victory in a race rated second only to the Cheltenham Gold Cup for quality has also made Frost the most successful female jockey over jumps as she was well aware.

"I talked to my brother in the United States last night and I said I was one away from being the woman jockey with the most winners over jumps. "He said 'how cool would it be to do it in the King George?'"



Frodon's stablemate Clan Des Obeaux was bidding for a third successive win in the King George but could only finish third. Cyrname, another fancied runner from the Nicholls' string, was pulled up under the hot pace set by Frodon, as was Real Steel.

It was left for Waiting Patiently under champion jockey Brian Hughes to provide the main challenge with a strong late burst. But Frost and Frodon were home by 2 1/4 lengths.
Due to coronavirus restrictions, the usual 20,000 crowd for the festive season special was absent, with Nicholls watching the race from the vacant Royal Box.

He had written off Frodon's chances before the race, particularly in view of a poor run by the 8-year-old at Aintree recently, but was proved wrong as he jumped brilliantly under Frost's skilled handling to pull off a stunning and historic triumph.

Poland to Pass Law Protecting Online Free Speech Against Big Tech Censorship



Poland’s national conservative government has detailed a new law protecting free speech online against Big Tech censorship, backed by a new court and big fines.

Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro has announced the draft ‘Act for the Freedom to Express One’s Views and Obtain and Disseminate Information on the Internet’ will give social media users a statutory right to appeal bans and content removals on social media platforms such as Facebook on Twitter, which they will be able to escalate to a new Court for the Protection of Freedom of Speech in a streamlined, all-digital process.

If the new court rules that the tech censors have removed accounts or deleted posts for speech which is legal under Polish law, they must be restored — or the social media firms involved will face fines of as much as 1.8 million euros, enforced by the Slavic country’s Office of Electronic Communications, according to reports.

“In Germany, the Minister of Justice may arbitrarily decide what content needs to be eliminated from the Internet. This is the introduction of censorship. We want to balance the freedom of public debate,” Ziobro explained of the planned legislation recently.

“We want to regulate the relationship between social media users and their owners… It is primarily about censorship when expressing opinions that are consistent with Polish law”, added deputy minister Sebastian Kaleta elsewhere.

Many on the right in the United Kingdom and the United States have suggested that, while they are not happy with what Ziobro has described as “ideological censorship” by tech giants, they prefer the status quo to “the government getting involved” in the affairs of private businesses.

From the Polish government’s perspective, however, such so-called interference is a constitutional duty: “The Constitution… guarantees full freedom of expression… Therefore, any manifestations of limiting it must meet with the reaction of the state to enable protection against interference with this freedom,” Kaleta insisted.

“The Left tries to define any fundamental criticism of its views or ideology as ‘hate speech’, and then expects such content to be censored or even punished… the left is trying to consistently implement its anti-democratic aspirations,” he added.

“This law is a response to what they are trying to impose on us as legal norms, that is, forcing us to censor with political correctness and refrain from expressing one’s opinion.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/1 ... ensorship/

[goldie0608]

How a Utah Sports Reporter Accidentally Raised $55,000 to Help People During the Holidays



If sportswriter Andy Larsen writes his autobiography one day, he just might have to title it, ‘The Accidental Philanthropist’.

That’s because when Larsen, who covers basketball for the Salt Lake Tribune, inadvertently found himself the recipient of a $55,000 Venmo bonanza, he used the money to help families in need for the holidays.

The story begins just before Thanksgiving—with SpongeBob SquarePants.

Larsen’s mom called to give him a head’s up that she’d just come across the distinctive yellow container he used as a kid for stashing loose coins in his bedroom and wondered if he might want to come to fetch it.

The chunk of change amounted to over $165. Larsen, feeling in the holiday spirit, decided to donate the booty to folks who could really use a few extra dollars this time of year and put the word out to his 27,000 Twitter followers:

“So I had a big jar of coins hanging around,” he tweeted. “I went to the bank today & had them counted. $164.84. Rather than keeping it, I want to give that out to a few people who could use the help for their household’s Thanksgiving dinner or for Christmas presents. My DMs/replies are open.”

As expected, requests for assistance began to roll in—but on the flip side of the proverbial coin, came requests from people who wanted to boost the bounty.

The first arrived from a man named Jeff Jones, who asked Larsen to put up his Venmo deets so he could contribute to the good cause.

“I was shocked that someone would do that,” Larsen told the Washington Post. “Even more amazing was that minutes later, people began retweeting everywhere and sending me money out of the blue. It just exploded.”

Even more amazing? Close to a thousand people donated about $55,000 in a single day.

All in all, Larsen fielded close to 200 requests for help. Figuring out who would get the money and how it would be distributed became his next concern.

“I did my best to verify the stories I was told, typically through conversations with those asking and light social media research. The vast majority checked out,” Larsen explained in The Salt Lake Tribune.

In the end, Larsen gifted people with cash for the holidays as well as funds for car repairs, utility bills, and groceries. And, in addition to sending $200 sums to dozens of families to help them cover medical bills, he gave $10,000 to RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit organization that buys debts from collection agencies—and forgives them. (Larsen was told his $10,000 donation would translate to roughly $1 million in debt-reduction relief.)

Also on the unintentional holiday “Nice List” were several local charities that focus on food insecurity, including a $1,000 donation Larsen made to a high school food bank that serves low-income families.

“I cried when he contacted me,” said Meg Thunell from Kearns High School in Salt Lake County. “The compounded goodness of all those people giving without even knowing where it was going restored my faith in people after a long and rough year.”

And it was all thanks to an accidental philanthropist—and SpongeBob SquarePants.

[krazny9]

'Dogtor Loki,' delivers 'Hero Healing Kits' to health care workers



A therapy dog in Baltimore is bringing joy to health care workers through digital therapy dog visits.
Loki, a 2-year-old Rottweiler therapy dog at the University of Maryland Medical Center is known for comforting patients each week. But when the coronavirus pandemic prevented therapy dogs from visiting the hospital, Loki and her owner, Caroline Benzel, had to figure out a creative way to help patients.

So, Benzel came up with the idea of remote therapy dog visits.

Benzel, who is a second-year medical student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, started training Loki since she was 18 weeks old. She gets Loki acclimated to the hospital’s environment and patients, Benzel has described her pup as a natural at her job.

“I’ve never met a dog that's so empathetic. It’s kind of strange. There have been many circumstances at the hospital where she can just read a situation where a patient is in a very bad way or a family member is going through a loss,” said Benzel.

Since transitioning to remote visits, it’s given Benzel and Loki a chance to connect with patients and hospital staff. The FaceTime visits also made Benzel notice the physical effects of masks that healthcare workers are forced to wear.

“I was seeing the masks doing the damage to the nursing staff, the doctors, the social workers, because everyone, custodians to doctors are all required to wear it,” Benzel said.

She thought of ways that she could help those experiencing the issue and came up with care packages called “Hero Healing Kits.”

The kits, which have Loki’s face on them, include products like hypoallergenic lotion for irritated skin, packs of gum to help with dry mouth, medicated powder to help with skin irritation, Vaseline, chapstick and tea and coffee packets. Each kit also has a thank you note with messages of appreciation for hospital staff during this time.

With the help of her neighbor, Benzel has put together about 1,400 kits so far and medical students have raised $300 to $400. The kits have become so popular, a medical student in Philadelphia also started the Hero Healing Initiative there. Benzel has also expanded and has created kits for neighboring hospitals.

“Loki truly is an amazing dog and it’s been such a blessing to be able to be able to spread her personality and share it with the hospital system as a whole,” said Benzel.



https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story/therapy-dog-dogtor-loki-delivers-hero-healing-kits-70200422

[johngriffen]

IN OTHER NEWS...
CURRENTLY OFFLINE

Hold off posting your news stories
The editors and accountant department are reviewing last weeks reports to insure that all our reporters get their proper paycheck

[johngriffen]

FOR STORIES POSTED THE W/O DECEMBER 14
Our news editors at IN OTHER NEWS have carefully reviewed all the stories submitted by our reporters
Following is last weeks Reporter Log

LEGEND:
X = Acceptable Story
X = PULITZER PRIZE
NA = Not Acceptable Story
DS = Duplicate Story
NOTE: If you feel the editors made a mistake, please feel free to PM me so that we can review your claim

A SPECIAL THANKS TO 7 ACE REPORTERS WHO FILED A NEW STORY EVERY DAY
BigGlen
Fatima99
goldie0608
hija
PennySerenade
rg_789
Zbignieww



Every week the editors will review all the stories and pick the one story that we feels deserves a
MOBI PULITZER PRIZE
There are many different categories for submissions. Last week, the category was "IT'S STARTING TO LOOK LIKE CHRISTMAS"
But this week, the category was "IT'S STARTING TO LOOK LIKE CHRISTMAS"
For those interested in how the category is decided, it's simple. When the week begins, before ANY story is posted, I randomly select a category and record it on my spread sheet. And the reason why I don't post up front the category, is also simple. I'm sure we would all like to see many different diverse types of stories each week, and I don't want people to focus on past categories. Yeah, as time passes, some of the old categories will appear again, but it will remain pretty much random to keep our reporters on their toes

W/O DECEMBER 21 CATEGORY = CHRISTMAS SPIRIT & GIVING
REPORTER = EVERYBODY
DAY = ALL WEEK
STORY = "EVERY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT OR GIVING STORY"
There were so MANY great stories this week, and everybody posted at least one Christmas Spirit or heart warming "Giving" Story... And since it is "THE SEASON"....

CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS WEEKS MOBI PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS = 100 WRZ

THE NEXT NEWS CYCLE WILL BEGIN SHORTLY

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
MONDAY DECEMBER 28
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You may post One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can enter only once a day
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them to under a minute, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[HogwartsExpress]

Ashes Of Late James Doohan, Scotty From ‘Star Trek’, Were Smuggled Onto International Space Station




Whenever Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and other members of the “Star Trek” crew got themselves into a jam, engineer James Montgomery Scott, a.k.a. Scotty, was always at the ready to beam the back aboard the Enterprise.

The actor who played Scotty in the original series and on the big screen, Vancouver-born James Doohan, passed away in 2005. However, according to a new interview, it appears that death was not the end of Doohan’s journey.

In an interview with The Times, video game developer Richard Garriott revealed for the first time ever how he was able to smuggle Doohan’s ashes onto the International Space Station when he spent 12 days in orbit as the world’s sixth-ever “space tourist.”


“It was completely clandestine,” said Garriott, revealing his mission was at the behest of Doohan’s family, who wanted to fulfill the late actor’s wish to have his remains make it to the final frontier.

“His family were very pleased that the ashes made it up there but we were all disappointed we didn’t get to talk about it publicly for so long. Now enough time has passed that we can,” he explained.

According to The Times, a 2007 attempt to send some of Doohan’s ashes into orbit on a suborbital rocket failed. That was when Doohan’s son, Chris, contacted Garriott, days before he was scheduled to embark on a $30 million missing to spend 12 days aboard the ISS, via a Russian Soyuz capsule.

“I said, ‘I’m in quarantine in Kazakhstan… but if you can get the ashes to me, I’ll find a way of getting them aboard.’ A couple of days before flight, this package arrived and I made a plan,” Garriott said.


He printed three cards with Doohan’s photo on them, sprinkling ashes inside and then laminating them. He then hid the cards within the flight data file, which was cleared for the flight (the cards were not).

“Everything that officially goes on board is logged, inspected and bagged — there’s a process, but there was no time to put it through that process,” he said.

“The concern afterwards was that it could disrupt relations [with the Russians] because I didn’t have permission . . . so in an abundance of caution I was asked to tell the family ‘Let’s not make a big deal out of it publicly’.”

The late actor’s son, Chris Doohan, confirmed Garriott’s cloak-and-dagger tale.

“Richard said, ‘We’ve got to keep this hush hush for a little while,’ and here we are 12 years later. What he did was touching — it meant so much to me, so much to my family and it would have meant so much to my dad,” he said. “My dad had three passions: space, science and trains. He always wanted to go into space.”

According to Garriott, one of the cards is on display in Chris Doohan’s home, while another was sent floating in space, where it would have inevitably burned up when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.


The third card, however, remains in the ISS, hidden beneath the cladding on the floor of the space station’s Columbus module, where Garriott hid it.

“As far as I know, no one has ever seen it there and no one has moved it,” he said. “James Doohan got his resting place among the stars.”

Since being hidden in the ISS, Doohan’s ashes have travelled nearly 1.7 billion miles through space, orbiting Earth more than 70,000 times.

source
https://etcanada.com/news/728807/ashes- ... e-station/

Kentucky man uses flamethrower to clear snowy driveway



It’s a surefire way to break the ice.

A Kentucky man was filmed using a flamethrower to clear snow from his driveway while apparently dressed up as the character cousin Eddie from the Yule day classic “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”

Footage showed Timothy Browning — wearing only a white bathrobe, slippers and a hat — chugging a beer and popping a cigar in his mouth before handling the fireblaster outside his home in Ashland.

“Browning snow services removal now available!” a woman says at the start of the clip.

Browning then casually wields the flamethrower, which quickly melts away the surrounding flakes.

“God bless American rednecks!” he captioned the video, which he posted on Facebook Friday.

The clip was shared widely over the weekend, with many users applauding Browning’s creative shoveling tactic.

“How do I get one of these lol,” commented one person from Alberta, Canada.

Browning told Reuters: “I thought it’d be funny for a video and wanted to clear off the under layer of ice on the driveway.”

https://nypost.com/2020/12/28/kentucky- ... -driveway/

Dog Polishes Off Family's Christmas Dinner, Is Unable To Move After That



This small dog ate a big turkey. A dog has gone viral on social media for gulping down his family's entire Christmas turkey before collapsing on the floor, unable to move.

According to The Sun, Bubba, a five-year-old Chi Apso, managed to get her paws on the turkey which was meant to feed three humans. On Christmas Eve, Bubba snuck into the kitchen and polished off the family dinner, which had been wrapped in foil and left under a dish towel on the kitchen counter.

The dog then collapsed on the floor, barely able to move after its large meal.

A picture of Bubba lying on her side has been shared thousands of times on social media. The photograph was posted on Twitter by owner David Barrett, who lives in Prestwick, Scotland, with his family.

"No chance has ma dog just scranned the whole turkey for tomorrow," he wrote before sharing the picture of "the culprit". His tweet quickly went viral, collecting thousands of amused comments.

In Bubba's defense, she did not scarf down the whole turkey. She left a shred of turkey breast for her owners too, according to Metro News.

The ]dog did not suffer any long-term effects from her binge eating, but has now been put on a strict diet.

"She just couldn't move. It was pretty big, a whole turkey breast," David Barrett said. "My aunt had two turkeys so we got one of hers."

https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/dog-polish ... at-2344494

[BigGlen]

Fewer Canadians plan to improve their diet as a New Year’s resolution in 2021, and are thinking of donating to local food banks instead, a new survey reveals.

The survey, released Friday by Dalhousie University and Angus Reid, found the number of people planning to donate to a local food bank in 2021 doubled to 16 per cent, up from eight per cent last year. Only 30 per cent of Canadians surveyed plan on changing their diet and eating healthier in 2021 — a 28 per cent drop compared with last year.

“It seems Canadians are overlooking personal issues and considering the big picture,” said Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at the Halifax university. “They may not want to take care of themselves but they want to take care of others.” Charlebois said he was surprised by the results given public discussion about weight gain during the pandemic and the so-called quarantine. “At some point I believe people will feel the need to address their own health, but they’re apparently not ready to do that at this point,” he said.

Meanwhile, the survey found 32 per cent of Canadians feel the pandemic will impact their ability to pay for food in 2021. The cost of vegetables was the top concern of people polled, followed by fruits and meat. Yet only 43 per cent of Canadians said they would change their shopping habits, down from 53 per cent last year, and only 34 per cent said they would visit a different retail store, down from 48 per cent. The survey said this is likely to do with fears of catching the novel coronavirus. “Familiarity of a store appears to be critical during a pandemic,” said the report that accompanied the poll’s results.

Another finding tied to the COVID-19 outbreak appears to be the increasing interest in growing a garden. The poll found 30 per cent of Canadians plan to grow a garden in 2021, up from 12 per cent last year.

[Fatima99]

How Albany’s Alan the duck and Zelda the golden retriever have become best friends



Alan was a lonely duckling when Zelda took him under her paw, and the pair are now inseparable at their home in Albany on WA’s south coast.

The unlikely friendship began two years ago, when Chris Toovey’s golden retriever Zelda first met Alan.

“We got Alan when he was five days old,” Mrs Toovey said.

“It all started by simply sitting on the lawn and Zelda being curious … and it was just us enforcing her to be gentle.

“Alan would come and sit with her and it’s ended up being this friendship over the past two years.”

Every day the two friends enjoy an evening catch-up around 6pm.

“Alan will come up from the dam and I think he’s missed her during the day,” Mrs Toovey said.

“Zelda will actually whimper if Alan doesn’t come, so he hears her and will come running across the lawn to her.

“She literally stands there as he goes under her ears and under her tummy. She doesn’t give much back; I think it’s a one-way thing.

“If Zelda tries to walk away before Alan’s finished giving her his cuddles, he’ll actually stand in front of her so she can’t move.”

While the pairing might seem strange to an outsider, it’s not unusual in the Toovey household.

Zelda’s grandmother brought up a lamb, even sharing her dog biscuits. And Zelda’s aunt raised Alan’s son Nigel, who turned into Nigella after she started laying eggs.

“It’s very normal for us,” Mrs Toovey said. “It’s a bit of a crazy zoo here.”

[Morgan2498]

Twillingate group delivers Christmas stockings to those who need them


A group of four women from Twillingate helped more than 20 people in the region during the holidays as they deliverd Christmas stockings to those who needed them. Members of the group are (from left) Carrie Burt, Phalyn Anstey, Vicki White and Felicia Ford. Contributed

While Santa Claus did his annual deliveries on Dec. 25, a group from Twillingate did their best impression of the man in the red suit a week earlier.

The Saturday before Christmas Day, Vicki White, Phalyn Anstey, Carrie Burt and Felicia Ford hit the road and dropped more than a dozen Christmas stockings to people around the Twillingate and New World Island area.

The idea sprang from a social media conversation between the four Twillingate women about how they could combat the blanket of negativity that has covered much of 2020.

They looked at the effect the COVID-19 pandemic, among other things, has had on families and wanted to help those who were most affected in the months that have followed the initial lockdown.

“We wanted to do something to spread a little bit of cheer,” said White.

What they came up with involved Christmas stockings for children of all ages. They didn’t put an age limit on it and focused on helping whoever they could.

“It wouldn’t be big, but it would be something,” White said of the inspiration behind the stockings.

The group aimed to collect $500 to help with what they felt they needed, but they quickly overshot their goal.

In total, they put together 21 stockings.

They dropped them off for children from the age of two to 17. Each stocking was customized for a child's age.

While most of the stockings were dropped off by the group, there were some given to the elementary school to be distributed.

Any leftover items were given to community groups in the region. Other stockings were sent to people on Fogo Island.

“The way that the year has been, it’s been kind of dampening everyone’s spirits … and a lot of people haven’t been able to work or have found it hard,” said Burt. “So, we figured it was a good thing to do between us all to try and get some things together for families that don’t have much.”

The reaction they got made everything worth it. There were smiles and well wishes as they accumulated the items for the stockings.

Then, on delivery day as they dropped off each stocking, there were some tears from some and plenty of smiles from others.

“(The response) exceeded what I expected,” said Ford. “It was rewarding to give people in need a little extra, but I had someone really special to me who was going through a hard time … and I was able to give her a stocking and it really made her Christmas.”

The response the group received during each stage of the process has them already thinking about doing the same thing next year.

The Christmas stockings were not the only items the group put together for people over the holidays.

Once their stockings were dropped off, there were some requests for food hampers, and they were only too willing to help.

“How can you say no? You can’t,” said White.

Source: https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/ ... em-535157/

[hija]

Bizarre Royal Job That Actually Exist: Royal Horological Conservator



This lengthy title is befitting for someone who oversees the functioning and maintenance of all the clocks in the royal properties and residences. And there are certainly a lot of them: 500 in Buckingham Palace, 379 in Windsor Castle, and 80 in the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The conservator’s busiest times? The two weekends when he must lead the Royal Collection staff team in switching every single clock in the collection to or back from British Summer Time, spending over 50 hours carefully adjusting the historical timepieces.

[PennySerenade]

Daughter of 95-year-old Holocaust survivor reaches new heights to say hello at Toronto nursing home



TORONTO -- The daughter of a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor reached new heights to say hello to her father who has been in isolation at his Toronto nursing home for nearly six weeks.

“He was waving. He was so happy. I said ‘I love you,’” Lee Minkowitz told CTV News Toronto on Friday.

Earlier this week, Lee climbed into a bucket truck and was raised about 30 feet in the air. Wearing personal protective equipment, she caught a glimpse of her father, Max Rosenbloom, who she has not seen face-to-face since his nursing home went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March.

“Hi dad,” she is heard yelling from outside his third-floor window in a video captured from below.



“I couldn’t pull out my phone, I was so scared,” she said. “I can’t say I wasn’t afraid, I was reluctant to do it, but I’ll do anything for my parents.”

“That feeling of loneliness is so difficult for survivors. I was really used to going to see him once or twice every single day.”

A personal support worker and Lee’s son, Avi Minkowitz, the “mastermind” behind the operation, were both able to capture the heartwarming moment in photos and video.

“My mother is an only child and seeing her parents, especially during this difficult time, is very important to her,” Avi said. “So I thought 'how can we get her up there?' And then I thought of a friend of mine who has a bucket truck and he agreed to help right away.”

Rosenbloom was living at home with his wife, who turns 85 years old next week, before he suffered a stroke at the end of last year. He moved into the nursing home at the beginning of December 2019 and has been bedridden ever since, Lee said.



The pair has been married for more than 60 years and has never been apart until now.

Rosenbloom immigrated to Canada in 1948 after surviving five concentration camps during the Second World War. His wife also survived the war as she was saved by a non-Jewish family. The pair met in Israel in the 1960s, got married and then moved back to Toronto.

Lee said her father worked at a clothing manufacturing facility before moving on to start his own facility. He worked until the 1980s.

“He is very ambitious, very hardworking, truly a great man,” Lee said.

During this difficult time, she said the whole family has been using technology to keep in touch with Rosenbloom, adding that he has grown quite accustomed to using FaceTime on the iPad they purchased for him.

While the workers at the nursing home are doing a “great job” with the residents during this “unfathomable situation,” Lee added that she feels more measures need to be put in place at all facilities in order to create these special moments of seeing your loved ones for the first time in weeks.

“I’m not recommending everyone go get a bucket truck,” Lee said. “But, maybe the homes can provide supervised visits on safe platforms like scaffolding at the side of the building.”

Long-term care homes across the province have been devastatingly struck by the deadly novel coronavirus.