Reader's Digest

JOSÉ ANDRÉS HAS many inspiring quotes, but I’ve always loved this one: “I realized very early the power of food to evoke memory, to bring people together, to transport you to other places, and I wanted to be a part of that.” Food does something magical to us. It connects people around a table, within a community, or across the planet. Once that connection is made it never leaves. I still remember my mother’s country-style cooking in our kitchen in central Illinois, a baguette sandwich I bought from a street vendor in Italy, and a particularly delicious hot dog roasted on a camping trip to the Grand Canyon with my wife and boys. What better way to broaden our understanding of other people than through food? Few life experiences are as powerful…

Up from the Well What an uplifting story (pun!) of Brandon Leseberg’s neighbors pulling him from a well after he dove in to rescue his young son (May). As a retired police officer, I consider a first responder as a person on the scene of an emergency who initiates immediate corrective action. In this case, the neighbors were the first responders. —STEVE SCARANO Vista, California Pandemic Silver Linings I was in my late 60s, working in my hometown hospital, when COVID-19 hit. I was terrified, but I showed up every day for my team and patients. I recently turned 70 and finally joined my husband in retirement, the first week of which I spent with the flu. One night, unable to sleep, I read your reader stories of blessings from the last two years (March/…

MARIAH READING, an artist from Maine, saw so much garbage during hikes through national parks that it alarmed her. But it also gave her an idea. She would collect the trash and use it as her canvas. Since 2017, Reading, 28, has painted and photographed discarded cans, crumpled plastic water bottles, even old hubcaps, so that, when held just right, they blend in seamlessly with nature. Instead of cluttering landscapes, the trash has become landscapes. She calls it “breathing new life into forgotten objects.”…

IT WAS A bright May afternoon along the Maryland coast, and Jonathan Bauer, 51, a technology executive at a hospital, and his 13-year-old daughter, Ava, were taking full advantage of it. They were driving with the windows down as they headed home on the 1.4-mile-long, two-lane Route 90 bridge, which spans the shallow waters of Assa-woman Bay. Suddenly, the calm was disturbed by the squeal of tires. Not far ahead of them, a black pickup was skidding from one lane to the other. To the Bauers’ horror, it slammed into a concrete barrier, spun like a top, flipped over the SUV directly ahead of them, and came to rest dangling over the railing of the bridge. Bauer hit the brakes in time to avoid the vehicles in his path, but a…

WHEN 16-YEAR-OLD GRAYDEN Brunet joined the Sackets Harbor, New York, volunteer fire department in 2017, he was the youngest on the squad by 20 years. He was so stoked to be following in his dad’s footsteps that he persuaded two classmates, Niklas Brazie and Dalton Hardison, to sign up too. A few years later, the older firefighters quit en masse over COVID-19 concerns. Suddenly, the three teens not only were helping the Sackets Harbor volunteer fire department, they were the Sackets Harbor volunteer fire department. They were the ones responding to heart attacks, car accidents, and suicides. They were the ones speeding COVID-19 patients to hospitals. “We went from not even having our licenses to saving people’s lives,” Hardison told CBS. As far as the teens were concerned, they couldn’t quit. If they…

A FEW YEARS AGO, I was leaving the dog kennel where I worked only to find a baby goat at the end of the driveway. The kennel’s owners are known animal rescuers, and I figured someone dumped him over the fence. The kid was visibly nervous but stood perfectly still as I approached. I’m an animal lover and I’ve brought home dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and fish, but never a goat. The tiny kid was too adorable to resist. I named him Quincy, and with the help of some experienced friends, bottle-fed him in my bathroom. Quincy proved to be quite intelligent. When he was about a week old, I tapped my fingers on the bath-room floor and said “Lie down.” I was amazed when he dropped down. I was even more…