There are some stories that captivate your attention… We cordially encourage you to read one more moving story.Mary, an elderly woman, finds it challenging to ascend the bus’s steps due to her weakened physical condition.Just when she was about to give up, she felt a solid hand catch her elbow and hold her up.However, her smile swiftly changed to shame when she turned to thank him.Timothy, a tall, thin man with an untidy appearance and appearance of homelessness, was the owner of the hand.Mary instinctively withdrew her arm and gave a stiff “thank you.”Timothy merely grinned pitifully.Rejection was nothing new to him; it was just part of who he was.
Mary’s occupation of two bus seats made him think of his own mother, who would have been embarrassed to see him in such a manner.Timothy took a seat by himself near the back of the bus.Closing his eyes, Timothy leaned back and considered his daughter Daisy.He kept thinking about how she continued to cling to him even after everything in their lives had crumbled.His wife Valery had been diagnosed with stage four cancer two years prior.Timothy was devastated when Valery passed away despite having spent all of her money on medical care.
Following Valery’s passing, Timothy’s world collapsed.Due to his frequent absences to take care of her, he lost his work, and in order to pay off the obligations, they had to sell their property.He moved into a ramshackle one-bedroom flat in a crumbling building with Daisy.Daisy’s circumstances were deemed inadequate by child welfare workers, who promptly took her away.Timothy’s only comfort now that he was homeless was a bus ticket to see his daughter at her house.
The loud, teasing voice of a teenager startled Timothy out of his reverie.”Driver, have a look at this!The boy pointed at Mary and mumbled, visibly inebriated, “This lady should pay for TWO tickets.”His friend interrupted, making fun of her for occupying two seats.With trembling hands, Mary gripped her handbag while the other passengers turned away, refusing to assist her.Mary was told to get out of her seat by the first teen, who gave her a punch to the chest.Mary calmly remarked, “Young man, there are plenty of other free seats,” despite her trepidation. The second teen, though, was not content.Approaching her with an alcoholic breath, he demanded that Mary vacate her seat.
Mary Lou Retton Has Pneumonia and ‘Is Fighting for Her Life,’ Daughter Says
The gymnastics champion sprang to stardom at the 1984 Olympics, where she became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the all-around competition. Her family is raising money online, saying she lacks health insurance.
May Lou Retton at the 1984 Olympics, where she won five medals.
Mary Lou Retton, who became one of the most popular athletes in the country after winning the all-around women’s gymnastics competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, has pneumonia and is “fighting for her life” in the intensive care unit, her daughter said in a statement this week.
Retton’s daughter McKenna Lane Kelley said on Instagram that her mother “is not able to breathe on her own” and that she had been in the intensive care unit for more than a week.
Kelley asked for donations to help pay for her mother’s hospital bills, saying her mother lacked health insurance. By Wednesday, she had raised more than $260,000 online from more than 4,600 donors.
She did not share more specific information about her mother’s condition, though she said that her pneumonia was “a very rare form.” It was not clear what hospital Retton was in.
Kelley, who was a gymnast at Louisiana State University, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, another daughter, Shayla Kelley Schrepfer, released a video on Instagram thanking people for “all the love and support that you’ve given to my mom.”
“She’s still fighting,” Schrepfer said. “It’s going to be a day-by-day process, and we hope that you guys will respect her boundaries, as we want to keep the details between her and our family right now. She has been treated with the best of the best professionals here, and it has been such a blessing to have their hands on her.”
At the 1984 Olympics, Retton became the first American woman to win the all-around gold medal or any individual Olympic medal in gymnastics. Going into the final rotation of the competition, she was five-hundredths of a point behind Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo, and the only way she could beat Szabo was to score a perfect 10 on vault.
Retton scored a perfect 10.
She won five medals in Los Angeles, including two silvers, for team and vault, and two bronzes, for uneven bars and floor exercise.
Though there was an asterisk by Retton’s victory in the history books — the Soviet Union, which was the most dominant force in women’s gymnastics at the time, boycotted the 1984 Games — it nonetheless made her a sports hero in the United States. In addition to earning her the traditional trappings of Olympic gold, like appearing on a Wheaties box, she was widely viewed as an inspiration to a new generation of American girls entering gymnastics.
Even as the American gymnastics program grew and the country won more medals, including the team gold in 1996, Retton’s prominence remained: For 20 years, Retton, now 55, was the only American woman to win the all-around title, until Carly Patterson became the second in 2004.
Retton was born in Fairmont, W.Va., and got her start early, like many top gymnasts. By the time Retton was 7 years old, she was training in gymnastics full-time.
Retton’s talent had been apparent from the start, but a big break came at an Olympics elimination tournament in Reno, Nev., in 1982, where she impressed Bela Karolyi, who would go on to coach her in the 1984 Olympics.
“I immediately recognized the tremendous physical potential of this little kid,” Karolyi said in a March 1984 interview.
Retton appeared in a number of films and TV shows in the late 1980s and 1990s, including the comedy film “Scrooged.”
After her athletic career, Retton became a motivational speaker to promote the benefits of proper nutrition and regular exercise.
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