Your Friday Awesome: Superhero Grandma

Photographer Sacha Goldberger's 91 year-old grandma, Frederika, really is a superhero:

Frederika was born in Budapest 20 years before World War II. During the war, at the peril of her own life, she courageously saved the lives of ten people. When asked how, Goldberger told us "she hid the Jewish people she knew, moving them around to different places everyday." As a survivor of Nazism and Communism, she then immigrated away from Hungary to France, forced by the Communist regime to leave her homeland illegally or face death.

But she was feeling a bit lonely and depressed so her grandson decided to create a series of portraits to remind her of how awesome she is. He ended up creating a MySpace page for her and now she has over 2,000 people who also think she is awesome. Here are a couple more of my favorites:

Oh, and they didn't stop with just the superhero. There are some more amazing photos on the MySpace page, including this one:

14-year-old Graeme Taylor, You Are Amazing

Watch and listen. I can't wait to see how awesome this kid continues to be.

#musicmonday: Diamond Rings

Really, this should have been posted closer to halloween, but how could I pass it up? Spandex, and make-up and choreography (and basketball!), oh my!

Your Friday Awesome: Porpoises to the Rescue

Dick Van Dyke is 84-years-old and still surfs. Recently he decided to take a little nap on his surfboard (as you would) and when he woke up he couldn't see land:

"I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought 'I'm dead!'"

Van Dyke was wrong. "They turned out to be porpoises," he said. "And they pushed me all the way to shore."

I'm guessing they were fans because he is already friends with these other aquatic mammals:



I really hope they sang Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious while they pushed him to shore.

Your Friday Awesome: Awesome Mom, Awesome Kid

This burned through the internet yesterday, but I think it bears sharing because it is simply an example of an awesome kid, his awesome mom, and her awesome parenting.

That adorable kid is Boo, he is five, he loves Scooby Doo, and for Halloween he wanted to go as Daphne. So his mom, Cop's Wife who blogs at Nerdy Apple Bottom, bought him a Daphne costume and let him wear it to preschool.

It is a once a heartbreaking tale of homophobic parents and a five year old who already seems to understand that wearing a skirt and wig as a costume will cause him to be judged. But more importantly it is an example of awesome parenting. Boo's mom supports her kid and stands up to the bullies for him, even if they are three feet taller and three decades older than him, and wrap their bullying in the guise of "concern."

And, as she so smartly argues:

If you think that me allowing my son to be a female character for Halloween is somehow going to ‘make’ him gay then you are an idiot. Firstly, what a ridiculous concept. Secondly, if my son is gay, OK. I will love him no less. Thirdly, I am not worried that your son will grow up to be an actual ninja so back off.

 Now, go read the whole thing.