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Mother senses God's hand...

It was Jessica Rudeen's first time flying with a toddler and a baby. She was unable to breastfeed her 4-month-old son before boarding, and as he screamed in distress, her 3-year-old daughter Caroline started to kick and cry that she wanted to get off the plane. Luckily they were sitting in the same row with a man named Todd. He reached for the baby while Jessica got Caroline into a seatbelt and started a movie on her tablet. Then Todd distracted Caroline while Jessica fed her baby.

During the flight, Todd colored and watched a movie with Caroline and showed her all the things outside the window. By the end of the flight they were best friends. Caroline even kissed him. What's more, Todd was serendipitously booked for the same connecting flight, and with his new toddler friend in hand, he guided the family to the right gate. He changed his seat on the new flight to sit beside Caroline again. "I was blown away by God's hand in this," said Jessica. "We could have been next to anyone, but we were seated next to the nicest man I've ever met in my life." Since then, Jessica has contacted Todd's wife, and the two families are planning to get together soon and pursue their new friendship.

Crumb from Indiana University

Oscar Arreaza, 67, is a convenience store cashier at the IU McNutt Residence Hall. In his home country of Venezuela he was a professor of genetics and statistics for 25 years before he and his wife moved to Indiana to help a daughter care for her children. He knew it would be hard to find a teaching job in the United States, so he worked a handful of jobs before becoming a cashier at IU. But he's more than a cashier, as you will see. When Arreaza learned that Mariana, his other daughter back in Venezuela, needs surgery she cannot afford, he put a cardboard box on his counter to collect donations for her. "I always try to help as much as I can," he said.

                                                                                        Courtesy of Becca Richter
Recently he told freshman Becca Richter about Mariana and asked if she could help him raise funds. She realized collecting money electronically might work better, and messaged her Pi Beta Phi sorority to see if anyone would contribute via Venmo. SEVERAL HOURS LATER, when Arreaza's shift ended, a group of students surprised him with his box, and a note announcing a $3,000 donation from the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.  Everyone screamed, "We love you!" "I was so touched," said Arreaza. "I love the students." By the end of the day, more than $8,000 has been donated by more than 753 students. Why?  "He makes everyone feel like you're his best friend," said Richter. "He's a sweet, pure soul who just deserves all the kindness in the world."

Til death do us part...

When Mike Seldon of Laguna Beach, CA, began dating Brittany Williams, her daughter Heidi was only 14 months old. Mike was always understanding when Brittany had to pause a movie on TV so she could feed Heidi and rock her to sleep, or break a date because of her responsibilities as a mom. He never stayed overnight when Heidi was there, until he and Brittany became engaged in 2015. After that he began doing fatherly things for Heidi, like tucking her in bed at night and kissing her goodbye when he left for work in the morning. Finally he and Brittany were married, and he recited two sets of vows.

                                                                                                         Chard Photographer
After promising to love and honor Brittany "'til death do us part," he kneeled down and made these promises to his step-daughter, Heidi. "I vow to be fair and honest with you. I promise to support you in every way I can. I promise to always hold your hand and brush your hair when you ask me to. I promise to tuck you into bed every night.  I vow to show you how a man should treat a woman through my relationship with your mom. And above all else, I vow to protect you, care for you, and love you 'so big' forever." There was hardly a dry eye in the church.

Arresting officer accepts invitation

Tiffany Hall first met Long Beach, California, police Lt. Jim Foster when he arrested her on drug charges. "I became a product of my environment -- drug infestation," Hall remembers. "Somehow Lt. Foster became part of my life. He would always take me to jail."  Foster recalls that "she had a unique personality,"and whenever he drove her to the station he'd chat with her about making better choices. Foster's kindness gave Hall the courage to turn her life round.

                                                                                                                                       KABC
Five years later, the City of Long Beach reunited Hall with her arresting officer. She presented him with an invitation to her college graduation, a ceremony Foster said he "would not miss for the world," adding that "the biggest joy of my professional career is from time to time having contact with people who find their way out of horrible circumstances and into life's success."

Dad's grateful for his girls

Greg Farnetti played football since he was a kid. After college he started coaching, and after marriage dreamed of a son who would love the game -- in his words, "a little me." He coached at West Blockton High School in Alabama for 25 years, but never got the son he dreamed of. Only daughters, two of them. To compensate, he "adopted" the 40 guys he coached each year, and life at the Farnetti home was all football, all the time. So his daughters were shocked recently when he said he was retiring as coach. He told them he realized they were growing up, and unless he paid more attention to them, he might miss something important. Both girls were touched that he'd end his career for them, and his older daughter, 17-year-old Jodie, repaid his kindness in a way he'll never forget.

                                                                                                                         Photo by Farnetti Family
As a child, Jodie often waited after school until her Dad finished practice. To pass the time, she'd kick the football, again and again and again. When she realized her Dad's last home game was Oct. 16, the Homecoming game, she asked the team if she could kick a field goal. They were all for it, so she arrived in full uniform, but her plans were almost spoiled. She'd been nominated to the Homecoming Court and at the game she was named Queen! She put on the tiara, and waited on the bench until she was called in. Then she took off the crown and ran onto the field to kick the final field goal as fans went wild. Afterward, Coach Farnetti had this to say about wanting a son. "I wouldn't trade anything for my girls, nothing. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I'd say, 'I want them two, right there,'" proving young Dads who want sons can grow up into old Dads who love daughters.

School bus driver helps student feel mothered

Isabella Pieri's mom died two years ago . She lives in Alpine, Utah, and her dad has tried to fill both parenting roles. He does well except for one thing. He has no clue about Isabella's hair. When she was younger it became so tangled and knotted that he gave her a crew cut. Since then she's settled for a quick brush and pony tail each morning -- until recently.

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Not long ago, she saw her school bus driver, Tracy Dean, braiding another student's hair, and got the courage to ask if she would braid hers too.  Since then, Dean has been styling Isabella's hair every morning. "You treat them like your own kids, you know," says Dean. And how does Isabella feel? "It makes me feel like she's a mom pretty much for me. It makes me feel excited for the next day."

Take most popular course at Yale for free

In March this blog mentioned a course on happiness which has become the most popular class at Yale University. About about 1,000 students have signed up for Psych 157 -- so many that the class has moved to Woolsey Hall, which is usually a venue for concerts.

The course is so popular that Yale decided it offer it online free, and anyone can enroll. The professor hopes this course will "change your life in a real way." Classes begin April 30. To register, visit https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being?siteID=TnL5HPStwNw-v_xlussfUXk8qw4bcyY1aQ&utm_content=10&utm_medium=partners&utm_source=linkshare&utm_campaign=TnL5HPStwNw

Instant friends in just one hour

Samantha Snipes of Arkansas was in an abusive relationship about two years ago when she became pregnant. Only 24, she wasn't ready to be a mom, especially with her abusive partner. Then she met another guy online who lived in North Carolina and went to visit him, even though she was eight months pregnant. On the flight she sat next to an older woman, Temple Phipps. It was only a one-hour flight, but they became instant friends and Temple told Samantha to call if she ever needed anything.

Three days after landing in North Carolina, Samantha went into labor and gave birth to a healthy, six pound boy. She asked if Temple would visit her in the hospital. During their visit, Samantha just blurted out that maybe Temple would adopt the baby. Temple had always wanted kids, so she said YES. She named him Vaughn, and now Samantha gets to see Vaughn all the time because she's moved to North Carolina and is only about an hour away from Temple's home.

A boatload of college kids

Before Christmas in 2015, Marty Burbank worshipped at Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim, CA. The 51-year old attorney was planning to buy a boat, but when he heard a sermon on "giving," a better idea popped into his head. He knew very few kids at nearby Rio Vista Elementary School would go to college. Their parents never went, and could not afford it. Even so, some teachers at Rio Vista decorate their rooms with college colors and emblems, so children would at least know about higher education. Kindergarten teacher Tessa Ashton decorates her room with Indiana University emblems, and her kids, shown below, sing the IU Fight Song several times a day.

                                                                                               Courtesy photo / Marty Burbank
Her students became concerned recently when Mr. Burbank visited their room with a message for their teacher that made her cry. He told her he will spend about $1 million to pay college tuition for all 26 boys and girls in her room -- the Class of 2032. "I'd rather not have a boat and get these kids through school," he said. As soon as he left, Ashton taught a lesson about "happy tears." The children don't fully understand the value of Burbank's gift yet, but they have a clue. Six-year-old Jessyca Resendiz said, "College is a big place where there is a fountain. It has a big cafeteria that has coffee and bread. Now she plans to go to the place with the fountain, and become a doctor.

Secret to a l-o-n-g happy life

Beatrice Wong of Kailua, Hawaii, recently went to a restaurant with friends to celebrate her 105th birthday. Born in 1913, her dad died when she was three, so she and her siblings were raised by their mom. In 1936 she married Henry Wong and they raised four children. Henry died 42 years ago.

Her four children call her Popo, as do her 13 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. She's still very active, doing word puzzles, watching game shows on TV and reading the newspaper. Asked how she lived so long, she said she tries to "treat everyone equally and never say anything bad about people," and then added, "Oh, shut my mouth and stay out of trouble."

Learning by doing

Melissa Anderson teaches at Kingsbury Elementary School in Redlands, California. She has discussed the value of random acts of kindness with her students, but decided a field trip might help them understand the concept better.

                                                                                                                            Cindy Yamanaka
So she organized a class trip to Citrus Plaza shopping center, where her students circled through the mall randomly giving shoppers gift cards to Cold Stone Creamery or Chick-fil-A restaurant or Jamba Juice. Students who were not inside watched reactions from outside the window. Afterward all the children gathered to discuss what they learned, and agreed random acts of kindness can improve both the giver and the receiver.

It's a small world, in Wisconsin

Jim Johnson is sheriff of the Ozaukee County Police Department in Wisconsin. Before working in law enforcement, he was a soldier stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and while deployed he received dozens of letters from American school children. He kept them all, and was recently going through them when he found one from a young student at Cedar Grove Belgium Elementary School in Wisconsin. It said, "Dear soldiers, thank you for what you all do and are doing for our country. Best wishes and have a merry Christmas, from Chris Uselding."

Sheriff Johnson was stunned by the letter. The young student who wrote the note had been working along side him for several years. Johnson says, "It makes you realize how small the world is. It truly does."

"He's getting pretty good at this."

Benjamin Owens of northern Virginia recently won $200,000 with a scratch-off lottery ticket. But it wasn't the first time. He also won $200,000 fourteen years ago, March of 2004.

When he won in 2004, he decided to split the money with his family, giving some to his wife, his son and his daughter. And he decided to divide it up among them this time too. His daughter joked, "He's getting pretty good at this."

What happens when someone cares?

Eleven-year-old Abigail was selling herself on the streets of Liberia in exchange for clean drinking water until she met Katie Mayler, who had left her hometown in New Jersey 12 years earlier to volunteer for Samantha's Purse, a Christian relief organization supporting children. Abigail begged Katie to get her into school, which inspired Katie to start More than Me (MTM). It works with the Liberian Ministry of Education to rebuild the school system after 14 years of war.

In its first year, MTM sent five of the most vulnerable girls in Monrovia to a school that also provides them with healthcare, psychosocial support and food. By 2017, MTM was sending 1,500 girls to school, and their goal is to educate 250,000 kids by 2020. Liberia has several reasons to want girls educated. When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children. When women and girls earn income, they invest 90% of it in their families, much more than men do. And there are fewer and fewer Abigails.

Unexpected wedding gift

Cassandra Warren and Jesse Jones live near Eugene, Oregon. They're getting married this June and recently mailed out their wedding invitations. Cassandra thought she sent one to her aunt and uncle, but she wrote an incorrect address and a random stranger got it instead.

The stranger replied by mailing the invitation back to them along with a note which said, "I wish I knew you. This is going to be a blast. I've been married 40 years and it gets better with age. Go have dinner on me," and he enclosed a $20 bill as an early wedding gift. Cassandra says she has already sent him a thank-you note.

"For us, they were God."

Jyoti Verma, 58, of Delhi, Indian, was making breakfast at 6:30 a.m. recently when a neighbor alerted her to a fire in the building adjacent to her apartment. Looking out the window, she saw 10 people crying for help from a third story window as smoke billowed from the windows of the lower floors. Looking around her apartment, she quickly found a small bamboo ladder, and with the neighbor's help she propped up the ladder on the roof of her terrace so that it stretched to the factory window next door.

During the next half hour, 20 workers were able to crawl to safety on her ladder. Had it not been for Verma's ingenuity and her neighbor's help, the employees might not have been able to escape. "We cannot come up with words to thank them," said one 21-year-old worker. "For us, they were God."

How much do you love your dad?

Montannah Kenney, 7, is a second-grader from Austin, Texas. She's also the youngest girl ever to climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, which she did in order to be closer to her dad in heaven. Her mother, Hollie Kenney, climbed with her and explains that Montannah "knew this mountain is above the clouds, so she associated that she was going to be closer to her dad" who died when she was three years old.

Hiking to the 19,341-foot summit takes about six days. The first day was easy, but the remainder was hard because of freezing temperatures and pouring rain. Through it all, Montannah knew she has an angel looking after her, and he lives in heaven. She knew she wanted to blow kisses to him and wave, and hopefully he would see her.

WiFi hotspot?

Patrick Durand, 51, of Northern Ireland, went to be early after returning from a recent ski trip. He was tired, but his 14-year-old daughter was not. At 11:30 that night, as he slept soundly, she came into his room and woke him up. Why? Because their WiFi had cut out. He asked her to let him sleep, but she insisted she had to have internet access.

Wearily he crawled out of bed and went downstairs to find the problem and fix it. That's when he smelled something burning, and when he opened the door to the garage he saw flames and smoke. The dryer had malfunctioned, and the resulting fire may have made the Internet cut out. Luckily there was time to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher. Patrick was treated for smoke inhalation but nobody was hurt and their house is still standing today. All because a teenager could not survive one single night without WiFi.

A picture is worth a thousand words

School days, wedding day

As reported in the Herald-Times, rural Stinesville, Indiana, has had its own school since the 1930s, but it will soon close due to centralization. A little girl named Brooklyn Smith grew up in town, and went to the school from kindergarten through fifth grade. Today she works there as a teacher's aide. Most former students remember the tiny rural school fondly, but Brooklyn found a special way to cherish it. She and David Navarre got married in the gym.

                                                                                                         Chris Howell / Herald-Times
After she changed into her wedding dress in the first grade classroom where she works each day, her dad walked her down the hallway past colorful bulletin boards to the back door of the gym. The scene was familiar. He remembered Brooklyn's first day at kindergarten, saying he took the day off from work so he could bring her to class here. The school closes forever this summer, but it will always have a place in the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. David Navarre.

Disobedient husband forgiven by wife

Oliver Davis Jr., who lives near Norfolk, Virginia, recently promised his wife he'd stop buying lottery tickets. He liked to buy $20 scratch-offs, so she felt he'd been wasting a lot of money. Davis agreed to break the lottery habit, but last month while shopping he felt the urge once again. He said he stopped by the corner store just to chat with the owner, but ended up buying another $20 ticket for a game called Super Cash Frenzy.

He scratched the ticket at the store to avoid telling his wife about it. But then he did have to come clean. He hit the $4 million jackpot. Nobody knows if his wife will let him buy any more tickets, but she gave him a pass this time.

A cheesy invitation

Shaedon Wedel, 18, made headlines last month when he invited his 15-year-old friend Carlie Wittman to the prom. Carlie has Down syndrome, and the couple became famous. A few people noticed that Shaedon made his proposal using a custom-made Doritos tee shirt. The front read, "I know I may be NACHO typical Dorito, but..." The back of the shirt continued, "I am going to be CHEESY and ask, 'Will you go the prom with me?'"

The couple became so famous that the snack company learned of them and offered to bring Shaedon and Carlie to the prom in style. Using a corporate helicopter, the teens were given a ride to dinner before being flown to the dance where all their classmates cheered their arrival.

And an 8th grader shall lead them...

Mama's Laundromat in Riverdale, Illinois, looks ordinary at first glance. But it's actually unique, thanks to Washington Junior High School eighth grader Jayera Griffin. She was tutoring younger kids at her school when she noticed many were wearing dirty clothes. She worried this might damage their self-esteem. So she decided to start raising money for Mama's Laundromat.

With help from the school board and township trustees, she raised $1,000 and used it to pay for a "Free Day at Mama's." Her parents were not surprised. "We raised her to be like this, where she knows to give and help out other people," they said.

God is love

Do we always remember that God is love? Little Bobby Clark remembered, and the idea influenced his life.

Born in New Castle, Indiana, in 1928, he attended a Christian Science Sunday school in Indianapolis as a lad. He was impressed by a large plaque hanging on the wall which said GOD IS LOVE. The idea stuck in his mind after he moved to New York City in 1954, changed his name to Robert Indiana, and  eventually became a famous artist.

Inspired by poets like Gertrude Stein, he was deeply interested in the written word. His composition of LOVE is innovative in the way it dissolves divisions between seeing and reading. He described the character of this work as "verbal-visual."

LOVE is a sophisticated abstract composition, but also a one-word poem. He arranged the word with stacked letters touching each other to suggest intimacy. He created many variations, including a design for a Christmas card, and another for a U.S. postage stamp. Perhaps you recall buying 8-cent "love stamps" in 1973?

Many assume the original work was a protest to the Vietnam War, but Indiana has said often that he got the idea from the motto he learned as a child in Sunday school.

Finally old enough to buy a lottery ticket

Charlie Lagarde is a very fortunate teenager from Quebec, Canada. She recently turned 18, and to celebrate being an adult she bought her first bottle of champaign and her very first lottery ticket. As fate would have it, hers was the winning ticket for a $1 million jackpot. After consulting with a financial advisor, she opted to take $1,000 per week for the rest of her life.

"It's tax free so it's equivalent to a salary of more than #100,000 a year, which is a great start for any young lady," said a lottery official. She plans on using the money to travel and finance her education, so she can pursue her dream of working for National Geographic.

Could you love this much?

The story begins early in 1950 in the Taylors' small apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts. Edith Taylor was sure that she was "the luckiest woman on the block." She and Karl had been married 23 years, and her heart still skipped a beat when he walked into the room.

As for Karl, he gave every appearance of a man in love with his wife. Indeed, he seemed almost dependent on her, as if he didn't want to be too long away from her. If his job as government warehouse worker took him out of town, he'd write Edith a long letter every night and drop her postcards several times during the day. He sent small gifts from every place he visited.

Often at night they'd sit up late in their apartment and talk about the house they'd own...someday..."when we can make the down-payment"...

In February 1950, the government sent Karl to Okinawa for a few months to work in a new warehouse there. It was a long time to be away, and so far!

The lonesome months dragged on, and it seemed to Edith that the job over there was taking longer and longer. Each time she expected him home, he'd write that he must stay "another three weeks." "Another month." "Just a couple of months longer."

And now there was something she didn't want to think about. Karl's letters were coming less and less often. Then, after weeks of silence, came a letter: "Dear Edith. I wish there were a kinder way to tell you that we are no longer married..."

Edith walked to the sofa and sat down. He'd written to Mexico for a divorce. It had come in the mail. The woman lived on Okinawa. She was Japanese, Aiko, maid-of-all-work assigned to his quarters. She was 19. Edith was 48.

Now, if I were making up this story, the rejected wife would feel first shock, then fury.  She would want vengeance for her shattered life.

But I am describing here what did happen. Edith did not hate Karl. Perhaps she had loved him so long she was unable to stop loving him. He had chosen the hard way of divorce, rather than take advantage of a young servant girl. The only thing Edith could not believe was that he had stopped loving her. That he loved Aiko, too, she made herself accept.

But the difference in their ages, in their backgrounds—this couldn't be the kind of love she and Karl had known! Someday, somehow, Karl would come home.

Edith now built her life around this thought. She wrote Karl, asking him to keep her in touch with the small, day-to-day things in his life. 

He wrote one day that he and Aiko were expecting a baby. Marie was born in 1951, then in 1953, Helen. Edith sent gifts to the little girls. She still wrote to Karl and he wrote back: the comfortable, detailed letters of two people who knew each other very well. Helen had a tooth. Aiko's English was improving, Karl had lost weight.

And then the terrible letter: Karl was dying. His last letters were filled with fear. Not for himself, but for Aiko, and especially for his two little girls. He had been saving to send them to school in America, but his hospital bills were taking everything. What would become of them?

Then Edith knew that her last gift to Karl could be peace of mind. She wrote him that, if Aiko were willing, she would take Marie and Helen and bring them up in Waltham.

For many months after Karl's death, Aiko would not let the children go. They were all she had. Yet what could she offer them except a life like hers? A life of poverty, servitude and despair. In November 1956, she sent them to her "Dear Aunt Edith.”

Edith had known it would be hard to be mother at 54 to a three-year-old and a five-year-old. She hadn't known that in the time since Karl's death they would forget the little English they knew. But Marie and Helen learned fast. The fear left their eyes, their faces grew plump. And Edith—for the first time in six years, Edith was hurrying home from work. Even getting meals was fun again!

Sadder were the times when letters came from Aiko. "Aunt. Tell me now what they do. If Marie or Helen cry or not." In the broken English Edith read the loneliness, and she knew what it was to be lonely.

Money was another problem. Edith hired a woman to care for the girls while she worked. Being both mother and wage-earner left her thin and tired. In February she became ill, but she kept working because she was afraid to lose a day's pay; at the factory one day she fainted. She was in the hospital for two weeks with pneumonia.

There in the hospital bed, she faced the fact that she would be old before the girls were grown. She thought she had done everything that love for Karl asked of her, but now she knew there was one thing more. She must bring the girls' real mother here too.

As the plane came in at New York's International Airport, Edith had a moment of fear. What if she should hate this woman who had taken Karl away from her?

The last person off the plane was a girl so thin and small Edith thought at first it was a child. She did not come down the stairs, she only stood there, clutching the railing, and Edith knew that Aiko was near panic.

She called Aiko's name and the girl rushed down the steps and into Edith's arms. In that brief moment, as they held each other, Edith had an extraordinary thought. "Help me," she said, her eyes tight shut. "Help me to love this girl, as if she were part of Karl come home. I prayed for him to come back. Now he has—in his two little daughters and in this gentle girl that he loved. Help me, God, to know that."

Today, Edith and Aiko Taylor and the two little girls live together in the apartment in Waltham. Marie is the best student in her second-grade class; Helen's kindergarten teacher adores her. And Aiko—she is studying to be a nurse. Someday, she and Edith would like a house of their own. At night they sit up late and make plans. Today Edith Taylor knows she is "the luckiest woman on the block."

This article is excerpted from the March, 1959 Guideposts magazine.

Shave and a haircut, two bits.

For 17 years, 37-year-old Lenny White was a marketing consultant for the Yellow Pages. Then he decided to change his job and "do something more worthwhile." In June, 2016, he got a diploma in barbering. He set up a mobile barber shop which he takes on the road to nursing homes across Ireland. His specialty? Elderly men with dementia.

He finds that everything from the lemon-scented cologne to the light-hearted conversation makes the men feel young again. He uses an old juke box to play songs by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra that they heard when they were young. After the music started, White says "we instantly saw a massive difference and knew we were on to something. Men who were previously agitated would relax, sing along with the music, and tap away to its beat. I'm really excited as I know these men are not only going to look better, but also feel better."

It's never too late to fall in love

Ever hear of speed dating? It began at a coffee shop in Beverly Hills, California, back in 1998. Men and women rotate around a room, sitting with a new partner every four minutes to see if they have anything in common. Recently, a speed dating event was held at a nursing home near Atlanta, Georgia. Everyone was between 75 and 96. What are the odds of finding Mr. or Ms. Right in a crowd like that?

On the bright side, seniors have enough life experience to know what they like and don't like, and it took only four minutes for Renee Weiss and Miles Miller to know they liked each other. After they met, they started going out for dinner. Yes, there's an age gap. He's 92 and she's only 80, but they like the same things and they've become "an item." Miles is pretty hip. He uses OpenTable.com to make their dinner reservations. They talk on the phone twice a day, and just got back from a seven-day cruise through the Caribbean, proving that nobody is ever "over the hill."

Has the jury reached a verdict?

In 2015, a contractor in New Orleans, Louisiana, was sued for fraud. His case went to trial and a 31-year-old guy named Kris Gehrig got on the jury. In fact, he was the foreman. Meanwhile, 28-year-old Sarah Abbot was also named to the jury, but only as an alternate. That meant she had to listed to all the deliberations, but could not vote at the end.  I bet you know where this is going.

Even if she was only an alternate, Sarah was still glad to be on the jury because she and Kris began chatting during the breaks. After the trial ended, they started dating, and recently they were married. Here's the best part. They tied the knot in the same courtroom where they first met, and even got the same judge to officiate.