The week's good news: January 5, 2017

It wasn't all bad!

Such lucky dogs.
(Image credit: iStock)

1. Sisters reunite with long-lost mother after 40 years

After years of trying to find their mother, sisters Starla Medlock, 43, and Jeannie Toomey, 42, gave up, figuring the limited information they had would never lead them to her. Then, on Dec. 30, Medlock received a Facebook message from a man named Mark Szarmach — her mother's husband. Szarmach tracked Medlock down on social media after discovering her married name, and he recognized a baby photo she posted — it was the same picture his wife, Lani, has carried in her wallet for the past 42 years. When Lani and her ex-husband divorced in the mid-1970s, they were living in England; the girls' father received full custody and brought them back to the U.S., where they lost touch. The family reunited Tuesday in Kansas City, Missouri, and Medlock told ABC News when she locked eyes with her mother for the first time in decades, "It felt like time stood still. It just stopped."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.