The week's good news: December 19, 2019

1. Dazzling light display inspires nonverbal teen to speak

Every night in December, Kaitlyn De Jesus and her mother, Marisabel Figueroa, walk to their neighbor Don Weaver's house and admire his Christmas light display. There's music and more than 200,000 bright lights, and Weaver sets up a chair so De Jesus, 13, can sit and look for hours. The Mulberry, Florida, teenager was diagnosed with autism at age three, and her mom was told she would be nonverbal. When De Jesus sees visual prompts, she will sometimes speak, but usually just one word. Last week, she surprised everyone when she got up from her chair in front of Weaver's house, started to sing, and then described the blue lights, snowmen, and Santa in front of her. "I started crying," Figueroa told Today Parents. "I couldn't believe it." Her neighbors were also stunned — and thrilled. "At Mr. Weaver's house she comes to life," Figueroa said.

Today Parents

2. World's oldest married couple celebrates their 80th wedding anniversary

John and Charlotte Henderson first met at the University of Texas in 1934, and they've been together ever since. John, 106, was a football player — he's the oldest living former UT player, and still enjoys going to at least one game a year — and Charlotte, 105, was studying to become a teacher. Five years after their first date, on Dec. 22, 1939, they were married. Last month, Guinness World Records certified the Hendersons as the world's oldest living married couple. To celebrate their upcoming 80th anniversary, friends at their Austin, Texas, retirement community threw a massive party on Dec. 11. Their great-nephew, Jason Free, told KXAN the Hendersons are "an example of a very happy couple — glad to be around each other, travel together, and live life. They've always been very forward-looking people, always very positive about the future, looking forward to tomorrow and what the future holds."

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KXAN

3. Icelandic scientists are transforming carbon dioxide into stone

Researchers in Iceland have discovered a way to take the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), neutralize it, and turn it into harmless rock, WBUR's Here & Now reports. Specifically, the Carbfix team injects CO2 into Iceland's ample basalt, turning the gas into organic white crystals. For the Carbfix process to work, project manager Kári Helgason explained, "you need a lot of water, it can be seawater. You need favorable rock formations. And you need CO2." Here & Now described it as "a biblical image — researchers are taking one of the most dangerous drivers of climate change and turning it into stone." The technology is scalable and replicable anywhere there's basalt, or the gasses can be transported to Iceland, and once it scales up, it could help solve the climate crisis, Carbfix said.

WBUR Carbfix

4. Strangers team up to finish an ambitious unfinished craft project

Shannon Downey has bought several unfinished crafts at estate sales, but never anything like the project she came across this fall in Chicago. Downey spotted several pieces of white fabric in the shape of hexagons, with some having the embroidered outlines of states. She pieced together that the crafter had planned on embroidering 50 hexagons — one for each state and its bird and flower. The project was started by Rita Smith, a nurse who died earlier this year at the age of 99. Downey went on Instagram to see if anyone was interested in helping her finish the project, and immediately started hearing from volunteers. "This is [Smith's] art, and we're just the hands," Downey told NPR. Earlier this month, the embroidered hexagons were stitched together into a quilt that is nearly 8 by 9 feet long. The quilt will go on display at the National Quilting Museum in Kentucky.

NPR

5. For 50 years, North Carolina Army vet has made toys for kids in need at Christmas

Jim Annis can turn any piece of wood into a toy that will be treasured forever. For the past 50 years, the 80-year-old Army veteran has spent countless hours carving, sculpting, and sanding wooden blocks, transforming them into cars, piggy banks, and fire trucks. When Christmas rolls around, he donates the toys — usually about 300 every year — to the Salvation Army in Sanford, North Carolina. Growing up in a family with five kids, money was tight, and Annis can remember what it was like to wake up on Christmas with no presents waiting for him under the tree. Those memories are what push him every year to make hundreds of gifts. "I love when people ask me how much do I get paid for making these toys," he told ABC11. "I tell them my pay is when I see the smile on kids' faces."

ABC11