Adrienne Pender

Prince was such a massive fan of THE MUPPETS, he asked if he could host the Muppets Tonight show in 1997, leading to one of the rare instances we saw a more comedic version of himself instead of the quiet and reserved persona fans were used to 😂👏

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Pender25 retweeted

Crazy Vibes

@CrazyVibes_1

14 days ago

On December 4, 1999, in a hospital in London, Emma Thompson gave birth to her first child. She was forty years old. The pregnancy had been the result of multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization across several years of trying, and by the time her daughter Gaia Romilly Wise was born, Thompson had spent much of the previous decade believing that this was a thing that was probably not going to happen. She tried for a second child. She tried for three years. She did several more rounds of IVF. None of them worked. She experienced it, at the time, as a kind of slow grief. She did not yet know that the absence she was grieving was the specific shape of the space her family would eventually need to leave open for someone else to fill. That someone, four years later, would arrive at her front door for Christmas dinner. Tindyebwa Agaba had been born in Rwanda. His father had died of AIDS when he was nine. His mother and sisters had been killed in the 1994 genocide. When he was twelve, the Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe had stormed his village at gunpoint, taken him and several other boys, and forced him into the army of children that the militia had been building since the genocide began. He spent the next four years living in conditions, and being made to do things, that he has subsequently described only in fragments and only as it has been necessary to describe them. When he was sixteen, with the help of a worker from an aid organization called Care International, he escaped. He made his way to London. He spoke a few words of English and a few words of French. He was placed by the immigration system on a list for governmental refugee provisions. Through an administrative error, the provisions did not arrive. He slept rough around Trafalgar Square for several weeks in the cold. In December 2003, the Refugee Council in London, of which Emma Thompson was a patron, hosted a Christmas party. Tindy attended for the hot meal. He saw a famous-looking woman across the room. He did not know who she was. He went over to thank her for the food. Thompson would later say that what she had noticed was the absolute alertness in his eyes — the way he was reading everything in the room while standing entirely still. She and her husband, the actor Greg Wise, invited him for Christmas dinner at their house in North London. He came. They talked. He came back. He met their four-year-old daughter Gaia. He was invited again. He kept coming. In 2004, Emma and Greg informally adopted him. He moved into their home. He took the surname Wise. He went to school. He earned degrees in politics and human rights law from British universities. He learned to speak eight languages. He took a job in the specialist refugee-protection unit of the Metropolitan Police, which is the same kind of work he had once needed someone to do for him. He has spent his entire adult career on the other side of the door he had been on the wrong side of when he was sixteen. Gaia grew up alongside him. Her childhood family contained four people. One of them had been delivered to her by IVF. The other one had walked into the house in a refugee's coat in December 2003. By the time she was old enough to remember anything, both of them had been her family for as long as she had been alive. She found her own path through the arts. She had small parts in Last Chance Harvey and A Walk in the Woods, both of which her mother was in. She voiced the lead character Héra in the 2024 animated Lord of the Rings film The War of the Rohirrim, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, opposite Brian Cox as her father. She has also spoken publicly about a struggle of her own. In a 2021 interview, she described being diagnosed with anorexia at sixteen and the years of treatment that had followed. The illness, she said, had been incredibly traumatic, and her parents had been the steady frame around it for as long as it had taken to come through. Both of Emma Thompson's children, by then, had survived something. Both had been put back together inside the same house. Emma has said, in several interviews across the years since, that what she has come to understand about family is fairly simple. Family is the center of everything, she has said. But family is about connection, not necessarily about blood ties. It is about extended family, and extending family. The IVF that produced Gaia and the IVF that did not produce a second child were both, in retrospect, the same kind of working out of the same question. The answer the question had been waiting for was Tindy. In the photographs of the four of them together — at Emma's damehood ceremony in 2018, at red carpet events, at family Christmases — the framing is the same as for any family. Father, mother, daughter, son. Nothing about the picture announces which of them was delivered through which door. That, she would say, is the point. If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline is available at 1-866-662-1235. If their story moved you, drop one word in the comments — Emma, Tindy, Gaia, family, anything that comes to mind. Tap the like button so more people find this story. The page is small. Every reaction helps us keep telling stories like this one.

CrazyVibes_1's tweet photo. On December 4, 1999, in a hospital in London, Emma Thompson gave birth to her first child. She was forty years old. The pregnancy had been the result of multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization across several years of trying, and by the time her daughter Gaia Romilly Wise was born, Thompson had spent much of the previous decade believing that this was a thing that was probably not going to happen.

She tried for a second child. She tried for three years. She did several more rounds of IVF. None of them worked.

She experienced it, at the time, as a kind of slow grief. She did not yet know that the absence she was grieving was the specific shape of the space her family would eventually need to leave open for someone else to fill.

That someone, four years later, would arrive at her front door for Christmas dinner.

Tindyebwa Agaba had been born in Rwanda. His father had died of AIDS when he was nine. His mother and sisters had been killed in the 1994 genocide. When he was twelve, the Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe had stormed his village at gunpoint, taken him and several other boys, and forced him into the army of children that the militia had been building since the genocide began. He spent the next four years living in conditions, and being made to do things, that he has subsequently described only in fragments and only as it has been necessary to describe them.

When he was sixteen, with the help of a worker from an aid organization called Care International, he escaped. He made his way to London. He spoke a few words of English and a few words of French. He was placed by the immigration system on a list for governmental refugee provisions. Through an administrative error, the provisions did not arrive. He slept rough around Trafalgar Square for several weeks in the cold.

In December 2003, the Refugee Council in London, of which Emma Thompson was a patron, hosted a Christmas party. Tindy attended for the hot meal. He saw a famous-looking woman across the room. He did not know who she was. He went over to thank her for the food.

Thompson would later say that what she had noticed was the absolute alertness in his eyes — the way he was reading everything in the room while standing entirely still. She and her husband, the actor Greg Wise, invited him for Christmas dinner at their house in North London. He came. They talked. He came back. He met their four-year-old daughter Gaia. He was invited again. He kept coming.

In 2004, Emma and Greg informally adopted him. He moved into their home. He took the surname Wise.

He went to school. He earned degrees in politics and human rights law from British universities. He learned to speak eight languages. He took a job in the specialist refugee-protection unit of the Metropolitan Police, which is the same kind of work he had once needed someone to do for him. He has spent his entire adult career on the other side of the door he had been on the wrong side of when he was sixteen.

Gaia grew up alongside him. Her childhood family contained four people. One of them had been delivered to her by IVF. The other one had walked into the house in a refugee's coat in December 2003. By the time she was old enough to remember anything, both of them had been her family for as long as she had been alive.

She found her own path through the arts. She had small parts in Last Chance Harvey and A Walk in the Woods, both of which her mother was in. She voiced the lead character Héra in the 2024 animated Lord of the Rings film The War of the Rohirrim, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, opposite Brian Cox as her father.

She has also spoken publicly about a struggle of her own. In a 2021 interview, she described being diagnosed with anorexia at sixteen and the years of treatment that had followed. The illness, she said, had been incredibly traumatic, and her parents had been the steady frame around it for as long as it had taken to come through.

Both of Emma Thompson's children, by then, had survived something. Both had been put back together inside the same house.

Emma has said, in several interviews across the years since, that what she has come to understand about family is fairly simple. Family is the center of everything, she has said. But family is about connection, not necessarily about blood ties. It is about extended family, and extending family. The IVF that produced Gaia and the IVF that did not produce a second child were both, in retrospect, the same kind of working out of the same question. The answer the question had been waiting for was Tindy.

In the photographs of the four of them together — at Emma's damehood ceremony in 2018, at red carpet events, at family Christmases — the framing is the same as for any family. Father, mother, daughter, son. Nothing about the picture announces which of them was delivered through which door.

That, she would say, is the point.

If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline is available at 1-866-662-1235.

If their story moved you, drop one word in the comments — Emma, Tindy, Gaia, family, anything that comes to mind. Tap the like button so more people find this story. The page is small. Every reaction helps us keep telling stories like this one.

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Pender25 retweeted

Luke Johnson 🇺🇸 @Orly_licious

18 days ago

Welcome back, #KennedyCenter!

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Adrienne Pender @Pender25

22 days ago

@MDMcDuff @MediumSizeMeech The disease of the week was always interesting, but ultimately secondary to the character of House (and supporting characters) and his evolution (or lack of… ) throughout the series.

Pender25 retweeted

Super 70s Sports

@Super70sSports

23 days ago

Kids who watch Looney Tunes cartoons turn into better adults.

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Adrienne Pender @Pender25

25 days ago

@eugiess Okay, I’ll watch the series AGAIN…

Adrienne Pender @Pender25

25 days ago

@paulieknep Jo Jo White, Dave Cowens, haven’t heard those names in a long time.

Adrienne Pender @Pender25

28 days ago

@spudfunkel @graciem120001 🤣

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Adrienne Pender @Pender25

about 1 month ago

@hicasamadim 72?

Pender25 retweeted

Classic Movie Hub

@ClassicMovieHub

about 1 month ago

"What success I achieved in the theater is due to the fact that I have always worked just as hard when there were ten people in the house as when there were thousands. Just as hard in Springfield, Illinois, as on Broadway." Celebrating Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Born May 25, 1878 - Vaudeville, Broadway, Film. 15 film roles including The Little Colonel, The Littlest Rebel, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Stormy Weather. #botd

Adrienne Pender @Pender25

about 2 months ago

@TechParadox @Super70sSports I worked with a PhD in medical science/pharmacology, their BS was in biochem. They insisted on being called doctor, and signed their letters and emails as Dr. JOHN SMITH, PhD. We called them Doc Doc.