Tania

Free-spirited Country Girl • Truth Seeker • Photographer • Writer • Coach • Animal Lover • Digital Creator In The Making

[Tania @talli71]

🤍

[The White Whale @WhiteWhaleLabs]

Yesterday I Lost The Most Influential Person In My Life

One minute you’re arguing with avatars on CT, and the next you’re getting a hysterical phone call from the wife of your oldest friend.

I didn’t even recognize her number.

The call was so frantic I couldn’t understand anything she was trying to say. I almost hung up, thinking it was some kind of prank call, until she handed the phone to their 10-year-old son and he said:

“We just found my dad on the floor and he won’t wake up.”

Let’s rewind.

I was a troubled child.

I faced a good amount of challenges in my youth, many of which I simply did not possess the tools to handle at the time. I ended up being a “child of the system,” shipped off to government-run facilities for delinquents.

Which, naturally, only made me even more angry at the world.

I was not on a good path. I felt as if I had been abandoned by every adult I once believed cared about me.

And then along came one of the teachers at the facility, which operated its own independent high school.

He taught computer lab, and from an early age I had always been into computers. Even though he was only a little over 10 years older than me, he felt like a father figure. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that his hair turned grey in his early 20s. Or maybe it was because he was simply an old soul.

He introduced me to some of the best music of the era.

In fact, one of my favorite bands, Styx, I discovered because of him.

Years later, as an adult, I traveled to go see Styx in concert. At the end of the performance, the band was throwing various items out to the crowd. Keychains. Memorabilia. Random relics of the night.

Then Tommy Shaw picked up a drumstick and chucked it into the crowd.

I barely saw it coming, but instinctively reached up and caught it in one hand as if I were some ancient Greek god capturing a lightning bolt.

When I got home, I promptly mailed it to my friend. I wanted him to have this, as just a small token of my appreciation.

Back to life in the facility.

He petitioned the powers that be to make me his assistant and actually give me an hourly wage. That was not something that had ever been done before.

I was thrilled.

It got me out of the dorm on weekends, and we got to work setting up a Windows NT network for the entire facility, which I still refer to as Neanderthal Technology.

I always had a creative mind, and what started as an assignment for English class quickly turned into a 15-year-old version of myself working on writing a novel.

My English teacher, who I found out years later my friend was secretly dating at the time, submitted the first chapter to a regional university for a writing contest they were hosting.

Much to my surprise, I received notice that my submission had won first place.

The university had planned an awards ceremony but being in the custody of a detention center I never dreamed I would actually be able to attend.

Until my friend once again petitioned the powers that be for permission to take me.

The higher-ups finally agreed, telling him that both he and the English teacher would take me, that I had to stay in uniform the entire time, and that if I escaped, he would be held fully responsible.

The facility uniforms weren’t as bad as the typical adult prison uniforms we see on TV.

But they stood out like a sore thumb.

I was so embarrassed by the idea of going to a university, getting up in front of a crowd, accepting an award, and reading an excerpt from my submission while wearing that uniform that I almost didn’t want to go.

But my desire to get a break from life inside outweighed my fear.

The evening of the event, I walked through the gates with my friend, my English teacher, and a guard who very clearly thought all of this was a bad idea. He escorted us to the parking lot, gave us one last look, and shook his head before watching us climb into my friend's car and drive off.

We began the hour-or-so journey to the university, and then my friend pulled into a gas station.

I immediately started wondering what was happening.

The instructions were very clear.

Straight there. Straight back. No stops.

My friend got out, opened the trunk, and pulled out a plastic garment bag with a suit inside.

Just my size.

He handed it to me and said:

“Take this. Go in the bathroom and change. I’m not going to let you receive this award wearing your uniform.”

And the tears are streaming down my face even as I write this.

That was the kind of man he was.

Experiencing true love and support at that stage of my life completely changed me. I started to believe in myself. I started to dream. I started to imagine that maybe my life did not have to end the way it had begun.

Over the next 30 years I was able to maintain a friendship with this man who - probably more than anyone else in my life - influenced the path I eventually took.

I don’t know how to properly wrap up a life like his in a post.

I don’t know how to make words big enough for a man who saw a broken kid in a detention facility and treated him like he was still worth investing in.

But I do know this.

There are people in this world who change the entire trajectory of another human being simply by refusing to see them as a lost cause.

He was that person for me.

He gave me dignity when I had none.

He gave me belief before I knew how to believe in myself.

He gave me a suit when the world told me I only deserved a detention uniform.

And I will carry that with me for the rest of my life.

Rest easy, my friend.

I love you, and I miss you more than words could ever describe.

And as I promised you years ago, I’ll be watching out for your wife and son. I’ll make sure they’re okay.

🫡 From the depths —
The White Whale 🐋

[Tania @talli71]

@X_FINALBOSS X

[Papageorgio @gecffmn]

Dogs always bring the best out of people!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[Tania @talli71]

@clintoptions $SPY

[PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE @Protect_Wldlife]

To us it is just wood, for them it was home….

[PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE @Protect_Wldlife]

When people care enough everything is possible….

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 JUST IN: Budweiser is being praised nationwide for an INCREDIBLY patriotic, pro-America Super Bowl ad

The culture is shifting.

Companies want to be known for USA AGAIN. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Tania @talli71]

@Mho_23 Voice

[Tania @talli71]

@AI_with_jasmin Youtube

[Tania @talli71]

@TommiPedruzzi Guide

[Tania @talli71]

@grundstromleo replay

[Fletch17 @RealFletch17]

WOW this hit hard!
Enjoy every minute!
It goes in a blink
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson]

Throwback to Chevrolet’s first non-woke, deeply emotional Christmas ad.

I mean it when I say it’s impossible to watch without tearing up.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone 🎄
https://t.co/ZMNceHEfv1

[James Abrams AKA CabCat @cabcat5]

Move over Coke and McDonalds. French company Intermarche has saved Christmas advertising.
Translation by: https://t.co/XEph0fFB3c

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

My name’s Daniel, I’m 45, and two weeks ago I learned something about my mother that I’m still ashamed I didn’t see sooner.
She’s 80, lives alone in the little tan house she’s been in for half a century. The one with the peeling shutters and the mailbox she still refuses to replace because “it works just fine.”
Last Wednesday, she called and said:
“Danny… I need help with my grocery list. Can you come? I think I’m forgetting things.”
My first instinct?
Annoyance.
I had deadlines.
Kids’ activities.
Bills on my desk.
A hundred things pulling me in every direction.
So I said, “Just tell me what you want. I’ll order it all online.”
But she was quiet for a long moment before whispering:
“I’d rather you come.”
So I did.
When I walked into her kitchen, three grocery bags were already sitting neatly on the counter.
“Mom… you already shopped,” I said, confused.
She waved her hand. “Those are just basics. I still need a few things.”
She opened her notebook — the same spiral-bound one she’s used for years — and handed it to me.
The list said:
• grapes
• paper towels
• coffee creamer
• company
And suddenly everything inside me went still.
She looked embarrassed, like a kid caught doing something wrong.
“I just… didn’t know how else to ask you to come,” she whispered. “You’re always so busy, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
That sentence —
those ten quiet words —
hit harder than anything I’ve felt in years.
My mom, the woman who worked two jobs and still made every school concert…
the woman who saved every drawing I ever made…
the woman who put herself last for decades…
felt she had to pretend she needed groceries
just to feel worthy of a visit from her own son.
I hugged her so tightly she laughed and said, “Oh goodness, you’ll break me.”
We never went to the store.
Instead, we sat at the tiny kitchen table covered in little sunflower placemats she’s had since the ’90s.
We talked about the neighbor’s new dog.
About her tomato plant that refuses to grow.
About my dad, and how she still forgets he’s not coming through the door sometimes.
I stayed longer than I planned.
Drank terrible instant coffee.
Listened — really listened — the way she used to listen to me.
Before I left, she walked me to the door and held my hand for a moment longer than usual.
“You made my week, sweetheart,” she said softly.
Driving home, I couldn’t shake one thought:
How many times did she wait by the window, hoping my car would turn into the driveway?
How many afternoons did she tell herself,
“He’ll come when he has time,”
while the house echoed with loneliness I didn’t notice?
I realized that somewhere along the road of adulthood —
work, kids, obligations, noise —
I started treating her like an errand.
Someone to “fit in” when life allowed it.
But to her?
I was never an errand.
I was her world.
And all she wanted
was an hour with her son
in the home where she raised him.
💛 THE LESSON
Your parents won’t always tell you they’re lonely.
They won’t always say they miss you.
They won’t always ask directly.
Sometimes they’ll hide it behind a grocery list.
Behind a broken lamp.
Behind a request that doesn’t really need doing.
Go anyway.
Sit at their table.
Drink the bad coffee.
Let them tell you stories you’ve heard a thousand times.
Because one day the chair will be empty.
The notebook will be closed.
The porch light will be off.
And you’ll wish you had treated an ordinary Wednesday
like the priceless moment it truly was.

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 WOW! Chevrolet is being praised nationwide for releasing a Christmas ad that's about the AMERICAN FAMILY and where real Americans live.

Incredible.

Woke is done. We are so back. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🎄

[Luc @investingluc]

Suddenly, you’re 26.

Out of college now.

Got the new corporate job. Apartment in the city. Met a girl and it’s getting serious. Joined the pickleball league.

You’re happy. It’s everything you wanted, right?

The steady paycheck, your own crib, no more useless schoolwork.

But every morning lacks excitement. It’s already mundane.

40 more years of this…wake up, 9-5, gym, netflix, die?

But it’s everything that “younger you” had hoped for.

Or was it?

At 26, you feel different.

Feels like a blank canvas…on your own, no parents, no teachers, no responsibilities.

Your life is now solely based on your decisions. All on you, kid.

My advice is to play big…and play big right f*cking now.

Because next thing you know, you’re 45. In the same city, same job, same bars…thinking “if only I would’ve”.

So pick up the canvas and picasso that sh*t right now.

[SpaceWeatherNews @SunWeatherMan]

The medical benefits we can get from this bird would take billions from big pharma. That is the only force at play here.

[Rebel News @RebelNewsOnline]

HEARTBREAKING: @KatiePasitney calls out to her ostriches by name as the CFIA prepares to cull her flock after the Supreme Court declined to hear Universal Ostrich Farms' case.

[Inevitable West @Inevitablewest]

🚨BREAKING: British veteran breaks down live on TV over state of the country:

"Rows and rows of white tombs for what? A country of today? No, I'm sorry. The sacrifice wasn't worth the result.

I fought for freedom, and it's darn-sight worse now than when I fought."