By Scottie Andrew

Do you ever fall so in love with a book that you mourn its completion? Maybe you prolong picking up another book for a few days or weeks, eager to keep the characters alive in your mind for as long as possible. It is especially painful when there is no sequel, or if the author has announced a sequel that has no publish date in sight. (Thanks, Jonathan Franzen; I need my follow-up to “Crossroads” yesterday.) The primary cure for post-read heartache is, of course, to force yourself to read something else — or maybe, if you’re feeling creative, you can sketch out stories starring your fictional friends until that sequel does publish. Perhaps the best solution, though, is shutting a book only to immediately return to the first page. Who says you can’t reread a book right after you finish it? Then its contents can live in your head for as long as you let them. 

Here are some good things that happened this week.

 Jason Evans

A new heart and new friendship

One parent transformed her grief into a life-saving act of love. Fourteen years ago, when she was 3 weeks old, Addison McArthur needed a heart transplant — the left side of her heart stopped working, a condition that would’ve been fatal if untreated. Enter Felicia Hill, the mother of a baby girl named Audrey who died shortly after birth. Hill agreed to donate Audrey’s organs, including her heart, which was transplanted into Addison and allowed her to live. 

Addison’s mother Elaine Yong sent a letter to Hill without knowing her identity to thank her. What grew from there became a 14-year friendship between Hill, Yong and young Addison. Yong brought Hill a stethoscope so she could hear her late daughter’s heart beating in Addison’s chest. Both women have since become advocates for organ donation. Addison calls Hill her “Auntie Felicia,” and even though they live in different countries — the US for Hill, Canada for Addison and Yong — they still reunite regularly for Addison’s swim and track meets. At the end of this month, they’ll celebrate what would’ve been Audrey’s birthday. 

April is also National Donate Life Month, the time of year when we celebrate the incredible donors who’ve saved countless lives and encourage others to become organ donors. An organ transplant saved Addison’s life — here’s to the people whose tremendous compassion has given others a chance to thrive.

Courtesy AWARE Wildlife Center

A honking rescue

Geese are some of our most headstrong birds — if the honkers decide to make a nest on the fourth-story patio of a swanky hotel even though there’s a perfectly fine pond on ground level, good luck convincing them to move. An Atlanta goose couple settled on the hotel patio to raise their goslings in the lap of luxury. The only problem — baby goslings can’t fly, and there wasn’t a safe way down for the youngins to make it to water. 

Enter AWARE, an Atlanta wildlife rehabilitation group that successfully rehomed both parents and their five babies to the pond below. It took some strategic coaxing — Father Goose fled the scene when he realized he was being forced out of his lux accommodations. Mother Goose, luckily, was easier to catch — she wanted to stay with her babes. The family was quickly reunited down at the pond with nary a feather out of place.

But what really moves me about this story is that I know these geese! I live a few blocks from their new digs. The downy little goslings are getting bigger and less yellow every day, and it’s been a delight to observe them (from a distance, of course; their parents won’t hesitate to chase).

SolStock/E+/Getty Images

A cure for the weekday blahs

We’ve arrived at the weekend, even though it felt like it took forever to get here. Only two days of respite is never quite enough, is it? But there’s a way to reframe the weekday as a generally productive, even exciting time of life. 

Rewarding ourselves for working a full day by lying down for hours is tempting but counterintuitive — taking a “break” after work usually just makes us more tired, experts told CNN. Getting up and doing something, though, is energizing. Whether it’s walking your dog or joining your friends for a game of kickball, it’s deeply satisfying to get out of your office (or home office) and rejoin the social world.

It’s satisfying, too, to keep promises you’ve made — to your friends, your dog, yourself — and following through on your activity. It helps to do stuff with other people — we need those interactions, even if they’re not very deep, to help us feel connected to our communities. Working for eight-plus hours a day can be isolating, especially if you’re a remote worker, so hanging out and doing something you enjoy with other people can remind us that we’re not just workers.

David Daniel/CNN

Pick a card, any card!

A magician never reveals their secrets … unless they are a teaching magician, tasked with building the repertoires of young illusionists in training. 

The next generation of magicians are honing their craft through the Academy of Magical Arts’ Junior Society, a group that trains and performs at Los Angeles’ famed Magic Castle. The society exists partially because of Old Hollywood icon Cary Grant, who apparently marched up to Magic Castle honchos in the mid-20th century and demanded that kids be granted access to the magic mecca. 

The art of the misdirect may not attract as big of an audience as it did in Grant’s day, but the teen magicians in the making are devoted to growing magic’s popularity. Many of its teen members specialize in close-up magic — Amanda Nepo taught herself how to make gum appear in an empty pack. Some of them dream of appearing on “America’s Got Talent” or other series that regularly reward magicians. Sure, gum isn’t actually appearing out of thin air, and a kid can’t read your mind to know what number you’re thinking of. But isn’t it still thrilling when a magician knows which card you pulled from a full deck?