Selfless Teacher: 5 Most Uplifting Stories of the Week

An amazing sacrifice by a teacher and a sweet gesture for a bride-to-be are among the week's most uplifting stories:

• Teacher's Kidney a Match for Her Student: First-grader Matthew Parker needs a kidney transplant, and only about 1% of the population would qualify as a matching donor. As it turns out, his teacher happens to be in that select group—and she quickly agreed to help her pupil in a big way.
• Stranger Buys Dream Dress for Bride to Be: When Liz Jensen went wedding dress shopping, she found the dress. But, at $480, it was out of the full-time student's price range. It turns out, however, that another bride-to-be was in the same Utah store, and her generosity saved the day.

• South African Teen Kidnapped in 1997 Found by Total Coincidence: On Cassidy Nurse's first day of school, classmates kept approaching her and saying, "There's a girl who looks just like you." For good reason: It turns out that, incredibly, the other girl was her long-lost sister, kidnapped as a baby 17 years ago from a Cape Town hospital. Police were able to file charges, too.
• Cops Salute Beloved K-9 on His Final Day: A beloved police dog suffering from seizures and arthritis had to be put down at age 13, but not before dozens of officers and firefighters in Yarmouth, Maine, turned out to give Sultan an official escort and emotional sendoff.
• Couple's Combined Age: 212: They take a lot of naps, they both need help to get around, and they don't leave the house except for doctor visits. But Duranord and Jeanne Veillard of Rockland County, NY, have retained their sense of humor over 82 years of marriage and are inseparable—which may explain why they're about to reach 212 years of age as a combined unit.

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