A Surprise After Surgery: 5 Brilliant Stories This Week

A happy side effect of surgery and a son's kept promise were among the more uplifting stories of the week:

• An Accident Took Her Sight. Another Gave It Back: After a car accident injured her spine in 1995, Mary Ann Franco lost her vision. But after being blind for 21 years, the Florida woman fell in her home and hurt her neck ... and woke up from the ensuing spinal surgery on April 6 with the ability to see. Her doctor can't quite explain it, but he's got a theory.
• She Missed Her Own Prom, So Son Took Her to His: MelissaRoshan Potter missed her high school prom because she was pregnant teen. Now 36, she finally got a chance to buy a prom dress—because her baby grew up and invited her to his prom. It was a promise he'd made years earlier.

• Woman's Defiant Pose Strikes Chord in Sweden: A 42-year-old woman has become the "talk of Sweden" after striking a defiant pose against neo-Nazi marchers. Tess Asplund stood in the path of the marchers with her fist raised, and the resulting photo quickly went viral. And this wasn't any long-planned stunt on her part.
• Service Dog Takes World's Cutest Yearbook Photo: The cutest yearbook ever was just taken by Presley at Good Hope Middle School in Louisiana. In fairness to everyone else, Presley is a 5-year-old golden doodle. She's also a service dog for seventh-grader Joseph "Seph" Ware, who figured out a way for her to "sign" others' yearbooks.
• Passengers on Flight Cheered for Crying Babies: Something that's probably never happened in the history of aviation happened on a JetBlue flight from New York to California: Passengers actively rooted for babies to start crying. They weren't being mean: It was part of a Mother's Day message by the airline, and the passengers ended up with a nice reward in addition to the new attitude.

Click for more uplifting stories, including a generous tip for a bartending grandmother. (More uplifting news stories.)