When Tara Wood brought her daughter to a grocery store to buy the four-year-old some cupcakes, she had no idea that would be a life—changing experience.

As Tara pushed her daughter Norah around the store last month, she passed an old man. The old man looked cold, until Norah shouted to him, “Hi! It's my birthday today!” The man stopped and his countenance changed from distant and serious to warm and friendly. “How old are you today?” the man asked. After some time talking together, Norah asked her mom to take a picture of her with her new friend “Mr Dan”, Dan Peterson, 82. They hugged and after ten minutes went their separate ways. That could have been the end of the story. But it is actually the beginning of a special relationship.

Tara posted the picture of her daughter and Mr. Dan on Facebook and someone who recognized him reached out to her with his contact information. It turned out that Mr. Dan's wife died in March and he had been suffering from depression and anxiety ever since. The person on Facebook told Tara that it was the first time they had seen Mr. Dan smile since the death of his wife. Knowing that, Tara contacted Mr. Dan, and ever since Norah and the 82-year-old have developed a friendship unlike any other. “She has shown me a depth of love, a depth that I didn't know existed,” Mr. Dan told the reporter.

Mr. Dan told Tara that after meeting Norah, he now sleeps soundly. For Mr. Dan's 82nd birthday on October 20, the mother and the daughter brought balloons and presents—and, of course, cupcakes. “If you don't take the time to notice people, you will never know how you can positively impact a life,” Tara Wood said.

Once a boy came to ask a fisherman how to become cleverer, because his mother always called him “foolish boy”.

“That’s easy,” answered the fisherman. “I know one way to make you become cleverer.”

“Really?”

“Of course. It is said a fish head is good for brain. If you eat one, you’ll become cleverer indeed. Pay only three pounds for one fish head.” The boy paid him three pounds and the fisherman cut off a fish head and handed it to him.

A raw (生的) fish head is not good—not even for a hungry boy to eat but the boy ate it up in two gulps (一口).

“Do you feel anything?” asked the fisherman.

“Not in my head,” said the boy.

The boy lay on the ground and thought. “One whole fish costs only two pounds. I had paid him three pounds for the fish head. Why couldn’t I have the whole fish for soup, a head for brain and one pound left over?” He jumped up and shouted at the fisherman. “You thief! You are fooling me!” The fisherman laughed, saying, “The fish head works now, you see.”

Derek Veal found an old suitcase filled with photos, some more than 100 years old, when he explored his grandfather’s old house in Georgia. It belonged to his great-grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s(老年痴呆症)and lived in a nursing home. Veal and his grandfather went to visit her with the photos, hoping she could tell them more about the photos. What happened next changed Veal’s life.

“Everything came back to her when she saw these pictures,” Veal said. “She recognized her sisters, her aunts, her grandparents…It was the first time I had ever seen someone’s excitement from an old photo returning to them.”

The experience made Veal realize the power of old photos to hold precious and long-forgotten memories and restore a sense of identity. It never left him. Two years ago, when he came across old family photos for sale at a thrift store(旧货店), he decided to pick one picture and try to track down the family. Soon, he was inspired to buy more photos and started a Facebook group called Old Photo Project to aid in finding their families.

Veal is not alone in this hobby. David Gutenmacher, 26, lives in Queens, New York, and started his project, Museum of Lost Memories, in late 2020. He has already had over 300,000 followers on Instagram and over 750,000 on TikTok. “Some of my posts have gone viral and twice a person or family was tracked down in a matter of minutes!” Gutenmacher said. These lost pictures can bring the memories back to the families they belong to.

What makes this hobby so unique is not only how it gives people the chance to help others, but it also brings these enthusiasts a sense of purpose. “I feel like this is my calling,” said Gutenmacher. “The more I return memories, the more it feels like I’m supposed to be doing this.”