the father of biography

Biography of Gregor Mendel, Father of Genetics

Well-Known for His Discovery of Dominant and Recessive Genes

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Gregor Mendel (July 20, 1822 - January 6, 1884), known as the Father of Genetics, is most well-known for his work with breeding and cultivating pea plants, using them to gather data about dominant and recessive genes.

Fast Facts: Gregor Mendel

Known For : Scientist, friar, and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey who gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics.

Also Known As : Johann Mendel

Born : July 20, 1822

Died : January 6, 1884

Education : University of Olomouc, University of Vienna

Early Life and Education

Johann Mendel was born in 1822 in the Austrian Empire to Anton Mendel and Rosine Schwirtlich. He was the only boy in the family and worked on the family farm with his older sister Veronica and his younger sister Theresia. Mendel took an interest in gardening and beekeeping as he grew up.

As a young boy, Mendel attended school in Opava. He went on to the University of Olomouc after graduating, where he studied many disciplines, including physics and philosophy . He attended the University from 1840 to 1843 and was forced to take a year off due to illness. In 1843, he followed his calling into the priesthood and entered the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno.

Personal Life

Upon entering the Abbey, Johann took the first name Gregor as a symbol of his religious life. He was sent to study at the University of Vienna in 1851 and returned to the abbey as a teacher of physics. Gregor also cared for the garden and had a set of bees on the abbey grounds. In 1867, Mendel was made an abbot of the abbey.

Gregor Mendel is best known for his work with his pea plants in the abbey gardens. He spent about seven years planting, breeding and cultivating pea plants in an experimental part of the abbey garden that was started by the previous abbot. Through meticulous record-keeping, Mendel's experiments with pea plants became the basis for modern genetics .

Mendel chose pea plants as his experimental plant for many reasons. First of all, pea plants take very little outside care and grow quickly. They also have both male and female reproductive parts, so they can either cross-pollinate or self-pollinate. Perhaps most importantly, pea plants seem to show one of only two variations of many characteristics. This made the data much more clear-cut and easier to work with.

Mendel's first experiments focused on one trait at a time, and on gathering data on the variations present for several generations. These were called monohybrid experiments. He studied a total of seven characteristics. His findings showed that there were some variations that were more likely to show up over the other variations. When he bred purebred peas of differing variations, he found that in the next generation of pea plants one of the variations disappeared. When that generation was left to self-pollinate, the next generation showed a 3 to 1 ratio of the variations. He called the one that seemed to be missing from the first filial generation "recessive" and the other "dominant," since it seemed to hide the other characteristic.

These observations led Mendel to the law of segregation . He proposed that each characteristic was controlled by two alleles, one from the "mother" and one from the "father" plant. The offspring would show the variation it is coded for by the dominance of the alleles. If there is no dominant allele present, then the offspring shows the characteristic of the recessive allele. These alleles are passed down randomly during fertilization.

Link to Evolution

Mendel's work wasn't truly appreciated until the 1900s, long after his death. Mendel had unknowingly provided the Theory of Evolution with a mechanism for the passing down of traits during natural selection . As a man of strong religious conviction, Mendel did not believe in evolution during his life. However, his work has been added together with that of Charles Darwin's to make up the modern synthesis of the Theory of Evolution. Much of Mendel's early work in genetics has paved the way for modern scientists working in the field of microevolution.

• Genes, Traits and Mendel's Law of Segregation
• Introduction to Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment
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• What Is Mendel's Law of Segregation?
• Incomplete Dominance in Genetics
• Heterozygous Traits
• Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment
• Monohybrid Cross: A Genetics Definition
• Types of Non-Mendelian Genetics
• Genotype vs Phenotype
• How Do Alleles Determine Traits in Genetics?
• What Does Homozygous Mean in Genetics?
• What Is Genetic Dominance and How Does It Work?
• Law of Multiple Alleles
• Natural vs. Artificial Selection

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Galileo Galilei

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 6, 2023 | Original: July 23, 2010

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is considered the father of modern science and made major contributions to the fields of physics, astronomy, cosmology, mathematics and philosophy. Galileo invented an improved telescope that let him observe and describe the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus, sunspots and the rugged lunar surface. His flair for self-promotion earned him powerful friends among Italy’s ruling elite and enemies among the Catholic Church’s leaders. Galileo’s advocacy of a heliocentric universe brought him before religious authorities in 1616 and again in 1633, when he was forced to recant and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

Galileo’s Early Life, Education and Experiments

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in 1564, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a musician and scholar. In 1581 he entered the University of Pisa at age 16 to study medicine, but was soon sidetracked by mathematics. He left without finishing his degree. In 1583 he made his first important discovery, describing the rules that govern the motion of pendulums.

Did you know? After being forced during his trial to admit that the Earth was the stationary center of the universe, Galileo allegedly muttered, "Eppur si muove!" ("Yet it moves!" ). The first direct attribution of the quote to Galileo dates to 125 years after the trial, though it appears on a wall behind him in a 1634 Spanish painting commissioned by one of Galileo's friends.

From 1589 to 1610, Galileo was chair of mathematics at the universities of Pisa and then Padua. During those years he performed the experiments with falling bodies that made his most significant contribution to physics.

Galileo had three children with Marina Gamba, whom he never married: Two daughters, Virginia (Later “Sister Maria Celeste”) and Livia Galilei, and a son, Vincenzo Gamba. Despite his own later troubles with the Catholic Church, both of Galileo’s daughters became nuns in a convent near Florence.

Galileo, Telescopes and the Medici Court

In 1609 Galileo built his first telescope, improving upon a Dutch design. In January of 1610 he discovered four new “stars” orbiting Jupiter—the planet’s four largest moons. He quickly published a short treatise outlining his discoveries, “Siderius Nuncius” (“The Starry Messenger”), which also contained observations of the moon’s surface and descriptions of a multitude of new stars in the Milky Way. In an attempt to gain favor with the powerful grand duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II de Medici, he suggested Jupiter’s moons be called the “Medician Stars.”

“The Starry Messenger” made Galileo a celebrity in Italy. Cosimo II appointed him mathematician and philosopher to the Medicis , offering him a platform for proclaiming his theories and ridiculing his opponents.

Galileo’s observations contradicted the Aristotelian view of the universe, then widely accepted by both scientists and theologians. The moon’s rugged surface went against the idea of heavenly perfection, and the orbits of the Medician stars violated the geocentric notion that the heavens revolved around Earth.

Galileo Galilei’s Trial

In 1616 the Catholic Church placed Nicholas Copernicus ’s “De Revolutionibus,” the first modern scientific argument for a heliocentric (sun-centered) universe, on its index of banned books. Pope Paul V summoned Galileo to Rome and told him he could no longer support Copernicus publicly.

In 1632 Galileo published his “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,” which supposedly presented arguments for both sides of the heliocentrism debate. His attempt at balance fooled no one, and it especially didn’t help that his advocate for geocentrism was named “Simplicius.”

Galileo was summoned before the Roman Inquisition in 1633. At first he denied that he had advocated heliocentrism, but later he said he had only done so unintentionally. Galileo was convicted of “vehement suspicion of heresy” and under threat of torture forced to express sorrow and curse his errors.

Nearly 70 at the time of his trial, Galileo lived his last nine years under comfortable house arrest, writing a summary of his early motion experiments that became his final great scientific work. He died in Arcetri near Florence, Italy on January 8, 1642 at age 77 after suffering from heart palpitations and a fever.

What Was Galileo Famous For? 

Galileo’s laws of motion, made from his measurements that all bodies accelerate at the same rate regardless of their mass or size, paved the way for the codification of classical mechanics by Isaac Newton . Galileo’s heliocentrism (with modifications by Kepler ) soon became accepted scientific fact. His inventions, from compasses and balances to improved telescopes and microscopes, revolutionized astronomy and biology. Galilleo discovered craters and mountains on the moon, the phases of Venus, Jupiter’s moons and the stars of the Milky Way. His penchant for thoughtful and inventive experimentation pushed the scientific method toward its modern form.

In his conflict with the Church, Galileo was also largely vindicated. Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire used tales of his trial (often in simplified and exaggerated form) to portray Galileo as a martyr for objectivity. Recent scholarship suggests Galileo’s actual trial and punishment were as much a matter of courtly intrigue and philosophical minutiae as of inherent tension between religion and science.

In 1744 Galileo’s “Dialogue” was removed from the Church’s list of banned books, and in the 20th century Popes Pius XII and John Paul II made official statements of regret for how the Church had treated Galileo.

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BIOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY FATHER

The first Pope of the Americas Jorge Mario Bergoglio hails from Argentina. The 76-year-old Jesuit Archbishop of Buenos Aires is a prominent figure throughout the continent, yet remains a simple pastor who is deeply loved by his diocese, throughout which he has travelled extensively on the underground and by bus during the 15 years of his episcopal ministry.

“My people are poor and I am one of them”, he has said more than once, explaining his decision to live in an apartment and cook his own supper. He has always advised his priests to show mercy and apostolic courage and to keep their doors open to everyone. The worst thing that could happen to the Church, he has said on various occasions, “is what de Lubac called spiritual worldliness”, which means, “being self-centred”. And when he speaks of social justice, he calls people first of all to pick up the Catechism , to rediscover the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. His project is simple: if you follow Christ, you understand that “trampling upon a person’s dignity is a serious sin”.

Despite his reserved character — his official biography consists of only a few lines, at least until his appointment as Archbishop of Buenos Aires — he became a reference point because of the strong stances he took during the dramatic financial crisis that overwhelmed the country in 2001.

He was born in Buenos Aires on 17 December 1936, the son of Italian immigrants. His father Mario was an accountant employed by the railways and his mother Regina Sivori was a committed wife dedicated to raising their five children. He graduated as a chemical technician and then chose the path of the priesthood, entering the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto. On 11 March 1958 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. He completed his studies of the humanities in Chile and returned to Argentina in 1963 to graduate with a degree in philosophy from the Colegio de San José in San Miguel. From 1964 to 1965 he taught literature and psychology at Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fé and in 1966 he taught the same subject at the Colegio del Salvatore in Buenos Aires. From 1967-70 he studied theology and obtained a degree from the Colegio of San José.

On 13 December 1969 he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano. He continued his training between 1970 and 1971 at the University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and on 22 April 1973 made his final profession with the Jesuits. Back in Argentina, he was novice master at Villa Barilari, San Miguel; professor at the Faculty of Theology of San Miguel; consultor to the Province of the Society of Jesus and also Rector of the Colegio Máximo of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology.

On 31 July 1973 he was appointed Provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina, an office he held for six years. He then resumed his work in the university sector and from 1980 to 1986 served once again as Rector of the Colegio de San José, as well as parish priest, again in San Miguel. In March 1986 he went to Germany to finish his doctoral thesis; his superiors then sent him to the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires and next to the Jesuit Church in the city of Córdoba as spiritual director and confessor.

It was Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who wanted him as a close collaborator. So, on 20 May 1992 Pope John Paul II appointed him titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires. On 27 May he received episcopal ordination from the Cardinal in the cathedral. He chose as his episcopal motto, miserando atque eligendo , and on his coat of arms inserted the ihs, the symbol of the Society of Jesus.

He gave his first interview as a bishop to a parish newsletter, Estrellita de Belém . He was immediately appointed Episcopal Vicar of the Flores district and on 21 December 1993 was also entrusted with the office of Vicar General of the Archdiocese. Thus it came as no surprise when, on 3 June 1997, he was raised to the dignity of Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Not even nine months had passed when, upon the death of Cardinal Quarracino, he succeeded him on 28 February 1998, as Archbishop, Primate of Argentina and Ordinary for Eastern-rite faithful in Argentina who have no Ordinary of their own rite.

Three years later at the Consistory of 21 February 2001, John Paul ii created him Cardinal, assigning him the title of San Roberto Bellarmino. He asked the faithful not to come to Rome to celebrate his creation as Cardinal but rather to donate to the poor what they would have spent on the journey. As Grand Chancellor of the Catholic University of Argentina, he is the author of the books: Meditaciones para religiosos (1982), Reflexiones sobre la vida apostólica (1992) and Reflexiones de esperanza (1992).

In October 2001 he was appointed General Relator to the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Episcopal Ministry. This task was entrusted to him at the last minute to replace Cardinal Edward Michael Egan, Archbishop of New York, who was obliged to stay in his homeland because of the terrorist attacks on September 11th. At the Synod he placed particular emphasis on “the prophetic mission of the bishop”, his being a “prophet of justice”, his duty to “preach ceaselessly” the social doctrine of the Church and also “to express an authentic judgement in matters of faith and morals”.

All the while Cardinal Bergoglio was becoming ever more popular in Latin America. Despite this, he never relaxed his sober approach or his strict lifestyle, which some have defined as almost “ascetic”. In this spirit of poverty, he declined to be appointed as President of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference in 2002, but three years later he was elected and then, in 2008, reconfirmed for a further three-year mandate. Meanwhile in April 2005 he took part in the Conclave in which Pope Benedict XVI was elected.

As Archbishop of Buenos Aires — a diocese with more than three million inhabitants — he conceived of a missionary project based on communion and evangelization. He had four main goals: open and brotherly communities, an informed laity playing a lead role, evangelization efforts addressed to every inhabitant of the city, and assistance to the poor and the sick. He aimed to reevangelize Buenos Aires, “taking into account those who live there, its structure and its history”. He asked priests and lay people to work together. In September 2009 he launched the solidarity campaign for the bicentenary of the Independence of the country. Two hundred charitable agencies are to be set up by 2016. And on a continental scale, he expected much from the impact of the message of the Aparecida Conference in 2007, to the point of describing it as the “ Evangelii Nuntiandi of Latin America”.

Until the beginning of the recent sede vacante , he was a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

He was elected Supreme Pontiff on 13 March 2013.

L'Osservatore Romano , Year CLIII, number 61

Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The flowers' leaves. . . serve as bridal beds which the Creator has so gloriously arranged, adorned with such noble bed curtains, and perfumed with so many soft scents that the bridegroom with his bride might there celebrate their nuptials with so much the greater solemnity. . .

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‘He’s forgiven’: Father of man killed by child in Gonzales County RV park hopes boy can be saved

Boy will not be charged with the crime.

Julie Moreno , Executive Producer/Digital Content

David Ibañez , Web - Managing Editor

Myra Arthur , Anchor/Reporter

GONZALES COUNTY, Texas – The father of a man killed by a boy, who the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office said is now 10 years old and confessed to the unsolved murder from 2022, said he couldn’t believe that a child was the person who took his son’s life.

“I was shocked, very shocked,” said Kenneth Rasberry, father of victim Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry. “This isn’t anywhere the suspect that we thought it was.”

Brandon Rasberry was shot and killed while he slept in his RV at the Lazy J RV Park located at 85 Wild Meadow in Nixon. He had just moved there four days before.

His body was discovered after he failed to show up to work for two days. He had been shot one time in the head.

Boy, now 10, confesses to unsolved murder of man in Gonzales County RV park when he was 7

GCSO said the boy will not be charged with the crime because he committed it before the age of culpability.

Kenneth Rasberry still has many questions about his son’s death.

“This is a little boy, for reasons that I’m sure these counselors and case managers and all of that, that’s going to pick that poor little boy’s brain apart,” he said about the child.

Despite dealing with the agony of losing his son in such a horrible way, Kenneth Rasberry said he feels for the boy and hopes he can be saved.

“He needs to be prayed on. He needs to be comforted ... He’s forgiven. And he can still be saved. He’s so young. He’s definitely tormented by something,” Kenneth Rasberry said.

Threat on April leads to 2022 unsolved murder revelation

In a press release, GCSO said on April 12, they received a call from a Nixon-Smiley Independent School District principal about a student who threatened to assault and kill another student on a bus. During the district’s threat assessment, they learned that the child made a statement about shooting and killing a man two years ago.

Investigators questioned the child at a child advocacy center. He described in detail shooting and killing a man in a trailer in Nixon that was consistent with Rasberry’s slaying.

He told investigators that he was visiting his grandfather at his house, which was a few lots apart from Rasberry’s. The boy said he got a 9 mm pistol from the glove box of his grandfather’s truck and entered Rasberry’s home.

He told investigators he saw the man sleeping in his bed and he shot him. He said he discharged the firearm a second time into a couch in the RV and then returned the firearm to the glovebox of his grandfather’s truck, GCSO said.

The child said he had never met Brandon and wasn’t mad at him.

The child told investigators his grandfather had pawned the gun. On April 12, investigators located the firearm at a pawn shop in Seguin.

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms San Antonio Field Office used ballistic testing to determine that the gun was the same one used to kill Rasberry.

The child was placed on 72-hour emergency detention “because of the severity of the crime and because of the continued concern for the child’s mental wellbeing the child,” the sheriff’s office stated.

He was transported to a psychiatric hospital in San Antonio for evaluation and treatment and then was taken to GCSO, where he was booked on terrorist threat charges relating to the school bus incident.

Texas Penal Code 8.07 states that a child does not have criminal culpability until they reach the age of 10 years old, so he will not be charged with murder in Rasberry’s death.

In a letter to parents, Nixon-Smiley Superintendent Jeff Van Auken said that the child will not be returning to the elementary school he was attending.

You can read the letter below:

Nixon Smiley ISD Statement by David Ibanez on Scribd

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About the Authors

Julie moreno.

Julie Moreno has worked in local television news for more than 25 years. She came to KSAT as a news producer in 2000. After producing thousands of newscasts, she transitioned to the digital team in 2015. She writes on a wide variety of topics from breaking news to trending stories and manages KSAT’s daily digital content strategy.

David Ibañez

David Ibañez has been managing editor of KSAT.com since the website's launch in October 2000.

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Carman: The legacy of Columbine and the father who won’t let it be forgotten

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As the body count keeps mounting from mass school shootings, grocery store shootings, theater shootings, concert shootings, bowling alley shootings, street shootings and suicides by firearm, it’s easy to think nothing has changed since the Columbine High School massacre 25 years ago.

That’s a big mistake.

And it’s a profound insult to Tom Mauser.

Mauser, father of Daniel, has devoted his life to the memory of his 15-year-old son and a relentless quest for sanity in the face of America’s uniquely bizarre and irrational obsession with guns. 

Last week he was in Washington, D.C., to support the Biden administration’s action to close the gun show loophole by expanding the definition of a “firearms dealer”  and requiring more gun buyers to undergo background checks. 

It was, after all, guns purchased without background checks at the Tanner Gun Show that were used to kill Daniel and 12 others at Columbine. The appalling fact that it took 25 years to take this obvious baby step in national gun policy was not lost on Mauser.

“We cannot wait another 25 years” to get significant gun safety legislation, Mauser said at a media event in D.C. 

MORE ON COLUMBINE AT 25

Littwin: on the 25th anniversary of columbine, we mourn the dead and grieve the lack of will to honor them, george: dave sanders was more than a hero at columbine. he equipped me for life., 12 students and teacher killed at columbine to be remembered at 25th anniversary vigil.

Mauser wants more action, more limits on so-called assault weapons, more recognition of the egregious price we pay for legislators’ willingness to genuflect before the craven manipulators in the gun industry. 

Mostly, he wants people who share his views to be represented.

In a country with more guns than people, polls show addressing the impacts of gun violence is becoming a major policy issue for an overwhelming majority of Americans — particularly young people. The Pew Research Center found six in 10 Americans say the nation needs stricter gun laws, that guns are too easy to obtain and that gun violence is a major problem.

The polling also found broad bipartisan agreement on policies that would restrict access to firearms by increasing the age for purchase to 21 and preventing those who are mentally ill from buying guns. 

A majority support a ban on sales of semi-automatic assault-style weapons.

And majorities in both parties oppose policies that allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed by Congress in 2022, remains wildly popular with the support of some 76% of Americans. It was the most comprehensive gun safety legislation in 30 years.

Public support for such measures is growing, even if too many lawmakers still don’t have the guts to act.

But this has been the case for a long, long time.

When Colorado’s Republican-led legislature, cowed by gun industry lobbyists, failed to pass a measure to close the gun show loophole in 2000, Mauser and others overcame numerous legal challenges to place Amendment 22 on the ballot. 

It passed with 70% of voters supporting it.

“What it showed,” Mauser said , “was that it was easier for the gun lobby to buy, badger and bully 51 legislators than it is to buy, badger and bully millions of voters, and people will support a common sense gun violence prevention law when presented the evidence.”

But the ability of the National Rifle Association to “buy, badger and bully” lawmakers has been knocked back in recent months.

Wayne LaPierre, former CEO of the National Rifle Association, and two other executives of the organization were found liable in February in a civil jury trial for ripping off an estimated $64 million from the organization. 

Lawyers produced evidence, among other things, that LaPierre had used $500,000 in NRA funds for personal trips to the Bahamas and $11 million for flights on private jets. He also awarded millions in NRA contracts in exchange for lavish personal gifts.

Long the face of one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country — and the guy who provided talking points to then-President Donald Trump when he announced his opposition to universal background checks days after 17 students were slaughtered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School  — LaPierre resigned in ignominy in January.

His legacy now is marked by abject greed as well as facilitation of mass murder.

Young people continue to die by gunfire in growing numbers in the U.S. An analysis by Pew found the rate increased by 50% between 2019 and 2021. And while suicide rates are declining elsewhere around the globe, in the U.S., they are rising with gun suicides reaching an all-time high in 2021.

So, while the measures enacted so far represent progress, they don’t begin to address the problems caused by hundreds of millions of guns circulating in our communities.

But Mauser knows better than anyone that building momentum for real change takes time and he’s in it for the long haul. Walking in the shoes Daniel wore the day he died a quarter-century ago, he bears witness to the grief and horror wrought by gun violence in our ordinary, everyday lives.

“In Washington, it was very moving for me to have the new rule closing the gun show loophole come out just days before the anniversary” of Columbine, he told me as he rode the train home from the airport. “I’m thankful that they did this. Yes, it took 25 years to accomplish something so simple, but they did it. We shouldn’t have to wait another 25 years for more meaningful gun safety legislation.”

Mauser said he stopped in the offices of a couple of the Republican senators who voted for the Safer Communities Act while he was in D.C. 

“I thanked them for the bravery they showed in voting for this. Now they’re saying it’s going too far. They knew they were going to take heat for what they did, so it’s not surprising they’re saying that. We’ve come to expect that.”

For Mauser and so many others, the pain never goes away. And neither does the determination.

“Doing nothing won’t solve the problem,” he said. It’s taken a long time, but “we’re making meaningful change. It makes a difference.”

He’s getting older, he said. It’s a lot of work. But he won’t ever give up.

Daniel would be proud.

Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant.

The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom.   Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy . Learn how to submit a column . Reach the opinion editor at [email protected] .

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Diane Carman Opinion columnist

Diane has been a contributor to the Colorado Sun since 2019. She has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Denver Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Oregonian, the Oregon Journal and the Wisconsin State Journal. She was born in Kansas,... More by Diane Carman

'You will always have a part of her in you': Florida teen saves dad's life with kidney

Symaria glenn, a 13-year-old girl from florida, suffered a fatal brain bleed and donated her organs to help five people, including her own father who had been on dialysis for years.

Shawn Glenn had many loved ones offer to help when he was diagnosed with kidney failure, but he always turned them down.

“I wanted everybody around me … to be healthy just in case something happened to me,” the West Palm Beach, Florida father of five told USA TODAY this week. “I wanted to wait for a non-living donor.”

He never imagined that his donor would be his own teenage daughter, Symaria Glenn. The 13-year-old suffered a brain bleed at the end of January and lost her battle with the illness on Feb. 3.

When doctors asked their family about donating her organs, her mother, Dhima Martin, thought allowing Symaria to do one last good deed would be fitting for the middle-schooler, who was always looking out for others during her life.

Just before the surgery to remove her organs at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood, Symaria was taken on an honor walk, in which all available hospital staff line the hallway between a donor's room and the operating room and observe the incredible gift they are giving.

Although doctors told her that her daughter could not be saved, Dhima Martin said she still held out hope that her daughter would pull through until the last minute, even during the honor walk.

“I said even as she was going for the surgery that if she wakes up on that table … stop, save my baby,” her mother said. “I felt she was already in heaven. I felt like she wasn't there so she gets to continue on and save lives.”

Altogether, Symaria donated six organs, saving five lives, including her dad's.

Teenager complained of headache before being found unconscious

On Jan. 30, Symaria went to school and had a routine day. That evening, the 7th-grader had her first volleyball game of the season, her mother said.

“I said something about being proud of her and she was like ‘Who, me?’” Dhima Martin recalled. “She was very humble. I said that to her in the car and she received it.”

The next day, she went to school and when her mom came home with cheesecake in tow, she was pretty excited. She ate some, did some of her homework and then told her mother her head was hurting. Her mom told her to lie down.

“Somewhere in between, I realized how serious it was,” her mother said, adding that she couldn’t wake her up.

Symaria Glenn's family gets devastating news

Symaria was rushed to one hospital in the Palm Beach area and was then airlifted to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood, where they had a pediatric brain surgeon who could see her.

Her brain was bleeding and doctors weren’t able to stop it, nor were they able to perform tests because her brain continued to swell, her father said.

According to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, a brain bleed refers to bleeding between the brain tissue and the skull, or inside the brain tissue. Brain bleeds can limit oxygen supplied to the brain and cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, tingling in the extremities or facial paralysis.

When Symaria suffered a brain bleed and her father got the call that she wasn't responsive, he couldn’t understand how something like this could happen.

“I was asking why and how,” he recalled. “We were just at a volleyball game yesterday.”

Her mother added that she was perfectly healthy and had no preexisting conditions. Her family still doesn’t know what caused the issue.

Symaria ‘was the one that strived to be perfect’

Symaria is the second oldest child on her father’s side and the oldest on her mother’s side. She often acted like a mother to her siblings, her parents said, with her dad adding that she "was the one that strived to be perfect.”

“She was my goody two shoes,” he said, smiling. “She was my most selective one. She was the pickiest one.”

She wanted to do well in anything she tried, be it school, volleyball, acting or dancing.

Dhima Martin said her daughter always made people feel loved and seen. She loved Taylor Swift and loved to perform, and could often be seen dancing and singing around the house.

'You will always have a part of her in you'

Symaria’s father tried his best to shield his kids from his health struggles, which began in 2019. It started with pneumonia and multiple hospital visits. During one visit, a doctor told him his kidneys were failing.

He joined the national waitlist for organ donation in 2020, which included more than 90,000 other people in need.

He was forced to stop working in this trucking industry due to appointments and dialysis. He underwent dialysis for years before his daughter fell ill.

He didn’t tell Symaria and her siblings too much about his health and turned down many loved ones who offered to see if they were a match for him. When Symaria got sick, her mother’s words were enough to convince him to accept the donation.

“You will always have a part of her in you,” he recalled her saying, and that’s all he has thought about ever since.

Her mother said she knows her daughter’s heart and wanted to honor that by having her donate a kidney to her father.

“If Symaria could choose to save your life, she would,” she recalled saying. “That’s her dad, and without him, she wouldn’t be here in the first place. We would’ve never gotten to live with her, experience her, be loved by her."

Remembering Symaria and her sacrifice

Symaria’s father said it was bittersweet, receiving his daughter’s kidney. People often tell him congratulations on receiving a kidney.

"They don’t understand the cost,” he said. “She’s my hero. I have a part of her in me and I’m happy for that.”

Even now, she finds ways to make her mother smile. Her mother has found notes around the house that she wrote to her. She also has a jar with notes Symaria gave her as part of a birthday gift.

“It’s a little jar she made and it says, 'Take one every birthday,’” she said, adding that inside are handwritten notes from her daughter telling her she’s the best mom and that she loves her.

And her big heart wasn’t just reserved for family. The day before she got sick, she had emailed her school’s assistant principal because someone was being bullied.

“To go back and see this email that she wrote the day before not knowing that the next day, her life was changing forever …  that’s Symaria,” her mother said.

Her mother also said she came to a realization as she prayed for her daughter to pull through.

“When she was at the hospital, I was praying for a miracle and then realized that her existence, her life in itself, was a miracle,” she said.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at [email protected] .

Court documents: ‘Wonderful father’ of 3 stabbed 48 times by ‘furious’ ex-girlfriend who was stalking him amid custody battle

A father of three was shot and stabbed 48 times in his home amid an ongoing custody battle with his ex-partner, Cynthia Khaleel, who is suspected of killing him and discarding her bloody clothes in the trash after his death.

Deputies responded to 15113 Wilson Court in Mead just before 2 a.m. Saturday after 40-year-old Justin Daniel, the homeowner, called 911 to report Khaleel had come to the house in violation of a no-contact order he had in place against her. When law enforcement arrived, they found him dead in a pool of blood with 48 stab wounds and three gunshot wounds, the Spokane County Medical Examiner was recorded as ruling in court documents. Multiple kitchen knives were scattered at the top the stairs, blood smears lined the walls of the home and multiple windows were broken on the upper and lower level of the house.

Daniel was awarded full custody of his and Khaleel’s 3-year-old child in March, but witnesses close to the family said Khaleel was “furious” about the ruling and was stalking and harassing Daniel, court documents said. Daniel already had a protective order against his ex-partner that was solidified in December 2023 that ordered Kahleel to surrender her weapons, but Spokane County Superior Court Judge Breean Beggs lifted the weapons restrictions once Daniel was given custody of the child. Effective Thursday, Khaleel was to have the couple’s daughter from 9 a.m. to Saturday at 6 p.m.

Six years prior to Daniel’s death, Khaleel was acquitted of killing her adoptive 5-year-old nephew, Gary Blanton III, in 2015. The boy died of a fractured skull that Khaleel blamed on the boy falling from a piece of furniture. She had gained custody of her nephew after her brother, Gary Blanton Jr., was slain in 2012 by a killer stalking registered sex offenders in Clallam County.

Court records said Daniel’s daughter was home at the time of his death and heard yelling, glass breaking, her father screaming and “loud bangs” coming from upstairs. She fled to a neighbor’s home, hid in the bushes called her mother, and her mother called police, court records say. There is no indication his other children were home at the time.

Khaleel appeared at her stepfather’s home in Chattaroy early that morning covered in blood, indicating she had been stabbed. She took a shower, put on new clothes and her bloody clothes were thrown in the trash, court records say. As her stepfather attempted to take her to a local hospital, she told him she had taped other license plates over the plates registered to her sister. He removed the license plates and threw them in the backseat.

When he dropped Khaleel off at the hospital, he called his attorney and police, court records say. A detective responded to his home, recovered the bloody clothes from the trash and seized the car the two drove to the hospital. Detectives photographed two injuries on Khaleel, court records said, with one laceration on her thumb and another on her rib. They advised her of her rights, and she declined to answer questions without an attorney present.

Khaleel’s current husband told police when he went to bed that night, his wife was home. When he woke up around 4 a.m., she wasn’t there, court records say. Her two teenage sons also told police when they woke up the next morning they did not see their mother, either.

Deputies wrote in a news release Wednesday that Khaleel is receiving treatment “at an undisclosed location.”

A GoFundMe was posted online Wednesday to raise money for Daniel’s daughters. It states he was “a wonderful father who loved his girls more than anything” and fought to keep them safe.

“(His life) was ultimately cut short,” it says. “Justin was robbed… due to a heartless crime.”

During the holidays, you may have noticed your parents need more help

After the holidays, you may find yourself facing the challenging reality that a beloved elderly family member or friend is experiencing cognitive or health decline.

Jennifer Pan's father survived the murder plot she orchestrated. Here's where he is today.

• Netflix's "What Jennifer Did" focuses on the 2010 murder of Bich Ha Pan and attempted murder of Hann Pan.
• A Canadian court found that their daughter Jennifer was guilty of orchestrating the incident.
• Hann Pan requested a non-communication order for his daughter, and lives with his injuries.

A new Netflix documentary, "What Jennifer Did," follows the story of Canadian woman Jennifer Pan , who was found guilty of conspiring to have her parents murdered.

In November 2010, a group of men entered the Pan household in Markham, Ontario. They killed Pan's mother, Bich Ha Pan, and shot her father, Huei Hann Pan, in the head and shoulder. Pan recounted in police interviews after the incident that she had been tied to the banister.

However, police arrested Pan after her father, who survived the shooting, was able to recount his experience of the incident. And after a lengthy trial in 2014, Pan and three other co-accused (including her former boyfriend, Daniel Wong ) were found guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder, and received life in prison sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years. However, an appeals court ordered a retrial for the first-degree murder charge, and the case currently sits with the Supreme Court of Canada .

Hann Pan was granted a non-communication order following the trial. Here's where he is now.

Hann Pan survived the home invasion that the court found his daughter guilty of orchestrating

Reporter Karen K. Ho, who grew up with Pan and Wong, reported for Toronto Life that Hann Pan immigrated to Canada from Vietnam in 1979 as a refugee, and married his wife Bich Ha Pan in Toronto. They had two children: Jennifer in 1986, and a son named Felix in 1989.

Toronto Life's account of Pan's childhood recounts the pressure that Hann and Bich placed on her to excel in academics and extracurriculars, including piano and figure skating. Hann, per the publication, prevented her from attending school dances and parties, as well as dating. As Pan grew older, her academic performance turned average, and she began to lie to her parents about her grades.

Eventually, she lied to them about attending university, instead secretly working several jobs while pretending to go to class. At one point, she lived part-time with Wong's family, telling her parents that she was staying with a friend in the city during the school week. After she lied about working a volunteer job, they followed her and learned that she hadn't been employed there. The lies fell apart, and Pan's parents told her she couldn't see Wong and placed restrictions on her travel and communication, according to Toronto Life.

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In 2010, Pan began to plot her parents' murder, hiring Lenford Crawford, one of Wong's acquaintances. Hann survived the November 2010 incident and was placed in a three-day medically induced coma. Pan underwent two interviews with police, which are depicted at length in "What Jennifer Did," maintaining that she was also a victim of the break-in.

But when Hann woke up, his testimony contradicted some of what his daughter had told police. Specifically, he remembered her speaking amiably with one of the men who entered the Pan household, and that she was walking around unbound during the invasion. Police brought Pan in for a third interview, also seen in the documentary, and ultimately arrested her. They arrested Wong, Crawford, and two other men involved in the break-in in early 2011.

Hann Pan testified during his daughter's trial and requested no communication from her

Pan's trial began in 2014 and lasted almost 10 months, according to Toronto Life. Per CBC , she and her co-accused pleaded not guilty. Hann Pan testified during the trial about what he recalled from the night of his wife's murder, and other circumstances of Pan's life.

"I was very upset because all our effort was to help her attend school and she was not," he told the court, according to CBC. "I told her to cease the relationship with Danny Wong or wait until I'm dead."

Pan was sentenced in January 2015 , along with three of her co-accused, including Wong and Crawford. They were found guilty of first-degree murder, receiving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, and attempted murder, receiving a life sentence. The fifth man, Eric Carty, was tried separately after his lawyer fell ill, and died in prison in 2018 .

Hann wasn't present in court for his daughter's sentencing but submitted a written statement.

"When I lost my wife, I lost my daughter at the same time," he said in the statement, according to the CBC. "I hope my daughter Jennifer thinks about what happened to her family and can become a good, honest person someday."

According to Toronto Life, the court issued two non-communication orders: one between the defendants, and another between Pan and her father and brother, who requested it. Pan's lawyer said in court at the time that Pan remained willing to speak with her family.

Per Toronto Life's 2015 report, Hann attempted to sell his home, but was unable to find a buyer. He lived with relatives nearby at the time and was unable to work following the incident. He also experienced chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia. And in the years since the high-profile incident, he's remained out of the public eye.

In May 2023, the Ontario Appeal Court ordered a retrial for the first-degree murder charge after finding that the judge had not suggested alternative possible verdicts like second-degree murder or manslaughter to the jury, per CBC. The case is now with the Supreme Court of Canada, per the Markham Economist & Sun , which will make a decision about whether to hear it. If not, Pan and the other defendants will be able to seek parole immediately.

Watch: Disturbing details behind "Momfluencer" Ruby Franke's arrest

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Life without Bruce and Brandon: Shannon Lee on losing her superstar father and brother

How do you survive when the two most important men in your life die at a tragically young age? The daughter of martial arts hero Bruce Lee describes what kept her going – and how she is preserving the family legacy

S hannon Lee is cheerfully recounting the time she went to a darkness retreat in Oregon. For four days, she stayed in an underground cabin in the woods, so dark she couldn’t see her own hands. Most people would find this terrifying. But for Lee, it was liberating, she says. “All you have are your thoughts and feelings, and they start to bubble up. So you get to look at a lot of things and it can be uncomfortable. I came out very energised.”

The 54-year-old daughter of Hong Kong American martial arts icon Bruce Lee has always been a reflective soul. Her father’s death, when she was four and he was 32, and then the death 20 years later of her older brother, Brandon, aged 28, have made her that way. Talking over a video call from her office in Los Angeles, she describes herself as a “seeker”, who has always been interested in different paths to “healing”. She was inspired by her father, who was a philosopher at heart and a prodigious journaler, constantly writing down his thoughts and feelings about life and work in an ever-growing stack of notebooks.

Her new book, In My Own Process, brings together letters, photos, drawings and poems from Bruce, all of which show “the depth of the challenges he faced, the depth of his accomplishments”. It includes essays and interviews with some of his famous friends and fans, including Jackie Chan, Ang Lee and basketball star and former co-star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Lee wants people to see that her father was “more than just the kung fu guy”. Bruce was, she says, “a deep thinker, a very thoughtful and forward-thinking person”.

Bruce remains one of the greatest and most influential martial artists ever. He overcame widespread racism in the entertainment industry to become the first Asian superstar in Hollywood, and he fought hard against on-screen stereotypes, refusing to take on any parts he considered racist.

Frustrated with the lack of good roles in the US, he went to Hong Kong and made The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon, all huge box office hits. He died, tragically young, in 1973, six days before the release of Enter the Dragon , which would become a global smash. The cause of death was a cerebral oedema brought on by an allergic reaction to headache medication.

Lee’s memories of her father are somewhat hazy. What she remembers the most is his energy. “He could play really dynamically. He was a bit strict. I remember the feeling of being with him, the brightness of that, the warmth. The love is so strong.” She does have vivid recollections of Bruce’s funeral in Hong Kong, which saw thousands of people lining the streets. “It was such a spectacle. I just remember this state of dissociation and shock as you’re being dragged through this whole procession.”

Lee has been the guardian of her father’s legacy since she was in her 30s and co-founded the Bruce Lee Foundation with her mother, Linda, a former teacher who met the actor when she was a student in one of his martial arts classes at the University of Washington. After his death, wild conspiracy theories started to spread: that he had been poisoned by a jealous lover, assassinated by triad members, or had taken a drug overdose.

The theories “speak to the greatness of his life”, says Lee. “When I was a kid, sometimes I would find it annoying when people would say he was killed by ninjas or the ‘death touch’ [a martial arts technique] or rival gangs. But now I look at it and go: he was a warrior and nobody thinks that someone like that should just pass.”

Lee is gregarious, thoughtful and chatty, with the most delightful laugh. She grew up in southern California with Brandon, who was four years older than her. Her mother later remarried twice. As a child, Lee loved to escape into her imagination and would talk to herself. “I played a lot of pretend. When I got a little older, I wrote stories. I became an avid reader.” While her father and brother were “larger than life”, she was more reserved.

Lee was close to her brother, who she describes as “a big, boisterous ball of energy”. He liked to play pranks on her. “He was my tormentor. But when it mattered, he was also my protector. If someone was being mean to me, he would step in.” When he became an actor, she worked as his assistant on the 1992 film Rapid Fire. “He would give advice to me.”

Lee is a classically trained singer with a degree in vocal performance. She thought about pursuing music as a career but, in the end, decided to follow in the footsteps of her father and brother and become an actor. Her first role, when she was in her early 20s, was in a biopic of her father’s life, 1993’s Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, as a singer performing California Dreamin’ at a party. “It was sort of sweet, actually, because in that scene, my mum tells my dad that she’s pregnant with me.”

She started practising martial arts in her 20s as a way to feel closer to her father. Bruce studied the style of Wing Chun and went on to invent his own method of martial arts, known as Jeet Kune Do. “He created his own art,” Lee says. But she felt under pressure to live up to her father when she became an actor. Lee was mainly cast in action films, playing a sex worker in Cage II and a gangster’s mistress in High Voltage. Like her father, she landed her first leading role in a Hong Kong production, the martial arts thriller Enter the Eagles.

“I have never been the same kind of martial artist that my father is,” she says. “There are very few people who are. It was very hard because people had an expectation. They only wanted to hire me to do martial arts action stuff, and they wanted me to be really good.”

But she wasn’t able to commit to her new career because, just as she was starting out, her brother died in a tragic accident on the set of The Crow. After roles in Legacy of Rage and Showdown in Little Tokyo, Brandon, who had his father’s smouldering good looks and natural gift for martial arts, was on the cusp of stardom when he was accidentally shot and killed by a faulty prop gun, fired by his co-star Michael Massee during filming, in 1993.

Lee’s mother called to tell her he had been injured. She jumped on a plane from New Orleans, where she was living, to Wilmington, North Carolina, where The Crow was being filmed. “I had a sense that he had died when we were on the plane,” she says. Brandon was buried next to Bruce at the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

Lee was heartbroken. She had big plans with her brother. He had asked her to be the best man at his wedding after becoming engaged to Eliza Hutton, a personal assistant. Lee was planning to move to Los Angeles, where he was living, to pursue acting. “We were both really looking forward to being able to spend time together.”

After his death, she fell into a deep depression. “I was struggling and in a lot of pain. In my mind, I kept saying over and over to myself in a silent loop: ‘I can’t feel like this. I can’t live like this. This is too much. How do I make it stop?’” Her father’s journals had been piled up in boxes and stuffed into filing cabinets around the house. She started to read them only when Brandon died.

“My favourite quote of his was: ‘The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning, but I didn’t take it.’ It just hit me in the chest. It told me: the only person who can solve this for you is you.” This newfound awareness helped in unexpected ways. “I started to realise that I had been mildly depressed most of my life and had not known it.”

The death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed when a live round was discharged from a prop revolver held by the actor Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust in 2021, brought back bad memories of her brother’s death. “The circumstances are very similar,” says Lee. “It really just makes you go, why is making a movie more important than a person’s life?” Last month, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, Rust’s armourer, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Baldwin has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter, to which he has pleaded not guilty, and will stand trial in July.

Lee supports the banning of live guns from film sets. “I think that is not unreasonable. But if you’re not going to do that, then I think you have to put laws and better safety measures in place than what exists currently.” Brandon’s death was ruled as negligence and, although no charges were brought, Lee’s mother successfully sued the film-makers for an undisclosed amount.

Thirty years after the film’s release, The Crow is getting a reboot that is coming out later this year, starring the Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård and musician FKA twigs. Lee has seen the first look images of a heavily tattooed Skarsgård as Eric Draven. “I feel like nobody will ever replace my brother in that role. He embodied that character beautifully. No one likes to see someone’s legacy brushed over by something else. It’s a beloved character so I understand why they continue to make it. But I think my brother’s performance will always stand.”

Losing a father and then a brother when she was so young was devastating, she says. “Their absence in your life is deafening. You’re left trying to figure out how to continue. Then there are the moments where you go: ‘I wish that person was here.’ People often ask questions like: ‘What do you think life would have been like if …’ I never did too much of that kind of fantasising, because it’s not helpful. First of all, it’s never going to be the case. I need to deal with what is , rather than what could have been. But, you know, processing all of that is life’s work.”

She made the move to Los Angeles a few months after Brandon’s death and muddled on with her acting career, but her heart wasn’t in it. Eventually, she decided to quit. “It was a really tortured time in my life,” she says. “I was in deep grief over my brother. I was not really able to show up for that in the way that I would be able to now. I was very hard on myself.”

Lee was too fragile at the time to handle the endless scrutiny about her appearance and the countless rejections that come with being an actor. “If you’re not in a good place, it can be very challenging.” She was also thinking about starting a family with her husband, Ian Keasler, a lawyer, whom she married in 1994 after becoming friends at university. The couple have a 21-year-old daughter, Wren.

Recently, she made her return to acting after 21 years, in Warrior, the Asian-led martial arts crime drama that was created from an eight-page treatment by Bruce. Lee is an executive producer on the show and appeared in a cameo as a grief-stricken mother. “It was nerve-racking, but I really loved it.” She doesn’t have any other acting projects in the pipeline, but she calls her comeback a “gift”.

Bruce remains an enduring figure in popular culture. Quentin Tarantino was criticised for featuring a fight scene with the martial arts star in his 2019 film Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, in which he portrayed Bruce as a cocky, inept fighter. Lee called out the director for depicting her father as a “buffoon” . “I don’t want to talk about it any more,” she says. “I get hate mail from his fans whenever I speak about it.”

Having her life so closely tied to her father and brother’s legacies has been a struggle sometimes, she admits, but Lee is grateful for the chance to express the love she has for her family. “Death has been a very valuable teacher for me. It’s taught me to live. When someone you love dies, you’re faced with the notion of mortality and you are forced to learn how to let go. Because if you attempt to hold on too tightly, it will destroy your life. It’s a hard lesson and it takes a long time to get there. But eventually you get there.”

In My Own Process, published by Genesis Publications, is available via TheBruceLeeBook.com and book stores from 23 April.

• The G2 interview
• Enter the Dragon

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God Squad: Father Tom's reflections on Passover

When Father Tom Hartman was alive, we had a custom in which I would offer Easter greetings and Tommy would offer Passover greetings. Now that this is no longer possible, I must rely on my memories of Tom’s Passover commentaries over the years.

This year, I remember Tom’s reflections that he shared with me one Passover after he attended a seder at my home with my family — a family that over time absolutely included him:

“Marc, every year when I sit in your home and share the Passover seder meal with you and your family, I try to pick one verse from the story of the Exodus from Egypt in the Haggadah, which is the book of stories that is the script for the evening. I then use that verse as a foundation for my spiritual meditations in the year ahead.

“This year, I was caught by the verse in Exodus 13:8, ‘And you shall tell your child in that day, saying, “This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt.” ’ I am caught up in this verse totally. It means that the Exodus was not just an historic event that happened to people who are long gone. Rather, it means that the Exodus is a deeply personal event for every Jewish person in every age.

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“When I think of that verse as a Christian, I think that it is just like the Last Supper of Jesus. The bread of the Passover seder is, for us, now the body of Christ, and the wine is his blood. This makes the Mass not a memorial of the crucifixion and resurrection but actually a reenactment — just like the seder meal is a reenactment of the going out from Egypt.

“I think the place all Christians and Jews can meet is the experience of Egyptian slavery. Sin is slavery to our worst instincts, and leaving Egypt means leaving behind a state of sin and servitude. That is a powerful message, and even though it is totally Jewish, it also touches on the Christian story. Jesus is our way out of Egypt and out of sin.

“I hope our Jewish readers can take time this Passover and ask themselves ... in what way are they still enslaved to false beliefs that do not bring them spiritual flourishing but rather continued spiritual despair?”

One day Tommy gave me a piece of paper with these words by Mother Teresa:

“You will teach them to fly, but they will not fly your flight. You will teach them to dream, but they will not dream your dream. You will teach them to live, but they will not live your life. Nevertheless, in every flight, in every life, in every dream, the print of the way you taught them will remain.”

The print of what Tom Hartman taught me is in my life, and the print of what I taught him was in his. That is what it meant to be best friends.

So those are my remembrances of what Passover meant to Father Tom. I hope that in his name, we can all leave Egypt together and come through the desert of suffering and liberation to a promised land where we can embrace the better angels of our nature

SEND QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad at [email protected] or Rabbi Marc Gellman, Temple Beth Torah, 35 Bagatelle Rd., Melville, NY 11747.

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Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer and critic famous for his dark, mysterious poems and stories, including “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Who Was Edgar Allan Poe?

Quick facts, army and west point, writing career as a critic and poet, poems: “the raven” and “annabel lee”, short stories, legacy and museum.

FULL NAME: Edgar Allan Poe BORN: January 19, 1809 DIED: October 7, 1849 BIRTHPLACE: Boston, Massachusetts SPOUSE: Virginia Clemm Poe (1836-1847) ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Edgar Allan Poe was born Edgar Poe on January 19, 1809, in Boston. Edgar never really knew his biological parents: Elizabeth Arnold Poe, a British actor, and David Poe Jr., an actor who was born in Baltimore. His father left the family early in Edgar’s life, and his mother died from tuberculosis when he was only 2.

Separated from his brother, William, and sister, Rosalie, Poe went to live with his foster parents, John and Frances Allan, in Richmond, Virginia. John was a successful tobacco merchant there. Edgar and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he had a more difficult relationship with John.

By age 13, Poe was a prolific poet, but his literary talents were discouraged by his headmaster and by John, who preferred that young Edgar follow him in the family business. Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan’s business papers.

Money was also an issue between Poe and John. Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, where he excelled in his classes. However, he didn’t receive enough money from John to cover all of his costs. Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference but ended up in debt.

He returned home only to face another personal setback—his neighbor and fiancée Sarah Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else. Heartbroken and frustrated, Poe moved to Boston.

In 1827, around the time he published his first book, Poe joined the U.S. Army. Two years later, he learned that his mother, Frances, was dying of tuberculosis, but by the time he returned to Richmond, she had already died.

While in Virginia, Poe and his father briefly made peace with each other, and John helped Poe get an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Poe excelled at his studies at West Point, but he was kicked out after a year for his poor handling of his duties.

During his time at West Point, Poe had fought with John, who had remarried without telling him. Some have speculated that Poe intentionally sought to be expelled to spite his father, who eventually cut ties with Poe.

After leaving West Point, Poe published his third book and focused on writing full-time. He traveled around in search of opportunity, living in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond. In 1834, John Allan died, leaving Poe out of his will, but providing for an illegitimate child Allan had never met.

Poe, who continued to struggle living in poverty, got a break when one of his short stories won a contest in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter . He began to publish more short stories and, in 1835, landed an editorial position with the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. Poe developed a reputation as a cut-throat critic, writing vicious reviews of his contemporaries. His scathing critiques earned him the nickname the “Tomahawk Man.”

His tenure at the magazine proved short, however. Poe’s aggressive reviewing style and sometimes combative personality strained his relationship with the publication, and he left the magazine in 1837. His problems with alcohol also played a role in his departure, according to some reports.

Poe went on to brief stints at Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine , Graham’s Magazine , as well as The Broadway Journal , and he also sold his work to Alexander’s Weekly Messenger , among other journals.

In 1844, Poe moved to New York City. There, he published a news story in The New York Sun about a balloon trip across the Atlantic Ocean that he later revealed to be a hoax. His stunt grabbed attention, but it was his publication of “The Raven,” in 1845, that made Poe a literary sensation.

That same year, Poe found himself under attack for his stinging criticisms of fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . Poe claimed that Longfellow, a widely popular literary figure, was a plagiarist, which resulted in a backlash against Poe.

Despite his success and popularity as a writer, Poe continued to struggle financially, and he advocated for higher wages for writers and an international copyright law.

Poe self-published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems , in 1827. His second poetry collection, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems , was published in 1829.

As a critic at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond from 1835 to 1837, Poe published some of his own works in the magazine, including two parts of his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym . Later on came poems such as “Ulalume” and “The Bells.”

“The Raven”

Poe’s poem “The Raven,” published in 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror , is considered among the best-known poems in American literature and one of the best of Poe’s career. An unknown narrator laments the demise of his great love Lenore and is visited by a raven, who insistently repeats one word: “Nevermore.” In the work, which consists of 18 six-line stanzas, Poe explored some of his common themes: death and loss.

“Annabel Lee”

This lyric poem again explores Poe’s themes of death and loss and might have been written in memory of his beloved wife, Virginia, who died two years prior its publication. The poem was published on October 9, 1849, two days after Poe’s death, in the New York Tribune .

In late 1830s, Poe published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque , a collection of short stories. It contained several of his most spine-tingling tales, including “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Ligeia,” and “William Wilson.”

In 1841, Poe launched the new genre of detective fiction with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” His literary innovations earned him the nickname “Father of the Detective Story.” A writer on the rise, he won a literary prize in 1843 for “The Gold Bug,” a suspenseful tale of secret codes and hunting treasure.

“The Black Cat”

Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” was published in 1843 in The Saturday Evening Post . In it, the narrator, a one-time animal lover, becomes an alcoholic who begins abusing his wife and black cat. By the macabre story’s end, the narrator observes his own descent into madness as he kills his wife, a crime his black cat reports to the police. The story was later included in the 1845 short story collection, Tales by Edgar Allan Poe .

Later in his career, Poe continued to work in different forms, examining his own methodology and writing in general in several essays, including “The Philosophy of Composition,” “The Poetic Principle,” and “The Rationale of Verse.” He also produced the thrilling tale, “The Cask of Amontillado.”

From 1831 to 1835, Poe lived in Baltimore, where his father was born, with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia. He began to devote his attention to Virginia; his cousin became his literary inspiration as well as his love interest. The couple married in 1836 when she was only 13 years old and he was 27.

In 1847, at the age of 24—the same age when Poe’s mother and brother also died—Virginia passed away from tuberculosis. Poe was overcome by grief following her death, and although he continued to work, he suffered from poor health and struggled financially until his death in 1849.

Poe died on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore at age 40.

His final days remain somewhat of a mystery. Poe left Richmond on ten days earlier, on September 27, and was supposedly on his way to Philadelphia. On October 3, he was found in Baltimore in great distress. Poe was taken to Washington College Hospital, where he died four days later. His last words were “Lord, help my poor soul.”

At the time, it was said that Poe died of “congestion of the brain.” But his actual cause of death has been the subject of endless speculation. Some experts believe that alcoholism led to his demise while others offer up alternative theories. Rabies, epilepsy, and carbon monoxide poisoning are just some of the conditions thought to have led to the great writer’s death.

Shortly after his passing, Poe’s reputation was badly damaged by his literary adversary Rufus Griswold. Griswold, who had been sharply criticized by Poe, took his revenge in his obituary of Poe, portraying the gifted yet troubled writer as a mentally deranged drunkard and womanizer. He also penned the first biography of Poe, which helped cement some of these misconceptions in the public’s minds.

Although Poe never had financial success in his lifetime, he has become one of America’s most enduring writers. His works are as compelling today as they were more than a century ago. An innovative and imaginative thinker, Poe crafted stories and poems that still shock, surprise, and move modern readers. His dark work influenced writers including Charles Baudelaire , Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Stephane Mallarme.

The Baltimore home where Poe stayed from 1831 to 1835 with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter, Poe’s cousin and future wife Virginia, is now a museum. The Edgar Allan Poe House offers a self-guided tour featuring exhibits on Poe’s foster parents, his life and death in Baltimore, and the poems and short stories he wrote while living there, as well as memorabilia including his chair and desk.

• The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.
• Lord, help my poor soul.
• Sound loves to revel near a summer night.
• But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.
• They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
• The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?
• With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence; they must not—they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.
• And now—have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?—now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart.
• All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
• I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active—not more happy—nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
• [I]f you wish to forget anything upon the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.
• Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

Watch “The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe” on HISTORY Vault

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