The minute she saw the umbrella, she knew. They had been acquaintances for a long time. Both were from small-town Virden; He was just one year ahead in school. Their kids went to the same daycare. She saw him almost…
Phil McCarty, 38, was finishing 30 pull-ups in a friendly competition among friends at the Triple Threat gym in Jacksonville when he lost consciousness and fell 10 feet to the floor, landing on his back and bouncing his head twice…
Mike Dulakis was progressing through his normal workout Feb. 3 at Taylorville’s Lock Up Gym, lifting weights from a seated position, when everything changed. The 39-year-old guard for the Taylorville Correctional Facility was “training to failure,” a common weight-lifting strategy.…
Friends come and go. A true friend, however, is invaluable. They stick up for you, never judge and are with you in good times and bad. And when times get really bad, it helps when that true friend is the…
It’s been said what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Gillespie’s Randy Redmon and his wife Amanda are a true testament to that age-old quote. Three years ago their house burned to the ground. The lint trap in their dryer…
The possibility that she might be having a heart attack only briefly crossed Becky Griffith’s mind. She was, after all, only 40 years old. Last November, the mother of two began to feel severely fatigued and short of breath. While…
One day can change your whole life. June 13, 2006, started out normal enough for Bret Beherns, an 18-year-old college student working a summer job building cellphone towers. The self-described adrenaline junkie was finishing up work installing antennas in Rochester…
It’s the time of year when we all want to kick on the furnace and cozy up on the sofa. But, before you do, keep yourself and your loved ones safe by checking your furnace and testing the carbon monoxide…
On Oct. 8, 2013, George Rudis began his day the way he always does—with a run at the Sacred Heart-Griffin track. For the 62-year-old Springfield native and lifelong athlete in training for a marathon, everything seemed normal. “I got up…
Strokes are the fourth-leading cause of death and the leading cause of serious disability in the United States. Even so, the majority of people know very little about these debilitating events—and fewer realize they might just be at risk. “Half…