5 Most Uplifting Stories of the Week

A Christmas wish granted two years after a woman's death and an honest Vegas cabbie make the list this week:

• Radio Station Grants Last Wish, 2 Years After Death: A month before she died of ovarian cancer in September 2011, Brenda Schmitz wrote down a few wishes for her family—her husband, her four boys, and the special woman she hoped they would find. They found her, and this Christmas, a radio station granted those wishes.
• Honest Cabbie Gets Nice Reward: A cabbie in Vegas who returned $300,000 in cash left in his car has gotten rewarded for his honesty by an absent-minded poker player. It's not six figures, but five is nice, too.
• QB Kitna Will Give Away One-Game Comeback Paycheck: A Washington state math teacher will be suiting up for the Cowboys this week—and he won't make a dime off the experience. That's because 41-year-old former NFLer Jon Kitna is donating the money to the school where he teaches.
• Daughter Finds Mother After 71 Years: It's not all that unusual for an adopted child to grow up and seek out her biological mother, but this reunion is remarkable on a few fronts—the big one being that it takes place 71 years after the fact.
• Reporter Finds Santana's Old Bandmate, Homeless: It's probably not often that California's KRON's "People Behaving Badly" news segment ends with heartwarming news. But that was the case this month, following Stanley Roberts' piece on illegal dumpsites in Oakland. In the course of his reporting, Roberts interviewed Marcus Malone, who was searching through garbage. Malone claimed he was once a member of Carlos Santana's band. Not only did the story check out, it led to a reunion.

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