Good Samaritan Carlos Guerra's unselfish act teaches Elaine Lomenzo, in her time of despair, "that people can be good"

DENNIS – Elaine Babineau Lomenzo thought it was a hopeless loss.

On Jan. 30, in her rush to get home to Dennis, she left a large suitcase containing jewelry and some irreplaceable mementos on a sidewalk outside the family's Back Bay condominium. After some searching, she came to the sad conclusion the bag and its contents were gone forever.

Not so, thanks to a Good Samaritan.

That day, Lomenzo was not only in a hurry, she was pre-occupied. Her parents had died within five days of each other two weeks earlier. While Helen and Robert Babineau had lived long, full lives - Robert was 91 and Helen, 97 - Lomenzo was shaken by the loss.

A considerable clan of Babineaus was on the way to the Cape for a memorial service, traveling from Idaho, Arizona, Rhode Island and Central Massachusetts.

“We were going to have a gathering of 35 people the next night,” Lomenzo said. Even more family would arrive for a memorial service the day after that.

Thinking of all the preparations ahead, Lomenzo dropped the heavy suitcase on the sidewalk behind her car in the Back Bay as her daughter, Molly, hoisted her own luggage into the trunk.

After asking Molly to load the black suitcase, Lomenzo got behind the wheel. Molly didn't hear her mother's request or see the bag, and the pair pulled away, leaving the suitcase behind.

When she arrived home and realized the suitcase was missing, Lomenzo rushed back to Boston. “I checked the door of the condominium in case someone found it and left a note,” Lomenzo said. “I had identification inside.”

She even checked nearby dumpsters in case the bag had been stolen and discarded.

Her search was fruitless, and she was despondent.

“I'm just in the middle of this profound loss of these people who meant everything to me, and now I've just lost everything material that mattered to me,” she said. “It just sort of made me sadder than I already was.”

But Jamaica Plain resident Carlos Guerra had been renovating an apartment nearby and seen Lomenzo drive away without taking the suitcase. He ran out and picked it up for safekeeping.

Guerra knew Lomenzo by sight, he said in a phone interview. He put the suitcase in his van and figured Lomenzo would return to Boston the following day and he could return it.

When Guerra didn't see her on Jan. 31, he took the bag home, opened it looking for information and saw Lomenzo's telephone number. His daughter Angela made the call.

“My husband got up at the crack of dawn on the morning of the funeral and picked the suitcase up,” Lomenzo said. “He gave them a reward but they didn't want to accept it. He had to practically force them.”

Guerra was empathetic. “I have things that are important to me, and I know how bad I would feel if I lost them.”

At home on Friday, Lomenzo shared a few of the keepsakes in the bag: a poem written to her by her now adult son, Thomas, when he was 7; pictures of a younger Molly with her grandparents; a watch her husband, Peter, gave her 25 years ago; even a leftover note from Santa.

Molly said the episode offered a valuable lesson. “It was a reminder that people can be good.”

Today's Good Newsz Quote of the Day...

Rico Roman representing his country once again...

Rico Roman has represented the country he put his life on the line for not only once, but twice.

As the first war-wounded veteran to be nominated to the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team , his inspiring journey from losing one of his legs during his third deployment in Iraq, to making his way overseas yet again as he competes in Sochi, is certainly one to be commended.

"Every setback you have a chance to come back and rise up from that," Roman said of his remarkable perseverance on "GMA Live!" today.

In 2007, Staff Sgt. Roman was nearing the end of his deployment when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb, ultimately taking his left leg.

"I was running a vehicle checkpoint, and we were all up in the armored Humvees," he explained. "Sometimes you get clues, wires on the ground, big bomb right in the middle of the road or maybe even nobody in the road at all. Unfortunately I didn't see any of these signs that day and my vehicle struck the IED. I sustained injuries to both my right and left leg, ultimately having to do an amputation in my left leg."

Despite the devastating setback, Roman remained eternally optimistic, thanking his family for motivating him to get back out of bed and right back on his feet where he was before.

But he didn't just get out of bed. He got onto the ice, developing a passion for the sport of sled hockey, something that had never interested him prior to his injury.

"At first I was really hesitant," Roman recalled. "I didn't come from a hockey state, never watched hockey, but I went and tried it out and was hooked instantly. The camaraderie in that locker room … We have an all-veteran team in San Antonio, and it was an amazing feeling being part of a team again."

And he's not part of just any team. Roman is heading to Sochi on Feb. 26to fight for the gold alongside his fellow veterans, an impressive feat that hasn't completely hit him yet.

"I don't think it's going to hit me until we're on the ice and everybody's cheering and you hear those national anthems playing and the Zamboni comes and cuts the ice," he said, confident of USA's ability to take home the gold.

But despite all his achievements, Roman recognizes none of it would have been possible had he not had that fateful run-in with the IED that tragically took his leg.

"None of these other things would have happened if that hadn't have happened," he explained. "And now I'm on my way to Sochi, Russia, to represent USA.

"It's just a great feeling."

The gifts keep coming from "Ellen" for Sarah Hoidahl the waitress that bought lunch for two National Guardswomen....

One never knows what will happen when performing a random act of kindness to others and one local waitress is continuing to find that out.

Sarah Hoidahl, a single mother from Henniker, New Hampshire made national headlines after buying lunch for two National Guardswomen during the government shutdown last year. On Feb. 6, Hoidahl took delivery of a new 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe SUV that was purchased for her by comedian Ellen Degeneres.

The SUV was parked outside the Grappone Hyundai dealership as Hoidahl drove up with her mom to take delivery.

“Oh my goodness,” she exclaimed. “Look at the bow!”

It’s been a whirlwind for Hoidahl, who described the experience to be "like a dream.”

Back in October 2013, Hoidahl picked up the tab for two female soldiers with the New Hampshire National Guard when they came in to the Rudy Tuesday restaurant on Loudon Road in Concord to have lunch. Hoidahl wrote a note thanking them for their service. The guard later posted a picture of the note on its Facebook page, thanking the waitress for the lunch. 

Little did anyone know but Hoidahl only made $27 that day, the bulk of which was used to buy lunch for the women, meaning she went home, pretty much, empty-handed.

After the story made national news, comedian Ellen Degeneres flew Hoidahl out to California to thank her for being such “a good person” and proceeded to write her a check for $10,000.

“I always watch ‘Ellen’ and see people like that go on the show and get stuff,” she said, “but I never thought in a million years that I would be that person sitting on that couch … that was amazing.”

A month later, Degeneres surprised the waitress again. 

After hearing that Hoidahl and her mother were sharing a beat up car, trying to coordinate their schedules, as well as taking care of her baby, Degeneres sent a staffer to Concord, acting as a reporter, and surprised her with a new SUV.

Once again, Hoidahl was stunned, and couldn’t believe what was happening. A few months later, it all came true, with Hoidahl taking delivery of the Hyundai.

“It’s been a long wait for this car,” she said. “But I really can’t complain … it’s going to be nice … I don’t know what I’m going to do. It’s going to be so wonderful.”

While waiting for her SUV to be prepped and paperwork to be processed, Amanda Grappone Osmer, one of the owners of the dealership, played banjo in the lobby and chatted with Hoidahl about her interaction with Degeneres. 

Hoidahl still works at Ruby Tuesday but only waits on tables about once a week. Most of the time, she is bartending, something she really enjoys.

“I like being more stationary,” Hoidahl said. “I get to make drinks, which is wicked fun … the clientele at the bar is very different … I like to talk, so I like the clientele at the bar. It’s easier to connect with people.”

After getting a walkthrough of the vehicle, Hoidahl gave a shout out to Degeneres.

"Thank you, Ellen," she said, laughing, still not believing it was all happening.

Today's Good Newsz Quote of the Day...

"Goodwill" - 29 year old Goodwill store manager Tyler Gedelian finds $43,000 in donated clothing, returns it...

Tyler Gedelian regularly checks the pockets of donated clothing at his Monroe, Michigan, Goodwill store for loose change.

On Wednesday, the 29-year-old store manager and his coworker, Goodwill job coach Laura Pietscher, found more than just a few coins and crumpled receipts: they discovered stacks of $100 bills, stuffed in blue envelopes, in the pockets of some old suits and a robe.

"We were getting lots of donations, and as I sorted through it, I saw a blue envelope sticking out of a bathrobe. I took it out, figuring it was garbage," Gedelian told Detroit News.

"But when I opened the envelope, lo and behold, it was several bands of $100 bills. We might normally find a dollar, or 25 cents, but mostly it's old Kleenexes and grocery lists."  

The cash totaled more than $43,000.

Without hesitating, Gedelian called the police.

"My biggest concern was getting the money back to the rightful owner," he told the Monroe Evening News. I certainly can't imagine losing that kind of money. I was so nervous having so much of someone else’s money."

Because a wallet was found among the bills, the police were able to track down the owner of the cash. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was cleaning out an elderly relative's closet and donated the clothing to Goodwill without knowing the money even existed.

The man was shocked that his relative had so much cash stashed away — and that Gedelian would be so honest about finding it.

"I am really proud of those people at Goodwill," the man said. "It makes me feel good there are people out there like that, especially in this day and age."

The man plans to thank Gedelian and Pietscher in person soon.

"There aren’t many people like that today," he said. "I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. In this world we live in, we need more people with morals like that."

In 2012, a man donated a pair of old shoes to Goodwill without realizing the his wife had stashed their entire life savings — about $3,300 — inside the footwear.

The store put aside the cash, hoping the owners would return for it. They did.

Artist aleXsandro Palombo Reimagines Disney Princesses With Physical Disabilities...

"There is a very sad laugh hiding in those artworks," says artist aleXsandro Palombo, who has created a powerful series imagining Disney princesses with disabilities.

In a few attention-grabbing works shown here, two of Disney's most prominent characters, Cinderella and Snow White, use a wheelchair, while Pocahontas and Jasmine deal with their own circumstance.

"I have decided to portray disabled Disney's characters because they never create a disabled character and I think that they should consider that there are so many disabled people in the planet, it's a fact," he wrote to The Huffington Post.

"Two years ago I had a rare form of cancer and some parts of my body are now paralyzed after surgery to remove it," the Italy-based Palombo continued. "I am now a disabled person, and every day I have to deal with all forms of discrimination and humiliation. Through this series I wanted to give visibility to this problem."

"I think that disabled people doesn't [sic] match Disney's standards of beauty so my message is very simple: Disabled people have rights and are part of the world."

Credit for all photos by permission: aleXsandro Palombo. Check out the rest of Palombo's gallery at Humor Chic.