When 1+1 = 11

From ST, Review

By Chua Mui Hoong

KV Stanly and ML Parashu were young rookie reporters in Mysore, India, when they met a prostitute who changed their lives.

They were in a park for a photo shoot, for a story on the harsh life of the city's horse-cart workers. A lady standing under a tree derided them. 'You're wasting one day's earning by taking this picture,' she told the cart workers.

'These reporters put you in the newspaper so they get a byline. Tomorrow, they will move on to another story and you will still be struggling here.'

She challenged the reporters: 'Why don't you write my story?'

Disturbed by the encounter, they looked for her the next day to hear her story.

She took them to her 'home' - a strip of pavement where her son sat studying.

Mr Stanly wrinkles his nose as he tells me: 'She had been sold to a brothel by her husband. After a few years, the brothel also threw her out. She's stinky and drunk. Her clients are the lower class and poor labourers. All she wanted was to make sure her son has a decent life.'

For Mr Stanly and his friend Mr Parashu, that was a defining moment. They pooled funds to take the woman and her son off the streets into a spartan home.

Her next challenge for them: 'You are helping me but I am an old lady. What about all the other young girls in the brothels?'

Their consciences pricked, the two young men started Odanadi Seva Samsthe, a group that helps rescue girls from prostitution. They went on to build a shelter to house, school and train these women.

'I also trained in therapy, so I could do psychotherapy for the women and help them recover,' Mr Stanly told me over lunch.

He was one of 200 young leaders attending the Asia 21 Young Leaders' Summit held in Singapore over the weekend.

I asked if he ever got into trouble with criminal gangs that run the brothels and he nodded matter-of-factly. 'It's a fact of life. I've been hospitalised several times.'

Today, Odanadi, which means soulmate in the Kannada language, has rescued more than 400 girls from prostitution. It organises an advocacy group for prostitutes and has helped rehabilitate hundreds of women into mainstream jobs. A few were married in well-publicised ceremonies, helping to remove the stigma against girls forced into prostitution.

The organisation received a special award last Saturday from the New York-based Asia Society, which organised the summit.

As I spent the next two days among the participants, I would learn that stories like Mr Stanly's are common among this unusual lot of people, activists who did not stand by in the face of injustice, but rolled up their sleeves to change their respective corners of the world.

Mr Ravi Krishna, a lawyer trained in Pennsylvania, America, had a comfortable state counsel job in India. He often accompanied his frail mother to hospital and grew incensed at the way patients were dying en route to hospitals because there was no proper ambulance service.

He got together with friends to set up an ambulance service.

Called 1298 - Dial for Ambulance, the service uses technology to overcome the challenges of navigating the back lanes of Mumbai.

GPS (Global Positioning System) and RTS (Realtime Tracking System) track the location of 24 vehicles every moment of the day and night. Mr Krishna wants to use Google Earth maps to help in navigation - with ambulances sending back pictures of uncharted back lanes to widen Google Earth's future coverage.

To do so requires each ambulance to be fitted with a laptop computer. Problem: Traditional laptops which are fan-ventilated and run on hard discs are vulnerable to damage in Mumbai's treacherously bumpy, dusty environment.

Solution: Mr Krishna is talking with Taiwan company Via to use its fanless computers that do not run on hard discs.

As Mr Krishna told his story over dinner, Mr Faiysal AliKhan peppered him with questions.

Turns out Mr AliKhan, a logistics professional by day, runs a foundation devoted to rural development in Pakistan. 'We have the same problem about having no ambulance service and we're thinking of setting one up,' he said.

After dinner, the two caught up with each other and promised to get in touch. Despite the periodic tension between the two countries, development work knows no boundaries when activists like these are bound by a common zeal to improve the lives of those around them.

Many of those at the forum had incredible stories to tell - of how they moved beyond self, work and family to do something for others.

There was Filipino military commander Dennis Eclarin, who decided to build lives. He started a microfinance foundation to reach the highland and most remote parts of the Philippines.

Then there was Mr Mitchell Pham, who fled Vietnam in a rickety boat when he was 13, with 65 others or so. The boat ran out of food, then water and fuel.

A cruise liner passed them by - with clueless tourists waving and taking pictures of the refugees in their dire straits. The next ship was an oil tanker, whose captain rescued the refugees.

'That was my leadership moment,' said Mr Pham. 'I learnt that even if you are in business, carrying on with your life, you can choose to ignore others' call or you can choose to make a difference and help. The cruise captain chose one, the oil tanker captain chose another.'

Mr Pham stayed at an Indonesian refugee camp for 1 1/2 years before settling in New Zealand, where he now runs an IT company and is active in business and community organisations, having chosen not to ignore others' problems.

Closer to home, there was Ms Eileena Lee, who started an online support group nine years ago for gay and lesbian people in Singapore. She now runs Pelangi Pride Centre, a resource centre on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues.

'I never saw myself as a leader. But I suffered in my own journey when I came out as a lesbian woman, and if I can do something to help others on that journey, I felt I had to.'

As a panellist at a discussion put it, it is about starting small, and making one plus one equal not two, but 11.

Listening to stories of these activists' 'leadership moments', learning what spurred them to act, I was humbled into silence.

I am a columnist but for once I have no point of view to offer, nothing but these stories from those who make a difference.

You know what's great about Alzheimer's?

From Slashdot comments

by quokkapox

You make new friends every day!

Haha, "New friends every day." Get it?! LOL.

It's not so funny when it happens to you or your family. Wait until someone you know gets it. You won't be laughing anymore.

Haha, that guy has a limp. Haha, that woman is blind. Haha, that kid is retarded. Hahaha. Fucking hilarious.

Whatever you do, don't get Alzheimer's disease. It sucks.

My grandmother just turned 94 and has advanced Alzheimer's disease. She can barely walk anymore. I devote a few hours of my life every single day to caregiving. If you've never known someone like this, you really have no idea what's involved. Yeah, we could put her in a home. We could watch her die sooner that way, wearing diapers and ceaselessly, hopelessly calling out for someone to please take her home. As it is now, she wears diapers, but at least we always change them. In nursing homes, they don't.

Have you ever had someone you know and love, who helped raise you and even changed *your* diapers and then helped teach you how to count and how to read and how to do puzzles and math and typing and how to play games, who taught you the names of the plants that grow out in the back yard? And now she can smile and say "Hello", and tell you to get the hell out because she don't know who you are a moment later?

That's Alzheimer's. You can be helping to manage her most intimate financial affairs completely honestly, you can be doing her laundry and getting her medicine and bringing her groceries and cooking her meals and washing her dishes and vacuuming her floors and helping her get to the doctor and even wiping her ass, when she cannot do it herself anymore, and yet she'll still tell you she loves you one night, and the next morning she wants you to go away, go to hell, or just please, please take her home. Because she doesn't know what home means anymore. She's already at home, and she doesn't know who you are anymore.

She knows what she knew in 1920 or 1930 sometimes, funny stories she can still tell sometimes, but she mixes up everyone's names; she doesn't know who is who anymore. She used to speak three languages, English, German, and French. But now she often speaks gibberish, a weird combination of whatever words she still can recall. She can't always understand simple sentences. She's like a kid who cannot learn.

Alzheimer's sucks; nursing homes suck. Go visit one someday if you doubt me. My grandmother's genes and her circumstances allowed her to outlive two of her children. She never got cancer, but that's what killed her elder son at 50. She had a heart attack thirty years ago, but she didn't die of heart disease. That's what killed her elder daughter at 60. Yet my grandmother lives on, as her mind slowly disintegrates.

She still likes to watch children playing, or to meet a drooling baby, maybe a child of someone who helps care for her, brought over to visit. She still likes to pet her cats and smile and watch them roll on the floor with catnip at her feet, she still can interface with her two grandchildren, she still has a sense of humor that we all can understand and sometimes laugh about together.

She doesn't know what year it is or what day it is, and sometimes she can't remember how to properly hold a spoon (or she'll try drinking from it like a straw). But she especially likes bananas and squash and sweet potatoes and chocolate chip cookies. I know this because I'm there sometimes to remind her to take another bite. She says "This is good, thank you!"

And sometimes when you help lift her into bed at night, she'll tell you she loves you. I guess that helps make it all worthwhile.

Anyway, this is what will happen to you if you don't die of anything else or get hit by a bus before your brain starts to degrade. I suppose it hasn't been all bad, I have learned a lot caring for my grandmother. But she is no longer able to offer her opinion.

Problems Are God’s Way Of Tapping You On the Shoulder...

By Adam Khoo

I just completed one of my final Introductory Seminars for my Patterns of Excellence Program and am happy to report that my next Intake 5-8 April is Almost Full. However, I want to relate to you an interesting experience I has with one of the participants who
signed up last night.

He told me that the reason he chose to sign up eventually (he heard about my program 3 years ago, but never took action) was because his problems has become so severe that he could not take it anymore. His wife decided to leave him, he lost his job and suffered a mild heart attack just a few days ago. All this pain finally drove him to do something to change his life.

He told me that he wanted to come to the program to learn how to make all his problems go away. he said he wanted to be a successful and happy person like me who seemed to have no problems. He will only be happy if his life was free of problems and he believed that I could help him achieve this.

That's when I stopped him and said, 'You have got the WHOLE WRONG IDEA!' 'I cannot make your problems go away!' In fact, I believe that the more successful you are, the more problems you will have. Everyone has problems at any given point of time in their lives. In fact, I would bet that Bill Gates (the world's richest man) has his own set of problems and I can tell you that his problems are a lot bigger than yours and mine.

The only people without problems are those lying in the graveyard. So, if you want to have no problems, then GO AND DIE (of course I did not say this...he would have slapped me and not signed up).

But the question people always ask is why must life be full of problems? Why can't everything go the way we want? Why must things be so difficult? Why do some people get hit with such big problems in life sometimes? (e.g. kids run away, wife leaves them, diagnosed with cancer, business failure).

Well, I believe that whenever a 'problem' arises in our life, it is God's way of tapping us on the shoulder and telling us that we need to learn something or change our thoughts or actions.

If we keeping falling ill, it's a tap on the shoulder that we are not eating right, not exercising enough or thinking of negative thoughts (emotional stress is the number of cause of physical illness). If our kids don't want to listen to us, it's a tap on a shoulder that we are not listening or spending enough time with them.

If you receive complaints about your work, it is a tap on the shoulder that you are not putting enough effort or you are doing things the wrong way. If you keep getting into arguments with your partner, it is a tap on the shoulder that you doing what is required to sustain a good relationship.

When we acknowldege God's taps, learn the lesson and take positive action, we will move closer towards our goals and dreams in life. The trouble with most people is that they IGNORE the taps by justifying, avoiding, denying, giving excuses or blaming someone
else for the problems arising. They say things like 'The stupid boss is just finding fault!', 'the clients are just unreasonable', 'my kids are so ungrateful and defiant', 'these chest pains will go away', 'I wish my wife will quit nagging...just ignore her'.

So, what does God do when you don't learn and do something to his taps? He starts tapping EVEN HARDER! This is when your problems start getting worst! Your business starts losing clients, the chest pains get worst, your kids start arguing and shouting back, quarrels with your partner gets more and more frequent.

And if you continue to IGNORE these taps, God will do whatever it takes until he gets his message across to you that you need to change your thoughts and actions. He will HIT YOU ON THE HEAD WITH A BRICK. This is when those major problems whack you in life... Your partner leaves you, your kids run away from home, you suffer a heart attack or you go bankrupt.

Some people will finally get the message and start changing their life for the better. Unfortunately, some people will always continue blaming, get depressed and give up completely. How are YOU dealing with God's shoulder taps now?

1000 Paper Cranes

There was once this guy who is very much in love with his girl. This romantic guy folded 1,000 pieces of paper cranes as a gift to his girl.

Although, at that time he was just a small fry in his company, his future didn't seem too bright, they were very happy together. Until one day, his girl told him she was going to Paris and will never come back. She also told him that she cannot visualize any future for the both of them, so they went their own ways there and then...

Heartbroken, the guy agreed. But when he regained his confidence, he worked hard day and night, slogging his body and mind just to make something out of himself.

Finally with all the hard work and the help of friends, this guy had set up his own company..

You never fail until you stop trying. One rainy day, while this guy was driving, he saw an elderly couple sharing an umbrella in the rain walking to some destination. Even with the umbrella, they were still drenched. It didn't take him long to realize they were his girl's parents.

With a heart in getting back at them, he drove slowly beside the couple, wanting them to spot him in his luxury sedan. He wanted them to know that he wasn't the same any more; he had his own company, car, condo, etc. He made it! What he saw next confused him, the couple was walking towards a cemetery, and so he got out of his car and followed... and he saw his girl, a photograph of her smiling sweetly as ever at him from her tombstone and he saw his paper cranes right beside her...

Her parents saw him. He asked them why this had happened. They explained, she did not leave for France at all. She was ill with cancer. She had believed that he will make it someday, but she did not want to be his obstacle... therefore she had chosen to leave him.

Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have. She had wanted her parents to put his paper cranes beside her, because, if the day comes when fate brings him to her again... he can take some of those back with him...

Once you have loved, you will always love. For what's in your mind may escape but what's in your heart will remain forever.

The guy just wept... The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside her knowing you can't have her, see her or be with her ever again...

Find time to realize that there is one person who means so much to you, for you might wake up one morning losing that person who you thought meant nothing to you.

Lessons from Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is a tale of self-improvement, to look inside oneself and realize that the only satisfaction in life comes from turning outward and concerning oneself with others rather than concentrating solely on one's own wants and desires.

It's a Wonderful Life

The movie is the story of the life of everyman George Bailey, as told to his guardian angel Clarence Oddbody, who has been recruited to save him in his moment of need.

Prologue

The movie begins on Christmas Eve as the multiple prayers of many people on Earth for a man named George Bailey are heard by people in Heaven. In the heavens, Clarence Oddbody, an "apprentice" angel, is told that he must help George Bailey in order to get his wings (which distinguishes him as a lowly apprentice angel).

One of the higher-up angels, Joseph, begins to tell Clarence the story of George Bailey in order to prepare him for his mission to help him.

George the boy

First, Joseph tells Clarence of how George saved his little brother Harry when he fell through the ice at the age of nine. Later, Clarence is shown when George worked at Mr. Gower's drugstore. Two little girls, Mary Hatch and Violet Bick, come in, and Mary pledges to love him until the day she dies. George also saves a child from being poisoned by tainted capsules ordered from Mr. Gower, who is disoriented after learning, by telegram, of the recent influenza death of his son. Mr. Gower is eternally grateful to George.

George the young man

Now, about twenty-one, George Bailey wants more than anything in the world to "leave this crummy little town" of Bedford Falls, and experience the world outside. On the night before he is to leave for a European vacation and his architectural education, George sits down to dinner with his father Peter, who expresses his anxieties about having his eldest son leave without going into business with him at the Bailey Building & Loan. George reassures Peter that he has nothing to worry about, especially considering the aggressiveness of mill owner and banker Henry F. Potter, a greedy slumlord who already owns half the city. In a tender moment, George reveals his deep affection for his father, then leaves to attend the graduation party of his younger brother, Harry, at the Bedford Falls High School gymnasium.

At the prom, George becomes re-acquainted with Mary Hatch, now 18, who has been brought to the event by her brother, Marty. After getting rid of Mary's annoying date, Freddie (Carl Switzer), George and Mary dance together in the big Charleston contest. Beneath the gym's retractable floor is concealed a swimming pool, and George and Mary are dancing on the long along which the floor splits when opened. In a fit of pique, Freddie activates the mechanism that exposes the water-filled pool. After moving to one side of the growing opening, George and Mary dance closer and closer to the edge before plunging in. The rest of the partygoers (including the school principal) gleefully join the couple in the pool.

Afterwards, George and Mary are walking leisurely home, with George wearing a football uniform and Mary a bathrobe, both "borrowed" from the school locker room. They harmonize on Cool White's minstrel song "Buffalo Gals" ("Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight / and dance by the light of the moon?") as they stroll. En route to Mary's, George puts down the couple's wet evening wear and, in accordance with local custom, throws a rock through the window of 320 Sycamore, the old Granville place, a large, empty, dilapidated house, and makes a wish as it breaks the window. Mary has asked him not to break the glass, explaining that she loves the romantic house. Then she asks George about what wish he made. His enthusiastic answer:

I didn't make one wish, not two, but a whole hatful! I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world: Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Coliseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I'm gonna build bridges a mile long—

At this, Mary impulsively picks up a stone and breaks a window as well. George asks her what she wished for, but she enigmatically turns and saunters on, accidentally losing her robe in the process. Left holding the garment, a mischievous George humorously teases the mortified Mary, who has hidden herself in nearby hydrangea bushes.

Just then, Uncle Billy, Peter Bailey's brother and the Building & Loan's vice president, drives up and informs George that his father has had a stroke. Tossing Mary her robe, George rides urgently away.

Despite the doctor's best efforts, Peter Bailey dies.

Adult George

George, sacrificing the joys and rewards of vacation and an education in Europe, stays behind and helps settle the matters of the Bailey Building & Loan and his father's estate. He also pays for Harry to go to college first. Mr. Potter makes minor attempts to control the company, but the board puts down his attempts.

Harry Bailey comes home from college with a young woman in his arms and introduces her as his wife. Her father has offered Harry an excellent job—and, despite Harry's possible reassurance, George is sure that his dream of having Harry finally replace him at the Building & Loan so that he can take a bigger lot in life is dashed. Ma Bailey informs George that Mary Hatch is back in town, and that she "lights up like a firefly whenever she sees" George. George eventually makes his way to her house, where she girlishly plays games with him. George acts uncomfortable and as if he has been forced to come to her house, because, although he does love her, he knows that getting married to her means he will forever have to remain in Bedford Falls.

Frustrated by George's lack of response to her affectionate maneuvers, Mary smashes the record that she had put on just for him and demands that he leave. Then the phone rings. It's Sam Wainright, the friend who introduced George to Mary, and he informs her that George's previous tip about plastics has turned out to be excellent advice, but that he's still looking for a place to produce his goods. George advises Sam to consider Bedford Falls' recently closed factory, which, along with its former workforce, could suit his needs. George and Mary share the telephone earpiece as Sam tells George that his father wants to give George a job with generous pay and a prosperous future and that "It's the chance of a lifetime." George, utterly torn between two choices, shouts

Now, you listen to me! I don't want any plastics, and I don't want any ground floors, and I don't want to get married, ever, to anyone! You understand that? I want to do what I want to do. And you're—and you're—

At this moment, he realizes he must again make another sacrifice for love, and embraces Mary. At the same time, George also realizes that he must marry his love while at the same time denying himself the prosperous job. After all, the Bailey Building & Loan needs protection from Mr. Potter, and the Bailey Building & Loan needs to protect Bedford Falls from Mr. Potter, too.

Married George

George and Mary get married in a ceremony at his mother's home. They jump into Ernie's taxicab and are about to go to the airport where they shall embark upon a grand honeymoon when, to their dismay, they see people running through the rain to the Bailey Building & Loan. Resisting the urges of Mary, George goes over to see what's up.

There has been a run on the bank, and everyone's financial future is in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Mr. Potter has seized control of the City Bank, and calls George at the Building and Loan and tells George that he doesn't think the Building & Loan has enough money to stay in business, and informs him that if all of George's clients go to Mr. Potter, he'll refund their accounts 50 cents on the dollar. Without the Building and Loan, they would all be at the mercy of Potter, who cares little for them. George pleads with the people not to sell their shares to Potter at half their value: "Don't you see what's happening? Potter isn't selling; Potter's buying!"

Mary holds up the money that belongs to them, offering their $2,000 in honeymoon money to bolster the dwindling assets and satisfy the depositors, to tide them over until the bank reopens in a week. George sacrifices and throws away his last chance to leave Bedford Falls. The townspeople, although still fearful, trust in George's honesty and agree to withdraw only what they need to last the week.

Exasperated and tired, George, Uncle Billy, and the rest of the Building & Loan staff celebrate the two remaining dollars leftover. Suddenly, the phone rings, and it's Mary, informing him to "come home" to 320 Sycamore—the old house whose windows they once broke.

When George arrives there, he is welcomed inside to a leaking roof, drafty house, and posters of the South Seas and Hawaii covering up holes in the walls. As Mary kisses George, police officer Bert and taxi driver Ernie serenade them from outside. Embracing George, Mary whispers "Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for."

Cutting years later, George opens a development called Bailey Park, opening with the ceremony of poor Italian family the Martinis getting their first home in America. Sam Wainright stops by and tells George that he and his wife are off to Florida. George, furious that everyone else gets their dreams fulfilled except for him, kicks the door to his car shut.

Meanwhile, Mr. Potter is aware that the Bailey Park development is infringing on his profits, and he comments: "The Bailey family's been a boil on my neck long enough." George is then summoned to Mr. Potter's office, and is, strangely, congratulated for beating the old man. Mr. Potter offers him an insanely wealthy future: $20,000 a year salary, business trips to Europe and Asia... meaning the best things in the world for his new bride. However, George suddenly comes to his senses, realizing that he can't accept this temptation, because it would mean ruin for the good people of Bedford Falls. His voice rising with his increasing disgust, he tells Mr. Potter

I don't need twenty-four hours. I don't have to talk to anybody. I know right now, and the answer's no. No! Doggone it! You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money! Well, it doesn't, Mister Potter! In the—in the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say, you were nothing but a scurvy little spider!

That very night, George comes home after dark while Mary is sleeping, and the words of his recent conference with Mr. Potter haunt him. The promises of wealth, happiness, and good clothing and home for Mary seem even more enticing, and George realizes just how much he has had to sacrifice during his life, and what meager material rewards he has gained from it.

His eyes drift from his sleeping young bride to the peeling paint on the walls, and to an old caricature of Mary drew of him as cowboy throwing a rope around the moon. He remembers the night he and Mary walked home from Harry's graduation, the high aspirations for the future that he expressed to her, how carefree and hopeful they were. Thus, George realizes precisely what he has missed out on by passing up Mr. Potter's offer.

Mary then sits up in bed. "George Bailey lassoes stork!" she tells him. George and Mary end up having four children in all.

The War; Christmas Eve

Afterwards, during a montage, angel Joseph explains to Clarence what happened to Bedford Falls during World War II. Harry Bailey went off to war, and his heroics saved a convoy of troops. Sam Wainright made a fortune off of plastic hoods for airplanes. Mary and other women in the town worked for the USO. Ernie and Bert also went off to fight in the war in Normandy. Mr. Potter takes control of the draft board. Uncle Billy sells war bonds.

George Bailey is rejected from the draft board: after saving Harry from the ice as a young boy, he went deaf in one ear, and is therefore ineligible for the U.S. Armed Forces. He stays behind to fight "The Battle of Bedford Falls" against Mr. Potter.

The war ends; and Harry Bailey's heroics have landed him a Congressional Medal of Honor, announced in a banner headline across The Bedford Falls Sentinel. At the bank, with an envelope of $8,000 of Bailey Building & Loan cash to deposit, Uncle Billy is writing out the deposit slip when Potter is wheeled into bank. Potter is greeted enthusiastically by four bankers and then sarcastically by Uncle Billy, who, noticing a copy of the Sentinel in Potter's lap, boasts

Well, good morning, Mister Potter! What's the news? Oh, well, well, well: Harry Bailey wins Congressional Medal. That couldn't be one of the Bailey boys. You just can't keep those Baileys down, now, can you, Mister Potter?

However, in his joy, Uncle Billy inadverently wraps the envelope of cash in Potter's newspaper before returning it to him. Uncle Billy leaves; and Mr. Potter, having discovered the money, greedily and diabolically keeps it all for himself, aware that it means ruin for the Baileys.

At the Building & Loan, Violet Bick asks George for a loan to start a new life in New York City. George agrees to the loan, and consults Uncle Billy as a matter of protocol. He finds Uncle Billy in a state of distress over not being able to locate the eight thousand dollars he was supposed to deposit that morning. George searches in the obvious places in the office, and then races through the snow, hatless and coatless, retracing Uncle Billy's path in a vain attempt to find the cash. Enraged at Uncle Billy's forgetfulness, George, panicking, beats him, shouting "Where's that money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison; that's what it means! One of us is going to jail. Well, it's not gonna be me!"

George is now depressed and distraught, and returns home to find his family joyous and anxious for the coming Christmas tomorrow. His daughter practices piano, while his sons decorate the tree with Mary. The now seemingly inane and stupid pleas of his family make him even more disparaged. He cries as he hugs his son Tommy, knowing that he himself will be the one who goes to jail, and will be to blame for all his clients' financial ruin. He is then told that his daughter Zuzu has a cold. Zuzu tells George that she didn't put on her coat because she didn't want to crush the rose she won at school. She asks her father to paste the wilting petals back on her rose, but they fall off in George's hand. He hides the petals in his pants pocket and returns the flower to her as if he'd mended it. Under extreme duress now, he blames her schoolteacher for not telling Zuzu to put on her coat, and George makes her cry.

Utterly desperate for a way out of prison and scandal and the suffering of his family, George asks Mr. Potter for help. Potter knows that Uncle Billy has misplaced $8,000 of the Building & Loan's money; he suggests that George has been gambling or having an extramarital affair, and taunts George:

Look at you: you used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world! You once called me a warped, frustrated old man. What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk, crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help.

Potter declines to lend George any money, because the only collateral that he offers is a $15,000 life-insurance in which his equity is $500. In a bit of sinister, chilling humor, Potter says "Why, George, you're worth more dead than alive" and says that he will swear out a warrant for George's arrest on charges of malfeasance and manipulation of funds.

Realizing this is indeed true, George departs while Potter is still speaking, and drives to Mr. Martini's bar, where he drinks. He prays to God for deliverance from his woes. Mr. Welch, husband of Zuzu's schoolteacher, recognizes George and, irate that his wife cried for an hour after George yelled at her over the telephone, punches George in the face.

Feeling his life insurance policy in his coat pocket, George interprets this blow as God's answer to a man in need, and, sick with the way the world has been cruel to him for his entire life, is now on the verge of suicide. George has truly lost faith in the people of the world, and in God.

Clarence

George drunkenly crashes his car into a tree near a bridge, and stumbles out into the middle of the span. He looks down into the churning, frigid river, knowing that if he jumped in right now, the temperature and the rapids would kill him in no time. Contemplating suicide, and about to do himself in, George suddenly sees a stranger in a white nightgown jump into the river. George jumps in to save him, and the bridgekeeper saves them from the water.

The stranger introduces himself to George as Clarence Oddbody, Angel Second Class, George's guardian from Heaven, a reader of a damp copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer who recommends "the new book Mark Twain's writing now" and claims to have died in his old-fashioned undergarments. George is very skeptical, and the bridgekeeper leaves, thinking both of them are insane. Clarence attempts to convince George that he jumped in order to save George, knowing that George would rather save a life than take his own.

George, despondent and ruined, explains his situation to Clarence, who already knows all too well the plight of George and Uncle Billy. George claims "Everyone'd be better off if I'd never been born at all."

Clarence takes this statement to heart, and having conferred with his superiors in Heaven, grants George's wish: the world has never known of a man named George Bailey, and he truly has never been born.

Pottersville

They walk in this new reality past the tree where George crashed his car—but it is gone. There is not even a mark in the tree where the car had smashed the trunk in. They then go to Martini's Bar (now "Nick's") for a drink. Clarence hears the cash register's bell, and tells George "Every time you hear a bell ring, an angel gets his wings", garnering unfriendly laughter.

In the bar, Clarence (with characteristic child-like naïveté) is unafraid to discuss angels in front of a bemused Nick and others in the bar: "Why? Don't they believe in angels?" Clarence asks. Embarrassed by his slightly daffy companion, George tells Nick "He never grew up." Nick is less than amused. When Clarence, hearing the bell of the cash register, says that an angel has just earned its wings, Nick orders the two "pixies" out for "giv[ing] the joint atmosphere". As they are manhandled toward the door, Mr. Gower comes stumbling in. Nick calls Gower as a "rummy" and a "panhandler" and sprays him in the face with soda water. George is shocked by Gower's condition and hopes that his former employer will recognize him: but the reply is a mystified "No." Nick tells George that the former druggist Gower "spent twenty years in jail for poisoning a kid" and suggests that, to know Gower, George, too, "must be a jailbird".

George and Clarence are thrown out into the snow for "giv[ing] the joint atmosphere". Dismayed by the experience, but incredulous of Clarence's explanation, George interrogates Clarence, who assures George that he is his Guardian Angel. George ask what else he is: "A hypnotist?" Trying to assert his identity, he finds that, just as Clarence predicts, his wallet, all his identification, even Zuzu's flower petals, are gone from his pockets. Clarence remarks "You've been given a great gift, George: a chance to see what the world would be like without you."

In a horrific series of events, George shakes off Clarence and discovers the changed Bedford Falls—now called Pottersville. The main street has been transformed into a gaudy cavalcade of jitterbug dance halls, strip clubs, and taverns. George sees the Building & Loan has been replaced by a dance hall, while a pawn broker now serves the people of Pottersville. Violet Bick is now a prostitute facing arrest. Ernie and Bert are now callous and suspicious of everyone. The old house at 320 Sycamore is as dilapidated as ever, since George never lived there.

Ma Bailey still runs her boarding house. George insists that he is her son, but she claims she never had any children except for Harry. Peter Bailey had a stroke and died, she says, and Uncle Billy tried to control the company afterwards, but pressure from Potter forced him into madness and an insane asylum.

After running down the steps, George's horrified, confused, despondent face is viewed in a fantastic close-up. He seeks closure by trying to locate the Italian immigrant family, the Martinis, in Bailey Park, but is terrified to find a cemetery there instead. Clarence appears, and tells George he wasn't there to build any house for the Martinis.

In the first of three climactic scenes of the movie, George discovers Harry Bailey's name on a tombstone. It reads "HERE LIES HARRY BAILEY: 1911–1919". Clarence tells George that, because George never existed, Harry Bailey fell through the ice and drowned at the age of nine. George, thinking he's going mad, is convinced that he saved Harry, and that Harry went on to save the lives of an entire ship of men in the war.

Every man on that transport died! Harry wasn't there to save them because you weren't there to save Harry! You see, George: you've really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?

George's mind is now battling between what he thinks he knows and what is being obviously presented to him, and he demands to know what has become of Mary. He feels that if he can just find Mary, things will be back to normal. But he finds that Mary is an old-maid librarian: a plain, bespectacled woman, sad, lonely, and frightened of the world. George approaches her as she closes up the public library, pleading and begging Mary to help him. But she doesn't recognize him, and screams before running away from him. Bert comes to her defense, and tries to pry George from her. George, finally realizing everything Clarence has told him, knocks Bert to the ground. His fears deepened, George flees from the center of town, with gunshots ringing in his ears.

Faith renewed

Fleeing the horrors of Pottersville, George Bailey at last grasps the truth. As he once again arrives at the bridge, he finally realizes what Clarence has been trying to explain: that every man's life affects the world greatly. Forgetting himself and his problems, a humbled George pleads with Heaven to restore his existence and make the world as it was -- problems and all:

Clarence! Clarence! Help me, Clarence. Get me back. Get me back. I don't care what happens to me. Get me back to my wife and kids. Help me, Clarence, please. Please! I want to live again! I want to live again. I want to live again. Please, God, let me live again.

His prayer is answered: at the precise instant George utters the word "God", the blowing gusts die down, and snow begins to fall once more.

At once, George's lip starts to bleed. Bert's police car turns onto the bridge. Restored to life, George at first rounds on Bert angrily, but when Bert says his name, he euphorically asks "Bert, do you know me?"

Bert replies "Yes", leading George to jump and yell with joy. Bert demands to know where he has been, since the whole town has been looking for him. He then points out that George's lip is bleeding. Feeling for the blood, George gleefully cackles

My mouth's bleeding, Bert! My mouth's bleed—[He checks his pocket]—Zuzu's petals! Zuzu's—There they are! Bert! What do you know about that! I'm back! Merry Christmas!

George's eyes have been opened to the true wonder of living. All of the miseries of his Christmas Eve he now greets with humorous joy: he lauds the tree he'd crashed into, lovingly pats his dilapidated car with the door that won't stay closed, and, in the film's most memorable scene, runs ecstatically down Main Street, shouting hellos to the Bijou Movie House, Emporium, Bailey Building & Loan, and the entire city of Bedford Falls, the "crummy little town" he had come to hate. George's holiday greetings are even offered to Mr. Potter, who answers George's "Merry Christmas!" with "And a happy new year to you, too—in jail!"

George returns a home. The bank examiner, the sheriff, and two newsmen are there to arrest him; but he enthusiastically shakes hands with the examiner, who says "Mr. Bailey, there's a deficit."

Responding happily both to the examiner and to the sheriff's arrest warrant, George exclaims "Isn't it wonderful? I'm going to jail!"

Spying his children on the upstairs landing, George rushes up to kiss them. When he asks where their mother is, they answer that she has gone looking for him.

The richest man in town

Mary rushes in moments later, shouting "George, it's a miracle! It's—it's a miracle!" George's years of selfless investment in his fellow men now pay off with interest. The people of Bedford Falls, for whom George has sacrificed his dreams, now appear in his hour of need. One by one, then in a crowd, George Bailey's neighbors offer him their money—Mr. Martini, Violet Bick, Annie the housekeeper, Mr. Gower, the customers who had trusted him in the bank run. As each comes forward, George utters their names under his breath, lovingly. Even the bank examiner and sheriff offer money—and the sheriff tears up the arrest warrant. The money collected amounts to thousands of dollars, more than enough to save George from jail, the Bailey Building & Loan from ruin, and Bedford Falls from control by Mr. Potter.

Suddenly, Ernie shouts for silence so that he can read them a telegram: Sam Wainright, aware of George's peril, has cabled from London that his office is authorized to advance George up to twenty-five thousand dollars. Everyone cheers, knowing that the money should maintain the Bailey Building & Loan, and the homes and neighborhoods it has created, for years to come. The crowd bursts into "Auld Lang Syne", while cousin Eustace, the Building & Loan clerk, begins gladly tallying the contributions.

Someone shouts "Harry Bailey" and, unexpectedly, Bert the cop brings in George's brother, whom he has driven from the airport: "The fool flew all the way up here in a blizzard."

Still in uniform from his decoration in Washington and a subsequent event in New York City, Harry proposes "A toast: to my big brother, George—the richest man in town."

The crowd cheers again, and then resumes "Auld Lang Syne", this time accompanied by Bert on his accordion and Janie on the piano. Suddenly, a book appears atop the pile of money: Tom Sawyer. George reaches down and opens the cover; inside, he finds an inscription:

Dear George:—
Remember no man is a failure who has friends.
Thanks for the wings!
Love
Clarence.

A branch is shaken on the Christmas tree, and a bell on the branch starts to jingle. Zuzu cries out "Teacher says 'Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.'" George looks skyward and says "That's right." He winks. He knows who has received the wings.

As he stands in his beloved home, surrounded by his family and the neighbors he has come to love, George Bailey truly grasps how wonderful his life has been, and realizes that a human life—no matter how wretched—is always worth living, if lived for the sake of the people that one loves.