Category: CNN Regional

WBZ

By Mike Sullivan

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    BOYLSTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — A Massachusetts woman who battled ALS is going out in her own words. Linda Murphy has become a posthumous viral sensation for a tongue-in-cheek self-obituary that has been published locally and nationally.

Murphy, who was raised in Framingham and lived in Boylston, not only wrote her own obituary, but she also picked out her own casket, chose the music at her funeral, and planned a dance party in her own honor.

“She was the life of the party. She was the party,” said her daughter, Justine Hastings, with a laugh. “One of my favorite comments was, ‘I just read this, and I just wish I could have had a glass of wine with her.”

Murphy passed away following a battle with Bulbar ALS. She had been unable to speak for about a year. When she first felt symptoms such as slurred speech and trouble swallowing, she went to the doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital with a request.

“(She) said, ‘I have ALS. Prove me wrong.’ And they did every single test, and she diagnosed herself,” said Hastings, “That is the most ‘my mom’ thing she has ever done.”

Murphy was also diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and survived. The journey not only pushed her daughter to become a nurse, but it also prompted Linda to write a book about her battle. The tongue-in-cheek book, titled “F-Off Cancer,” was written to show that people can still have a fun life while battling cancer. Her obituary carries some of that same humor.

“She starts the obituary, ‘Well, if you are reading this, then it looks like I am dead. Wow. It actually happened. I died of FOMO due to complications of ALS,” Hastings read from the start of her mom’s obituary before skipping down to this part: “I lived my life with two superpowers. My first of which everyone was jealous of, was that I could drink as much as I wanted and never seemed to get hungover. The real wonder is why I didn’t die of liver failure.”

As friends, family and strangers alike read her self-tribute, they began to connect with a woman trapped in her own body, looking to go out on her own terms. Murphy wrote the obituary about six months ago when she could still type with her hands. By the end, she could only sign a few hand signals. She wrote about that trapped feeling in her obituary.

“My stupid Bulbar ALS got me to the sad point of not being able to talk. Never speaking means never being able to say, ‘I love you!’ It means not being able to call my Mr. BoJangles over for a snack, and it means not being able to order at the Dunkin’ drive through,” she wrote. “As far as eating, it totally stinks to sit at the table while people around you are eating juicy burgers hot off the grill, heaping piles of Chinese food, a healthy portion of pasta Alfredo, or Chipotle — and I just have to smile and act like I’m enjoying my bowl of puréed baby mush!”

Though she handled it with humor, Hastings said that feeling of being trapped was a real struggle for her mom.

“The hardest thing up until the end is that people would say she looks so amazing. ‘Oh, you look great! You’re smiling! You’re not sick! You’re okay! But behind closed doors, the struggle was so real,” Hastings said.

In her obituary, Murphy told people to be kind – and not to buy her flowers.

“Please be kind to everyone: the telemarketer, the grocery clerk, the Dunkin’s staff, the tailgater, your family, your friends. Speak nicely and positively. Is there really ever a reason to be negative? I don’t think so…”

“PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t waste money on flowers,” she wrote. “Buy a bunch of scratch tickets and give them out to strangers along your way. Make people happy, that is the best way that you can honor my memory.”

It is something she used to do while she was alive and a tradition her family says they will continue in her honor.

Murphy had her brain and spinal cord donated for ALS research.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Mike Sullivan

Click here for updates on this story

    BOYLSTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — A Massachusetts woman who battled ALS is going out in her own words. Linda Murphy has become a posthumous viral sensation for a tongue-in-cheek self-obituary that has been published locally and nationally.

Murphy, who was raised in Framingham and lived in Boylston, not only wrote her own obituary, but she also picked out her own casket, chose the music at her funeral, and planned a dance party in her own honor.

“She was the life of the party. She was the party,” said her daughter, Justine Hastings, with a laugh. “One of my favorite comments was, ‘I just read this, and I just wish I could have had a glass of wine with her.”

Murphy passed away following a battle with Bulbar ALS. She had been unable to speak for about a year. When she first felt symptoms such as slurred speech and trouble swallowing, she went to the doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital with a request.

“(She) said, ‘I have ALS. Prove me wrong.’ And they did every single test, and she diagnosed herself,” said Hastings, “That is the most ‘my mom’ thing she has ever done.”

Murphy was also diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and survived. The journey not only pushed her daughter to become a nurse, but it also prompted Linda to write a book about her battle. The tongue-in-cheek book, titled “F-Off Cancer,” was written to show that people can still have a fun life while battling cancer. Her obituary carries some of that same humor.

“She starts the obituary, ‘Well, if you are reading this, then it looks like I am dead. Wow. It actually happened. I died of FOMO due to complications of ALS,” Hastings read from the start of her mom’s obituary before skipping down to this part: “I lived my life with two superpowers. My first of which everyone was jealous of, was that I could drink as much as I wanted and never seemed to get hungover. The real wonder is why I didn’t die of liver failure.”

As friends, family and strangers alike read her self-tribute, they began to connect with a woman trapped in her own body, looking to go out on her own terms. Murphy wrote the obituary about six months ago when she could still type with her hands. By the end, she could only sign a few hand signals. She wrote about that trapped feeling in her obituary.

“My stupid Bulbar ALS got me to the sad point of not being able to talk. Never speaking means never being able to say, ‘I love you!’ It means not being able to call my Mr. BoJangles over for a snack, and it means not being able to order at the Dunkin’ drive through,” she wrote. “As far as eating, it totally stinks to sit at the table while people around you are eating juicy burgers hot off the grill, heaping piles of Chinese food, a healthy portion of pasta Alfredo, or Chipotle — and I just have to smile and act like I’m enjoying my bowl of puréed baby mush!”

Though she handled it with humor, Hastings said that feeling of being trapped was a real struggle for her mom.

“The hardest thing up until the end is that people would say she looks so amazing. ‘Oh, you look great! You’re smiling! You’re not sick! You’re okay! But behind closed doors, the struggle was so real,” Hastings said.

In her obituary, Murphy told people to be kind – and not to buy her flowers.

“Please be kind to everyone: the telemarketer, the grocery clerk, the Dunkin’s staff, the tailgater, your family, your friends. Speak nicely and positively. Is there really ever a reason to be negative? I don’t think so…”

“PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t waste money on flowers,” she wrote. “Buy a bunch of scratch tickets and give them out to strangers along your way. Make people happy, that is the best way that you can honor my memory.”

It is something she used to do while she was alive and a tradition her family says they will continue in her honor.

Murphy had her brain and spinal cord donated for ALS research.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Maddie Miller, Will Thomas

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    OUTER BANKS, N.C. (WTKR) — Five oceanfront homes in Buxton collapsed into the water on Tuesday, bringing the total of fallen Hatteras Island homes to 17 since 2020.

The Cape Hatteras National Seashore says the unoccupied homes collapsed between 2 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. There are no reported injuries at this time.

Seashore officials have closed the entire oceanfront area from northern Buxton to the off-road vehicle (ORV) ramp 43. Anyone using ORV ramp 38 should avoid driving south.

Here is a list of the houses that collapsed, as of Tuesday afternoon:

46001 Cottage Avenue 46002 Cottage Avenue 46007 Cottage Avenue 46209 Tower Circle Road 46211 Tower Circle Road More collapses are expected due to the rough surf, the seashore says, and visitors are advised to avoid the surrounding area due to dangerous debris.

News 3 Meteorologist Tony Nargi says the Outer Banks is seeing very rough surf Tuesday, thanks to Hurricanes Humberto and Imelda offshore, with heights of 6 to 12 feet and NE wind gusts between 35 and 45 mph. These winds and high surf will lead to coastal erosion, and overwash is expected in vulnerable areas of the dune. A Coastal Flood Warning is in effect from Rodanthe and points south for 2 to 3 feet of coastal floodwater inundation.

The collapses come two weeks after another Buxton home was claimed by the ocean. The home was owned by the family of Bonnie Clarke Lattimore, who tells News 3 the family had conversations of moving it two years ago. They recently started the process to move it after Hurricane Erin, but time wasn’t on their side before the ultimate collapse of “Dream House One.”

“The amount of people and love and memories of those house… I feel like someone died. You can hear it in my like emotions. I’ve been really struggling this past week with it all,” said Lattimore.

Before the recent Buxton collapses, all of the homes that have fallen into the ocean since 2020 have been located in Rodanthe.

The collapses have sparked discussions about how to protect threatened oceanfront structures. One solution that’s been underway includes moving homes further away from the water, but community members and officials are still working to take other preventative measures.

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By Mya Constantino

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    EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah (KSTU) — Utahn Kalima Watson doesn’t just dig into family trees. He helps people find their roots and discover who they are, all online.

“I’m trying to get people to see genealogy and family history the same way that I do,” Watson said.

The Hawaiian native who now lives in Eagle Mountain is the creator behind “Just Kalima,” — an online channel that has amassed nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram. He makes videos about genealogy and family history for people, but he’s especially trying to reach younger audiences.

“Genealogy can feel boring sometimes. I wanted to find a way to make it engaging and get through to people,” he said.

He says people send him their family names, and then he’ll use sites including Ancestry.com and Family Search.org to track down the details, and then turn them into quick stories for various social media platforms.

Watson’s journey started after moving from Hawaii to Utah in 2017. He wanted a tattoo that represented his Hawaiian roots so he could stay close to home while in Utah. But before getting it, he dove into his family’s history. That’s when he started learning about his ancestors, who he says were chiefs, voyagers, and leaders in Hawaiian history.

“People who did incredible things,” he said. “And the more I learned about them, the closer I felt to them.”

That search is what eventually gave him the idea for the videos he creates now.

At times, Watson chooses followers at random and creates videos about their ancestry. One of those followers is Mark Helske, also from Eagle Mountain. He said Watson uncovered stories about his family he hadn’t known. “I had no idea who Matthew Pennell was, that I was related to him,” Helske said during a Zoom call. “He managed a lighthouse that was under a lot of scrutiny because previous keepers of the lighthouse had not been doing their job properly and there was like a big accident. Matthew Pennell took over for years and years. I had no idea that was a part of my family’s history.”

He added, “It gives you like a feeling of pride knowing that you have ancestors that did something meaningful.”

That is exactly what Watson says he hopes people walk away with. “When you know the hard things they’ve done, it makes doing hard things yourself feel easier,” he said. “That’s the goal — to empower people.”

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By Michael Martin

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    SALT LAKE CITY (KSTU) — The Dry Creek Fire that sparked overnight near the University of Utah campus has grown to an estimated 89 acres, but officials say its forward progress has been stopped.

Utah Wildfire Info said around 2:30 p.m. that although the forward spread has stopped, official containment is at 0% as they work to establish a perimeter.

No structures are currently threatened, and there are no evacuation orders. The Salt Lake City Fire Department is monitoring the situation should that change.

People are being told to stay off trailheads going up towards the fire location in Dry Creek, City Creek, Bonneville Shoreline Trail, and the surrounding foothills, even up behind the Avenues neighborhood and near the University of Utah Hospital.

The fire department is waiting and relying on outside resources to battle the fire, as the flames are in an area too far up for them to reach. Officials told FOX 13 News that the Division of Forestry and state resources are monitoring and assisting in the situation.

Even with all the rain the area has received, the new fire is a reminder that there is still plenty of dry vegetation that can start a new wildfire.

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By Erin Cox

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    Utah (KSL, KSL TV) — After nearly three years in the hospital, one community decided to surprise a 5-year-old and her family.

The Barton’s Saratoga Springs neighborhood has supported them from the beginning. From prayers and rides to the hospital to raising more than three grand to send the Burton’s daughter to Texas for a donor heart — now they wanted to give her a grand welcome home.

Shalise Swenson, who helped plan the surprise, gathered pink and purple to line the streets for the Barton’s daughter, Sienna, who loves Taylor Swift and Disney.

“She’s spice and big heart,” Swenson said.

A big heart that’s been through a lot. Sienna was born with half a heart. She had surgery at six days old, six months old and was supposed to go in again at three years old.

“It’s a very discouraging process,” said Francesca Barton, Sienna’s mom.

In January 2023, Sienna went into heart failure and was hooked up to a mechanical heart while she waited for a new one.

“Twenty eight months later, we were still there waiting,” Barton said.

That’s when the Barton’s found a hospital in Texas that would have a greater chance of finding a donor with the right heart size for Sienna.

They flew to Texas in May 2025, and Sienna had a donor by June.

“Our daughter is only alive today because another family chose donation,” said Fano Barton, Sienna’s Dad.

Sienna needed to stay at least 90 days following her heart transplant. And on day 975 of the family’s journey, Sienna returned home to Saratoga Springs.

“She was two years old when she went into the hospital and now, she’s five,” Fano said.

Sienna waved her hands and threw out candy to neighbors as their car paraded through the streets.

“Our community has been behind us these past three years,” Barton said. “We’re just so grateful to them.”

After all this time, Sienna’s big heart, still beats.

“Our hearts are so full,” Barton said.

There’s a lot of healing and learning left for Sienna.

The Barton’s will go to Texas every six weeks for checkup appointments. The family said Sienna has physical therapy, feeding therapy and on top of that, they just want to catch up on being all together as a family after nearly three years of living in different places.

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