Staff Sgt. Jeremy Cooney went back to his home in North Carolina to surprise his son but ended up getting a surprise of his own. His wife, Melissa, and their three children walked toward him — including his 6-year-old who has cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects patients mentally and physically. Cooney was completely unaware of all of the progress that his son had made up until that point. “When my husband left on his deployment, our 6-year-old son could not walk on his own. He has cerebral palsy. Doctors originally said that he would never walk or do much of anything. While daddy was away, he learned to walk. For his homecoming, we set it up for Michael to walk to his daddy for the first time ever! We kept the fact that he could walk a secret the whole time his dad was gone,” said Melissa.
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Cooney was initially shocked to see his son walking toward him. He walked slowly but with extreme determination, anxious to be reunited with his dad. Watch the heartwarming moment for yourself in the video below.
Anders said that he began seeing pennies as a reminder to stop and say a prayer.
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“If I would see a penny when I’m gassing up, on the ground, or in a store, it would be a reminder to stop right there and say a prayer,” Anders said to ABC News. “I never failed to do that. That’s why they had so much value to me.”
At no point during all of his penny-collecting did Anders accept coins as a gift from anyone else.
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“But I never allowed anyone, not even my wife nor children, to give me pennies without being compensated,” he continued. “I wanted the inner satisfaction that God and I acquired this collection.”
“I became convinced that spotting a lost or dropped penny was an additional God-given incentive reminding me to always be thankful. There have been days where I failed to pray and more often than not, a lost or dropped penny would show up to remind me.”
Anders filled big water jugs with the coins he collected.
He said at one point his goal was to fill up 5 giant water jugs but once he had done that, he felt the urge to keep going.
He needed to go to the bank and turn them in or else he’d never do it.
At the time he finally went to the bank, he had filled 15 5-gallon jugs.
“I wanted to fill five five-gallon water jugs. That was the goal, but I couldn’t stop. … If I hadn’t turned them in yesterday, I was not going to stop.”
In addition to the intrinsic value Anders found in collecting the pennies, they also added up to have significant financial value.
After finding out his homeowner’s insurance policy wouldn’t cover his collection, he called the Origin Bank in Ruston, Louisiana, where he had been a customer for years.
Anders let them know he would be coming in with a large number of pennies.
They were happy to help but it was quite the undertaking.
“We value his business, as we do all of our customers,” said the bank’s Vice President Jennie Cole. “But if we can help Anders with his endeavors, we are happy to do so.”
