Finally, some good news: 7-year-old’s NHL Halloween costume goes viral, an Indigenous language first, woman marries train driver who saved her life
Yahoo Canada editors highlight the most smile-worthy and inspiring stories this week
In a world often dominated by challenging headlines, Yahoo News Canada aims to spotlight uplifting news stories both local and beyond. This week's roundup includes an endangered penguin who underwent life-saving surgery, a woman who credit's a train engineer's kindness for saving her life and a 7-year-old whose Halloween costume captured the attention of the NHL and his hockey player hero.
🌍 Inuktut becomes 1st Canadian Indigenous language be on Google Translate
One of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages in this country is now available through Google's translation service, the first time the tech giant has included a First Nations, Métis or Inuit language spoken in Canada on its platform.
Inuktut, a broad term encompassing different dialects spoken by Inuit in Canada, Greenland and Alaska, has been added to Google Translate, which translates text, documents and websites from one language into another.
The latest addition is part of a Google initiative to develop a single artificial intelligence language model to support 1,000 of the most-spoken languages in the world.
There are roughly 40,000 Inuktut speakers in Canada, data from Statistics Canada suggests. Dialects of Inuktut include Inuktitut, Innuinaqtun, Inuvialuktun, Nunavimmiutut and Nunatsiavummiutut.
The company reached out to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national organization that represents about 70,000 Inuit in Canada, to ensure development of the model was true to the Inuktut language, including the ability to translate both of the language's writing systems.
"This is another way in which to make our language relevant, easily accessible and for those who don't know it at all, to be able to interact with it," Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said in an interview.
"This is reconciliation in action, and I really appreciate those who've taken the time to work with us to keep our language strong and to celebrate our language."
🐧 Watch: Endangered penguin 'thriving' after life-saving surgery
🏒 Maple Leafs fan, 7, catches attention of NHL with Halloween costume
A young Toronto Maple Leafs fan has caught the attention of the NHL with his Halloween costume this year.
With the help of his dad, Grayson Haire, of Trenton, Ont., will wear a 3D version of an Upper Deck MVP Auston Matthews hockey card. Matthews, who took over from John Tavares as team captain, has noticed the costume himself.
READ FULL STORY: Maple Leafs fan, 7, catches attention of NHL with Halloween costume
A 26-second TikTok video of Grayson talking to his dad while showing off the costume and spinning around has gone viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of views across various social platforms.
Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews posted the video as an Instastory on his Instagram account while the NHL posted it on its X, Instagram and Facebook platforms.
Grayson, a Grade 2 student, said it was his idea to dress as an Auston Matthews hockey card for Halloween this year.
Grant Joseph, Grayson's dad, said he worked with a printing company, Envy Prints in Trenton, Ont., to create images that match the original card.
"It was beyond belief when he first put it on. It just kind of seemed surreal. When you look at it straight on, it kind of trips you out a little bit when you see the card actually moving in 3D."
"You know we put it on, I believe Saturday evening at 5 o'clock, and just by the next day, we were already like over a half a million views, which is just amazing," Joseph said.
"The NHL reached out really quick, I think less than 24 hours, they ended up moving it over to all of their platforms, and then they sent me the message that Auston Matthews had put it up," he added.
The Maple Leafs have said they will send Grayson a jersey, while Upper Deck has said it will send trading cards.
🏎️ Watch: 'I love speed': 94-year-old woman achieves goal of riding in Ferrari
🚃 'I married the train driver who saved my life'
Warning: This article contains references to suicide and mental health issues.
On a summer afternoon in 2019, nurse Charlotte Lay got ready for her night shift as normal but "wasn't feeling quite right."
Within a short space of time she had decided to end her own life close to a railway station located in the U.K.
But thanks to the kindness of the train driver who found her in crisis, she did not go through with it.
Three years later they married each other and went on to have children.
"I'd struggled with my mental health since my teens and I'd been in and out of the system since," Charlotte, now 33, says in an interview with BBC News.
Her memories of that day five years ago are "quite blurry" but she says she remembers seeing a train pulling up on the tracks where she was, close to Crossflatts Station, near Bradford.
"I remember seeing a man getting off the train and starting to panic and thinking he was going to tell me off," she recalls.
"He approached me and said 'hi, my name is Dave, are you having a bad day?'
"I said ‘yeah, just a bit’. He went ‘OK’, we can sit and talk until it feels better."
The pair talked for half an hour, by which time Charlotte, though still distressed, agreed to get into the cab. She was taken to Skipton Station and left in the care of the police.
The following day, Charlotte was desperate to find the man who had been so kind to her and issued an appeal on a local Facebook group for anyone who worked for Northern who might be able to put her in touch.
"I’d have understood if he didn’t want to hear from me, but I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ for giving me the time and for treating me like I was human being," she says.
Her plea was successful and after Charlotte was given Dave's number by one of his colleagues who had seen the appeal, she sent him a text.
After Dave returned Charlotte's text telling her he was available whenever she needed to speak to someone, they began exchanging messages on a daily basis.
They then met for a coffee two months later and the rest was history.
In 2022, the couple, who live in nearby Wilsden, got married, with Charlotte 22 weeks pregnant.
'Life gets better'
The couple say they wanted to share their story in the hope that anyone who is struggling can know better times are around the corner.
"Life does get better," Charlotte, who is now a mum of three, says. "You just have to be here to see it."
Charlotte says that it is often too difficult for people who are struggling to "reach out" and ask for help, so suggests people around them "reach in" instead. She continues to receive ongoing support for her mental health.
She believes asking someone if they are OK more than once can help them open up.
"We owe it to each other to be checking in with people around us," she says.
Do you have an uplifting moment or story you would like to share with us? Email the Yahoo Canada team: canadatips@yahoonews.com.
