The greatest hospitality story ever, happy bacteria in your mouth, and other joyful tales

1. How a hotel turned itself into the world's greatest hospital for one man

I have bookmarked this story to read on cynical days:

"When they returned in mid-September for another round of radiation, checking back into the hotel felt like a family reunion. Kayla upgraded them to room 601, a much more spacious suite. They only expected to be in town for a few days, but an MRI revealed the source of his excruciating back pain—new tumors on Robert’s thoracic spine—forcing them to extend their stay.

Roshid, the concierge, caught wind that they were running out of clean clothes and snuck a pair of my uncle’s pants out of his closet to check his size. He bought three extra pairs of khakis from a nearby Old Navy store—again with his own money—and had the pants hemmed and altered to remove the left leg to suit Robert’s amputation. Before they returned to the hotel, and without a word to anyone, Roshid hung the altered pants in his closet."

The Greatest Hospitality Story Ever - Longreads

While my uncle was dying from a rare cancer, he found solace in a hotel whose staff became a surrogate family.

LongreadsAdam Reiner