Local Life
Miracle AIDS patient’s dance to aid hospice
by LEN LEAR
When AIDS patient Jay Alvin Chestnut was sent to Keystone Hospice in Wyndmoor in June of 2004, neither he nor anyone else held out any hope that he would survive more than a few weeks. He had been transferred from Cooper Hospital in Camden because he was unable to eat or care for himself.
“I weighed 96 pounds,” said the 5-foot-11 South Carolina native who will turn 66 the day this article comes out (August 17). “I came in here on a walker, and I knew I was dying. I got rid of all my possessions.”
On his 65th birthday last year, the former professional dancer managed to work up the energy for “one last dance.” In the back yard of the hospice at 8765 Stenton Ave., under a stately tree, Jay entertained an audience of hospice workers, residents and friends with the “Dance of the Dying Swan.”
“I looked like a dead guy who got up one last time to walk,” said Jay, whose “last dance” was filmed by TV cameramen and later shown on Channel 12.
Hill area teen releases CD on major recording label
by FRANK KEEL
The Mount St. Joseph graduate contemplates the release of her first major label CD.
Singer-songwriter Catherine Tuttle, 18, a resident of Whitemarsh and recent graduate of Mt. St. Joseph Academy, is an emerging artist to watch.
Recently signed to the influential London-based Candid Records label, Catherine is poised to bring her mature and introspective music to a wider audience with her Candid Records debut, What They Will Find. Tuttle will have a record release party this Saturday, August 20, 7 p.m., at the Tin Angel, 20 S. 2nd St.
What listeners will find is a young, talented woman with a level of maturity and self-assuredness beyond her years. Music is in her French-Canadian bloodline. Her parents were in several different bands for more than a decade and Catherine’s music bears traces of her family’s musical influences, including the Beatles and Rolling Stones (dad Richard), the Smashing Pumpkins (brother Patrick, himself a drummer) and especially, Joni Mitchell (mom Lucie).
Catherine is not only a masterful pianist but also an accomplished painter and actress who has participated in the theatrical arts throughout her formative years. “I first gravitated to piano and immersed myself in nearly four years of classical training, and I recently began playing guitar and bass, as well,” she said. By the age of 13, the songwriting muse inspired her to begin writing her own songs. On her 16th birthday, her parents surprised her with a gift of studio time that proved to be the genesis of her budding record career.
‘It Takes A Senator’ to write an atrocious book
by JIMMY J. PACK JR.
My Microsoft Word 2004 edition’s dictionary defines the ideology of conservative as, “In favor of preserving the status quo and traditional values and customs, and against abrupt change.”
In his new book, It Takes A Family, Pennsylvania’s junior senator, Rick Santorum, defines conservative as the, “stewardship of patrimony,” a phrase borrowed from fellow conservative, Russell Kirk. In explaining what that means, Santorum claims that conservatives in American politics believe they are the “caretakers of the inheritance,” or, simply put, that conservatives wish to preserve the ideology of those who have come before us so that our children may inherit a land full of opportunity,
But aye, there’s the rub. Within the two definitions of what a conservative is, there’s the implication that the status quo should be maintained.
When I decided to review the book, I insisted I’d ignore my own personal moral, religious and political beliefs and review Santorum’s book with an objective eye, mainly focusing on his rhetoric. Does he present a good argument in his book? Does he have some good points?
It’s all in the family for Allstate agent on Hill
Mt. Airy native Bruce Howard has opened an Allstate office at 15 W. Highland Ave. to meet the insurance and financial services needs of area residents. (Photo by Len Lear)
By ED MAHON
Bruce Howard’s mother, Delores N. Wells, has worked as an insurance agent in the Olney section of Philadelphia for the past 20 years. Bruce, also an insurance agent, often talks shop with his mom. She’ll call him for advice or for the latest info, he says. When asked if he calls her for advice, Howard chuckles. “When I first started, not now,” he says. Wearing a light blue golf shirt and sitting at his desk in his new Chestnut Hill office, Howard pauses for a moment, grins and adds, “She calls me more.”
It may not be his mother he always turns to, but Bruce isn’t afraid to ask for help. Three years ago, he needed help for the most delicate issue. Bruce had to deliver a $100,000 death check to a man whose wife had died. Bruce had been an insurance agent since college and an Allstate agent for three years, but had never had to personally deliver a check to a grieving husband. He called some friends in the business, but they hadn’t done it either. He then called the Allstate main office for advice. They offered to take care of it for him, but he said, no, he should learn how to do it himself.
The delivery turned out better than Bruce though it would. The widower invited him over for dinner, and the two have maintained a close relationship since. He’ll often come to Howard’s office, not to talk insurance, but just to chat.
