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Local Life
By JIMMY J. PACK JR. My wife, Elizabeth, died four years ago of ovarian cancer, three days before Christmas of 2000. Her last few days were spent in and out of consciousness, liquid morphine drizzled down her tongue, in a hospital room with too many machines and more noises than a video game arcade. Our son was 14 at the time and he stayed with her every day until she passed. We were both standing over her bed, on either side, holding her hands, and when her soul violently slipped away, we both stood there for a few moments feeling her body temperature drop to room temperature. We didn't say anything, we just stood there, staring. Alex was crying, but not making any sounds -- tears just fell out of his eyes, streaked down his face and dripped dark dots onto his mother's white sheets. What do you say to your boy after he's lost his mother at such a young age? How does a husband go on without his wife -- a woman he's known for 24 years, more than half my life when she died. I walked over to Alex, put my arm around him and we walked out of her room, not saying a word to one another. We went back home to the Christmas tree she decorated and sat on the couch watching the colored lights blink some random pattern, a chaos that can only describe the ridiculousness of hearing the words, "Your mother/wife is dead." What can you believe in when you lose so much? And this Christmas promised to be another sad event. It started... A 'Christmas card' that is truly unique by RICHARD McILHENNY My wife has this perfect cousin, Angela, in her hometown of Scranton. She has the looks and figure of a model. Her husband is a studly ex-football player, and they have two perfect little boys. They have a gorgeous house that they got a tremendous deal on. In fact, she gets a tremendous deal on absolutely everything she buys and is very proud to tell you of each bargain. She is happy, bubbly, funny, generous and so sweet that you just have to love her no matter how imperfect she makes you feel. We went up for a visit a couple of weeks ago feeling like the Clampetts as we pulled our seldom-washed, trash-strewn Subaru Outback into their driveway. Their house appeared to be professionally decorated for Christmas, but of course they had done it all themselves. There were lights and bows on every living... 'The best Mexican restaurant in the Delaware Valley' by LEN LEAR If you mention Mexican food to most Americans, they are likely to conjure up an image of tacos, nachos, burritos, enchiladas and fajitas -- relatively simple fare that is slathered with Monterey Jack cheese and fiery spices; in other words, the kind of food that is served at Taco Bell. In fact, however, this is Tex-Mex food, a fusion of Mexican peasant fare and the incendiary spicing one might find in the Southwestern U.S. Much authentic Mexican cuisine is much more sophisticated; for example, the Yucatan peninsula in the southern part of Mexico is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, so residents there usually subsist on a steady diet of fresh seafood -- as different from Taco Bell as it is from Tastykakes. A perfect example of this sublime fare can be found at Tamarindo's, a five-year-old BYOB in the Homemaker Shopping Center, 36 W. Skippack Pike (Route 73) and Butler Pike in Broad Axe, just before Blue Bell. It is well worth a 10-minute trip from Chestnut Hill; over the years we have eaten at dozens of Mexican restaurants in the Delaware Valley, and in my humble opinion, this is the best. I have no hesitation using such... Sounds of Music on Both Sides Now by PAT STOKES Most worthy of note this week, the relocation and swift reopening of Hideaway Music, from its "hidden" access off the Evergreen Avenue parking lot to a spot right on the Avenue, at 8428, next door to Caruso's Market in the "little house" formerly occupied by Artisans on the Avenue. The exterior is now suitably spiffed up in off-white and a spicy tomato red. Inside, two sizable rooms merge to create one large area, jam-packed with CDs, DVDs and the newly important vinyl records. "Vinyl records are really making a big comeback," says Brian Riesman, the owner. "New vinyl records are being made, people are dusting off their old records and turntables, and they're even buying new record players, especially portable ones, which of course we have for sale." This is the field in which Hideaway's used record policy... SRO holiday concert at Hill's church 'perfect' By MICHAEL CARUSO As has been the case in previous years, Saturday evening's concert by the Mendelssohn Club literally packed every available pew plus additional folding chairs in St. Paul's Church in Chestnut Hill. Prospective attendees were actually turned away at the door and didn't hear a program that featured a perfect blend of old and new, one of the enduring hallmarks of Alan Harler's 16-year tenure as music director of the Mendelssohn Club. Other hallmarks include a remarkable ability to elicit excellent singing from an amateur chorus, the almost unheard of talent of attracting nearly as many male singers as female in order to produce a choral blend that is balanced from top to bottom, and a warm personality that engages his audience in the music-making even when they're not singing along in Christmas carols. Harler brought his exemplary sense of dramatic direction and eloquent phrasing to Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols. By molding each line and propelling each rhythm, he invested the score with theatrical intensity and a natural sense of flow that carried the listener along with the performers. His... |