Mandy Nathan
The Silver Hair Sisterhood Unibrows and Grandmier’s Life Lessons Cindy Gabriel: Welcome to Your Crisis
Mandy’s
Miracle Heart by Pooja Salhotra
Mae-Mae’s Life in Recipes A Garden for Susan Garver Upcycled Art: A Glorious Obsession Armchair Travel Houston, TX Permit No. 2047
Buzz Reads: Five Books for May
PAID US Postage PRSRT STD
That Quarantine Mom
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 3
EDITOR’S NOTE Nineteen years ago, Michael and I started The Bellaire Buzz from our dining room table. Michael had just come home from surgery after being laid off from his job a few months earlier. It was scary, and life was uncertain. We hoped our new magazine would be successful, but we had no guarantee, only dreams. We have been blessed. With the help of our talented team, The Buzz has expanded to include West University, Memorial, River Oaks and Tanglewood in addition to an active website and social media. Now it seems life has strangely come full circle, as we are back at our dining room table working remotely. However, our goal remains the same: to share residents’ stories one neighborhood at a time. This issue inspires me, and I hope it will inspire you too, with local stories about women who beautifully rock gray hair, a beloved heart-transplant patient, and life lessons/grooming tips from a fiery grandmother named Grandmier. Whichever room you’re reading this in, know that we are grateful for you. Stay well. joni@thebuzzmagazines.com
THE BUZZ MAGAZINES BELLAIRE • WEST UNIVERSITY • MEMORIAL • TANGLEWOOD/RIVER OAKS Published by Hoffman Marketing & Media, LLC 5001 Bissonnet, Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401 info@thebuzzmagazines.com • p: 713.668.4157 • f: 713.665.2940 Follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter thebuzzmagazines.com Editor Publisher Associate Editors Editorial Assistant Design Manager Staff Writers
Contributing Writers Account Managers
Joni Hoffman Michael Hoffman Cheryl Laird Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld Pooja Salhotra John Duboise Tracy L. Barnett Deborah Lynn Blumberg Sharon Albert Brier Andria Frankfort Angie Frederickson Todd Freed Cindy Gabriel Cathy Gordon Michelle Groogan Dai Huynh Annie Blaylock McQueen Jennifer Oakley Cheryl Ursin Russell Weil Catherine Barrett, Cindy Burnett Andrea Blitzer, Leslie Little Jo Rogers
On our cover: Former Bellaire Mayor Pro Tem Mandy Nathan spent more than six months awaiting a heart transplant – and got one. Cover photo by Nikky LaWell, lawellphoto.com The Buzz Magazines has made all reasonable attempts to verify the accuracy of all information contained within. Advertising claims are solely the responsibility of the advertiser. Copyright © 2020 Hoffman Marketing & Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any portion of this magazine by any means without written permission is strictly prohibited. Printed on recycled paper. Please remember to recycle.
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 4
Reputation Matters “Mike listed our house in a difficult Bellaire market after hurricane Harvey. The listing price was in the middle-to-high range for comparable properties. The house sold relatively close to the listing price and two times faster than the average days on the market for the comparables. Over the entire fix-up, listing, negotiations and closing process we came to appreciate the high level of professionalism with which Mike handled it at every step of the way. Starting with detailed knowledge of market dynamics in the area he pinpointed a precise schedule for all the necessary repairs. Mike referred high quality and cost-effective contractors who all did a good job and finished on time. Mike is a very good listener and always found a balance between carefully adjusting to our needs and projecting confidence in his own comprehensive plan. He also stood firmly by his initial cost estimates and was helpful when the buyers requested somewhat arbitrary repairs before the closing. Mike's game plan worked perfectly! We consider the result to be a clear win for us and Mike must take credit for it.” - Vadim Blekhman, 5555 Little Lake
#1 in Bellaire Listings sold since 2001. Specializing in Bellaire Properties since 1993 with over 885 Bellaire Sales Transactions to Date Honored 7 times by the Houston Business Journal as being among Houston’s Top Realtors
Let my record work for you! Professionalism, Local Market Knowledge, Personal Service
Mike Livingston
, CRS ABR 713.764.9850 • mlivingston@gmail.com • www.har.com/mikelivingston BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 5
MAILBAG
Your letters, thoughts, opinions Love from the Astros I enjoyed reading Cindy Gabriel's article about her vintage Astros sweater [Ode to an Astros Sweater, by Cindy Gabriel, April 2020]. If you will kindly pass my info to her, I would like to host her for a game when baseball returns. Life will be normal in no time... I am just sure of it! That vintage sweater... made “famous by Kate Upton.” Funny how things “catch on!” It’s fun to have such great community minded people out and about. It takes all of us doing our part to make this world go ’round. Twila Carter, Executive Director, The Astros Foundation
Rooting for the hometown I always enjoy Ms. Gabriel's articles, and this one especially. It made me feel as though it's OK to root for the home team again. Go ’Stros! I love [Cindy’s] articles; they're the first thing I read every time. I have a journalism degree from UT, and I admire her writing a lot. Suzie Flores
Inspired to cook at home I cannot tell you how grateful I was to receive The Buzz in the mail! Recently, the grocery store had fresh salmon on display in the cooler. Shortly before heading into the kitchen to prepare our dinner that evening, I was flipping through The Buzz when I spotted a recipe for Oven Roasted Bourbon Salmon [featured in Cooking Buzz, April 2020]. I didn't have all the listed ingredients, so I tried cooking the salmon with a bit of salt and pepper in the oven at 400° as the recipe suggested. My husband topped his fish with a little lemon dill aioli, and I sprinkled mine with Thai sweet chili sauce. And voila, delicious home-cooked salmon that rivaled any fine dining restaurant! Thanks to The Buzz and [cookbook] Peace Meals for teaching me a wonderful way to prepare scrumptious salmon during this stay-at-home season! Carolyn Johnson Editor’s note: Carolyn, thanks for the note. We’re so glad our Cooking Buzz column, produced in partnership with The Junior League of Houston, was helpful – particularly during a time when we’re all cooking more frequently.
Thanks for tails and tales Thank you so much for featuring PJ in "Neighborhood Tails" of April’s The Tanglewood/River Oaks Buzz. It was fun to have a little laughter during our lockdown. Also, I so enjoyed your article Meant to Be [April 2020, by Pooja Salhotra]. You [Pooja] are an excellent reporter and gifted writer! Keep up the good work. Ann McCulloch
I know those boys I was delighted to see my precious next-door neighbors [William and Parker Fincher] on the cover of your March Memorial Buzz [featured in BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 6
Buzz Baby: Raised on rodeo, by Annie McQueen]! We love watching the Fincher boys play outside, but I learned a lot about their rodeo ties by reading your article. You really captured family legacies that are born from the HLSR that this younger generation will no doubt continue to share with their families. We understand that the responsible (and incredibly difficult) thing to do was to cancel the rest of the Houston Rodeo season. But we sure will miss the fun and “Agventure" in 2020. Karen Crawford
It’s a small (rodeo) world I recently read the article about the rodeo artifacts [Rodeo Keepsakes: Stirring up sweet memories, by Jennifer Oakley, March 2020] that various people have collected. I thought that it was interesting because I attend the same church as Paige Dominey, and I am pretty good friends with her son, Miles. It also was interesting to me because my grandparents, Don and Jo Putzka, were extremely involved in the rodeo. Both of my grandparents were on the Grand Entry committee, and they rode in a wagon that was driven by my grandpa. Charles Donnell Send letters to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address for verification purposes. Letters are subject to editing for clarity and space. Views expressed in letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Buzz Magazines, and The Buzz takes no responsibility for the content and opinions expressed in them.
What’s your story? We are looking for residents for upcoming articles who: • Started a new hobby or engaged in a new interest during the coronavirus quarantine. • Play a musical instrument and would like to be part of our new “Name That Tune” video series on Facebook. • Have a fun summer tradition. • Have funny or special parenting stories. If this sounds like you or someone you know, please contact us at info@thebuzzmagazines.com or 713.668.4157, ext 12.
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 7
NEIGHBORS by Cindy Gabriel, staff writer
Welcome to Your Crisis Keeping your cool
I
’m confused. If this is the worst crisis in human history, why am I leisurely walking the dogs, having afternoon Zoom disco parties and evening FaceTime cocktail parties, and binge watching Breaking Bad? Is this my same neighborhood? The first morning I stepped outside to no traffic noise; the sounds of children’s voices, backed up by a bird chorus, entered the air. It was surreal enough already, when the sound of a distant trumpet joined the atmosphere. Is this still Earth? I looked at my feet. I’m still alive. The trumpet was probably just some student at home practicing a band instrument. Are these masked strangers walking by, my neighbors? We are keeping our distance, but our smiles and eye contact seem to be reaching out to make a connection. I want to see in someone else’s eyes that they are doing okay. If they are okay, then I’m okay too, right now, I think. A young apartment dweller glides a sudsy sponge along his car, with no more sense of urgency than the lazy oak that shades him. “That looks rather pleasant,” I say. He smiles and nods, relishing the moment. If he had the option of hopping a plane to an exotic beach right now, he’d be busily planning and packing. Instead, he is confined to feeling the cool texture of suds and the simple satisfaction of the work of his own hands on a shady, breezy, weekday morning. “Bliss is everywhere. We just don’t have the attention span for it.” I didn’t have the attention span to write down who said that, but I read it somewhere and wrote it on a recipe card. I can hear my nails clicking on the keyboard of my laptop. At some point, if I don’t cut my own fingernails, I won’t be able to finish this piece. That reminds me of the nail salon in limbo, which reminds me of the news I haven’t checked in a while, which reminds me that there is suffering and uncertainty, sickness and death mixed with jokes on the internet about going from our nighttime pajamas to our daytime pajamas. The ability to laugh at ourselves is a sign of sanity. As I write this, daughter Julia and her young BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 8
family of three (with another one on the way, yay), are arriving at her husband Morgan's family house on the Frio River in the Hill Country for some recovery time. They are among Houston’s weary restaurant owners, in their case, responsible for the TAKE ME TO THE RIVER The Frio River provides a peaceful out-of-the-house moment future of 200 for Eli-the-Guy and Morgan Weber. employees. For would inevitably include tales of almost being those in the restaurant business, it has taken the lost at sea, in storms that would put the whole focus of air traffic controllers, with pits in their boat in panic mode. stomachs, to manage the last few weeks. Then, just as they were on the brink of disasThere is plenty of uncertainty ahead. But they ter, one person would become calm and relax in have done all they can from Houston. the storm. Soon, others would pick up on the They just want to get away and be a family calm and stop fighting against the motion of the now. It’s the first time Eli-the-Guy is old enough storm, until the boat found quieter waters. to actually experience the haven of his father’s I want to be that calm rower in the storm. childhood and be awed, in his own toddler way, We’re all in the same boat. We need all the calm at his first glimpse of the shallow river stream rowers we can get. that trickles past the backyard. There is another story of a group of young They’ve never been able to stay more than three people talking and laughing while walking or four days in a row. They’ve never been ready through the rubble of their war-torn town. A when it was time to leave. Now they are excited passer-by noticed them and asked, curiously, about going with an open-ended return date. how they could possibly be laughing while sur“I told Morgan I’m already anxious about rounded by so much misery. returning to our normal lives,” Julia said. “Our “Happiness is all we have left,” they replied. goal is to be able to live more this way: cooking Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were actually every night, spending lots of time outside and a way to be calm in the midst of all this? together. It just feels right.” I’ll leave you with a few more pointers from Here’s another recipe-card save. “We do not my recipe cards. think ourselves into a new way of living. We live “It takes three things to attain a sense of sigourselves into a new way of thinking.” – Richard nificant being: God, a soul and a moment. And Rohr, Catholic priest and prolific author. the three are always there.” – Rabbi Abraham Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Joshua Hershel Hanh often tells stories that illustrate how one “The wilderness holds answers to more quescalm person can transform a situation. He tells tions than we have yet learned to ask.” – Nancy about the many Vietnamese people who fled in Wynne Newhall, best known for putting words tiny boats across treacherous seas as the war to Ansel Adams photographs. was ending. “Be still and know I am God.” – duh, God. While some boats were lost at sea, there were Psalm 46:10 also those who lived to tell their stories. They
lawellphoto.com
NEIGHBORS by Pooja Salhotra, staff writer
The Garden That Came to Be Honoring Susan Garver’s life and loves
A
bout four years ago, behind her dad’s two-story brick home along Buffalo Bayou, Beth Black noticed an assortment of dog toys and lawn chairs, oddly strewn about one area of the yard. Only a few weeks had passed since Beth’s mom, Susan Garver, had passed away from a heart attack, and Beth was hanging out on the back porch with her sister Gretchen Hilyard and her father Mike Garver. When Beth inquired about the vaguely organized array of random objects in the yard, her dad told her that, originally, they were going to be her mom’s 79th birthday present. “He told us that he was going to make a flower garden that she could see from her bed,” said Beth. “He’d mark out the spot with dog toys and lawn chairs, then run back up the stairs in the house to see if he could see the garden from the bedroom window.” Susan, struggling with health problems at the time, had been spending more hours in bed. Mike, knowing his high school sweetheart and longtime wife adored gardens, decided to plant her one that she could admire from her room. She passed away before that could happen. When they heard his plans, his daughters were inspired. “Mom loved arranging flowers,” said Gretchen. “It’s been a theme of our whole life that she loved the beauty of flowers.” Both Gretchen and her older sister Beth – former teachers who now work for their dad’s real estate company – have vivid, early memories of going to the neighborhood nursery each summer with their mom to pick out seed packets. Beth remembers picking out bachelor buttons, quickgrowing flowers in an array of colors. Gretchen recalls the zinnias, perfect cutting-flowers to add to an arrangement, as their mother taught them. Back then, in a section behind their childhood home in Meyerland, their dad had pulled out the bushes, tilled the soil and apportioned out space for the girls to plant their seeds. Even now, as the sisters navigate their own work and families – both are married, and each have two adult children – the lessons their mom taught them about flowers are often top of mind. BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 10
For instance, she told them that using an odd number of flowers instead of an even number makes an arrangement look more natural, and she taught them how to match flower arrangements with their place settings. “Sometimes, I’ll think of an idea for an arrangement, like, ‘I’m going to make this entirely red flower arrange- REMEMBERING MOM To honor their mother and her appreciation for the environment, sisters Beth Black and Gretchen Hilyard (along with their father, Mike Garver) ment.’ And then it dedicated a public garden in her memory. hits me, no, Mom wife a backyard garden in 2016 that plans for the wouldn’t have liked that,” says Gretchen. city garden were beginning to take shape. Her mom, born and raised in Kentucky, was Houston City Council had, the previous year, widely known as a social butterfly and a gracious unanimously approved a contract with Houston hostess. She enjoyed entertaining her friends Botanic Garden for a 30-year lease of the and family; Gretchen recalls that her mom used Glenbrook Golf Course, providing a site for the to formally set the table every night for dinner, garden. Houston Botanic Garden supporters had with silverware that might not even be needed. to meet a $20 million fundraising goal by the To honor their mom, Gretchen and Beth wantend of 2017 to take control of the property, then ed to create a public garden that all could admire. a neglected golf course owned by the city. And they have. At Susan’s funeral in March 2016, the Garver Today, the Susan Garver Family Discovery family requested donations to the Houston Garden is a three-acre, serene space that marks Botanic Garden in lieu of flowers. And the folthe first completed section of the Houston lowing year, the family made a transformational Botanic Garden, just a mile off of I-45, east of the donation, helping the organization reach its mid-century, ranch-style homes in the Glenbrook fundraising goal and putting the space on track Valley neighborhood near Hobby Airport. to open in fall 2020. Now well into construction on a 132-acre site The Garvers visited with Houston Botanic along Sims Bayou, the Houston Botanic Garden Garden organizers several times over the next is a massive project that stems from a 30-yearfew months to see the plans for the garden, old vision, when Nancy Thomas – past presideveloped by West 8, a landscape architecture dent of the Garden Club of America – and the firm based in New York. late Kay Crooker advocated for a botanic garden The garden, unveiled at a sneak-peak event in Houston that would rival that of other metthis January, is one where kids have open space ropolitan cities like New York City. In 2002, the to play and engage in interactive activities, like two women created a non-profit whose sole purriding on a see-saw that pumps water when ridpose was establishing a botanical garden. den. It features a central (continued on page 12) It was when Mike was working on gifting his
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 11
lawellphoto.com lawellphoto.com
lawellphoto.com
SUSAN’S GARDEN Top left: Susan Garver always loved arranging flowers. Top right: The Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden is part of the new Houston Botanic Garden. Bottom right: A flower-lined path surrounds a central lagoon. Bottom left: The garden attracts ducks, turtles and frogs. (continued from page 10) lagoon
surrounded by flower beds, including the rainbow perennial bed – with flowers arranged in order of the colors of the rainbow – another with carnivorous plants, and a boardwalk maze lined with Louisiana irises, now in full bloom. At the far end of the garden is a hill with loblolly pines and plenty of space for kids to jump and play.
Mike downplays his part, noting that the garden he planned for his wife in his backyard was “only a concept” and never came to fruition. And yet, it was Mike – running up and down the stairs of his home, trying to find the ideal spot for his backyard plot – who planted the seeds for The Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden. Larger than what the Garvers may have ini-
tially envisioned, that space is the home of wildlife – symphonies of frogs begin chirping come sunset, ducks and turtles gather on the edge of the lagoon and caterpillars find refuge on host plants. “You can see where kids will be using all of their senses,” Beth says. “Mom would just think it’s perfect.”
Houston Botanic Garden The Houston Botanic Garden is scheduled to open in fall 2020 with the completion of Phase I, the $35 million portion of an $80 million master plan. Visitors will enter the garden by driving up Park Place Boulevard, just off of I-45 South, and then turning onto a newly constructed bridge that crosses over the Sims Meander to a parking lot, picnic area and welcome pavilion. In addition to The Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden, Phase I will include the following spaces, accessible with a paid entry ticket:
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 12
• Global Collection Garden: Three-acre, colorful space where visitors can discover plant species from around the world. • Culinary Garden: More than one acre showcasing edible and medicinal plants. • Woodland Glade: Outdoor wedding space. • Natural Ecosystems: Stormwater wetlands and coastal prairie with wild grasses and educational programming. Editor’s note: See hbg.org to volunteer with The Houston Botanic Garden and learn more.
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 13
NEIGHBORS
lawellphoto.com
by Pooja Salhotra, staff writer
Upcycled Art Susan Coburn’s glorious obsession
A
n ancient clock, a hubcap from an old car, a brass knob from a discarded piece of furniture – these might sound like pieces of rubble, but to Susan Coburn, they are valuable source materials. Walk behind Susan’s cottage-style home in West University, and you’ll find yourself smiling in delight at the scene before you: a whimsical garden with a fence line of colorful flowers assembled from recycled metal objects. Susan has made more than 100 of these sculptures since she began the project a year ago, molding objects ranging from egg holders to fancy silver trays into flowers. “I started out just because I wanted to spruce up my garden a little bit, and then it became kind of a glorious obsession,” says Susan, a 69year-old retired businesswoman. “I decided I wanted to cover the entire backyard.” Susan, a charming, astute blonde who hails from the Bronx in New York, says the project began as a way to distract herself from missing her family. Susan’s daughter, Chelsea, used to live in the Heights with her husband and baby, but they moved out to the Hill Country last April. A single mother, Susan decided she needed a new hobby. She found it in her backyard. In one corner of Susan’s yard were four metal flower sculptures she had purchased on Etsy, an e-commerce site focused on handmade and vintage items. Looking at them one day, Susan felt inspired to create her own. “I looked at them and said, you know, that doesn’t look too hard. I could do that,” she recalls. To get started, Susan transformed her garage into a makerspace, with banquet-sized tables and industrial shears to cut and shape her materials. She quickly found herself working on the flowers every day. Some days were focused on procuring the materials, from a garage sale, her own house or a scrap-metal shop. Other days, she’d lay out all the objects on the table in the garage and simply stare at them for hours until inspiration hit. Other days were for assembling and reassembling the flowers. Each flower in Susan’s garden is unique, and Susan wouldn’t dare choose a favorite. “They are like children,” she says. “I love them all.” BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 14
FLOWER POWER Susan Coburn’s backyard is filled with metal flower sculptures she made.
But, also like children, they do share some features. They are all layered, with multiple, upcycled metal items of different colors, textures and shapes drilled together. Each flower also has a matching stem, which Susan makes out of plastic PVC piping that she paints brown and stakes into the ground. She cuts the pipes to different lengths, giving the flowers irregular heights. About six months ago, a photo of Susan’s yard began circulating on Facebook. It garnered nearly 7,000 likes and received a number of comments inquiring how people could purchase the flowers. Many seemed to assume the flowers
were a business venture, and they even wanted Susan to make DIY videos teaching others how to create them. But Susan has no desire to turn this hobby into a business. She’s done that before – for almost 30 years, she owned a company that provided document services to the oil and gas industry. “I used to have a business. I worked really hard all my life establishing a household and raising a daughter all by myself,” Susan said. “I didn’t really want to work anymore, and I was concerned that if I turned this into a business, it would become work. And I was (continued on page 16)
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 15
lawellphoto.com lawellphoto.com
lawellphoto.com
IN FULL BLOOM Top photo: More than 100 of Susan Coburn’s hand-made flowers fill her backyard. Bottom left: Many are made from old kitchen utensils, such as this one from a colander. Bottom right: Susan says her flowers are like children. Each is unique, and she can’t choose a favorite. (continued from page 14) tired of working.”
Susan says she’s happy to give flowers as gifts – she’s given them to friends for birthdays and weddings – but selling them is not in her playbook. “I wouldn’t even know how to price these. If I say, okay, I’ll sell this to you for $150, for example, I’d have the $150, but I don’t think that would make me as happy as knowing that I have the object, or that I’ve gifted it to a friend.” In some ways, Susan’s hobby is a window into her character. The flowers, much like other parts of her life, demonstrate her independence and industrial nature. Susan crafted each of the flowers on her own; she even staked them into the ground without enlisting anyone’s help. In other aspects of her life, too, Susan is fiercely BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 16
independent. She raised a successful daughter on her own; she installed all of the ceiling fans in her home; she turned wine tasting into a job after retiring from her business. The artistry Susan brings to the flowers is also evident in Susan’s great taste. Susan’s wardrobe seamlessly blends sophistication with fun, and her house is impeccably decorated, with accents of bright colors – a door painted blue, for instance. “She’s always been somebody I would go to when I was decorating my house or trying to figure out what to wear,” Chelsea says of her mother. “She’s always been creative, but now she’s redirecting it to something more expansive.” Now that Susan has accomplished her goal of filling her entire garden with upcycled flowers,
she spends more time enjoying them and less time crafting them. Unlike real flowers, these creations require no maintenance. “As they age, as opposed to dying and needing to be replaced, these rust and tarnish, and in my opinion, they become more beautiful as they age,” Susan says. “They require no water, no sunshine, no fertilizer. And they just continue to get more beautiful.” When she’s reading a book in bed, or eating breakfast at her kitchen table, Susan smiles, looking out the window and admiring her creations. “I just look out my window, and it makes me happy,” she says. “Everybody thinks it’s pretty spectacular. So that makes me happy too – knowing that it makes other people happy.”
NEIGHBORS by Cheryl Ursin, staff writer
The Silver Sisterhood Women rocking their gray hair
R
emember the jingle, “I’m gonna wash that gray right out of my hair,” from the 1980 Clairol television commercial? If you do, then you most likely have seen some gray in your own hair. And you have faced a decision: Leave it or hide it? For men, this doesn’t seem to loom as such a milestone. When men were asked how they felt about their gray hair for this article, all of them answered with some variation of “I’m just glad I have hair.” One said he didn’t mind it, since, after all, “I don’t have to look at it.” (Isn’t that such a man thing to say?) For many American women, though, the solution for years has been to color it. Surveys show that 75 to 80 percent of all American women color their hair, and according to Modern Salon magazine, the No. 1 reason they do is to hide their gray. As filmmaker Nora Ephron wrote in her 2006 book I Feel Bad About My Neck, “There’s a reason why forty, fifty and sixty don’t look the way they used to, and it’s not because of feminism, or better living through exercise. It’s because of hair dye.” In reality, underneath the dye, many people start going gray in their 30s, though starting earlier is not uncommon, and by age 50, half of us have hair that is 50 percent gray or more. But maybe fashion, as it does, has changed. According to Allure magazine, a 2017 survey found that 28 percent of the women surveyed were considering having silver hair, and sales of shampoos specifically for silver hair were up by 55 percent. In 2019, L’Oreal Paris and Vogue magazine declared silver, the prettier term for gray, to be the hair color of the year. An awardwinning documentary, Gray is the New Blonde, was just released this year, while Facebook groups, like Going Grey Gracefully, and Instagram accounts about going gray, like Grombre, abound. Young women are even dyeing their hair gray, in what sounds like a very involved process: seven to eight hours in the salon chair, bleaching their hair over and over until it is as white as it can possibly be before applying the gray color. A hashtag for this is #grannyhair. BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 18
GOING GRAY Beth Reese says, of letting hair be its natural color, "You should do what makes you feel best about you."
Beth Reese, the 51-year-old owner of Yogiño’s, Yoga for Youth, has had people ask her who does her white hair. “I say, ‘She’s really great. Her name is God,’ Beth jokes. “I had dyed my hair since I was 12,” she explains. “And I started going gray at 17. I did
punk rock, blonde bangs, highlights; often, I dyed it red. About two and a half years ago, though, as a yoga teacher trying to be as natural as I could be, I thought I should start walking my talk.” Also, she points out, when her hair was red and her white roots would start to show,
GROWING IT OUT Left photo: Jill Schein kept a photo album of her hair’s transition to gray. Here, she's halfway through growing her hair out. Right photo: Rollin Simmons estimates that she's about halfway to her natural salt-and-pepper hair.
“I looked like a candy cane.” The transition from colored hair to natural gray can be rough, particularly for dark hair. My stylist, Angie Mills of Michael Saldana Aveda Salon, is all for me going gray but warned, “You’re going to hate your hair at times during this process.” And this process can take 1½ to 2 years. Using clever manipulations of hair color – lighter shades, highlights, lowlights – stylists can try to make the process somewhat less awkward. But Jill Schein, a 51-year-old lawyer, went coldturkey, from long, wavy brunette hair to short curly gray hair. She had to. She was undergoing chemotherapy and had decided to “cold-cap.” A cold cap is a tightly fitting cap, cooled to -15 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit, worn during chemotherapy. The blood vessels in the scalp constrict because of this cold, reducing how much of the chemotherapy drugs reach the hair follicles. For some women, including Jill, who says she kept about 60 percent of her hair, doing this can reduce hair loss. Jill needed to treat her hair as gently as possible during this year of cold-capping, which meant no hair color. “I had the worst hair days for so long,” she says. At first, growing out gray roots can just look
unkempt, like you haven’t been keeping up with your hair appointments. “It’s not until the gray reaches your eye level that it starts to look intentional,” Jill says. And that demarcation line between the colored hair and the gray “was just horrid,” she says. But now, she reports, “I have never had so many comments on my hair. Total strangers give me compliments all the time. Hairdressers stop me to ask about it. I was doing a deposition once, and the entire room was asking me about my hair.” Jill finds it funny that, when she’s with her mom (70 and brunette) and her grand mom (90 and platinum blonde), she’s the one with the gray hair. “I think it freaks my mom out a bit,” she confides. When she colored her hair, Jill was having it done at a salon every six weeks, with home coloring sessions in between. “I wouldn’t ever go back to that, dying the roots, not ever,” she says. “I’m not a slave to my hair anymore.” Rollin Simmons, the 41-year-old cantor at Congregation Emanu El, is on her second try to transition her hair from brunette to gray. “About three years ago, I was trying, maybe a little out of laziness,” she admits, “to go gray. I sent my mom a picture of us at Thanksgiving. The grays
were pretty prominent. And she sent me back the picture with it zoomed in on my roots.” But Rollin was also seeing old friends on Facebook, “with these beautiful young faces and beautiful silver hair, really rocking it,” so, in May of last year, she decided to try again. After almost a year, she estimates that she’s about half grown out. Much of her hair is naturally brunette with some speckling and a streak of gray in the back. “Someone said that was called a ‘witch’s streak,’’’ she says. “I’m not sure I like that.” But she does like her hair. “I feel like it’s me.” Birgitt van Wilk decided to stop covering her gray two years ago, when she was 70. “I call it my silver crown and I’ve earned it,” she says. Like others, Birgitt loves not being shackled to coloring sessions every four to six weeks. She says, “I’d be stuck in rush hour traffic for a hair appointment, and I’d think to myself, ‘Really?’” Helene Maltzman, “after being on the fence for five years,” decided to stop lowlighting (adding dark streaks to) her hair and let it be entirely its natural salt and pepper color at age 60, three years ago. “It felt like a more philosophical, spiritual decision: I wanted to show my authentic self and not feel like I needed to cover that up,” she says. It also (continued on page 20) BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 19
GONE GRAY They’ve gone gray and are loving it: Jamie Grossman (top photo), Dianne Cousins (bottom left) and Susan Farb Morris, with her mother, Sylvia Farb. (continued from page 19) didn’t hurt, she says, that
“I was seeing these people with white and silver hair, men who looked distinguished and women who were stunning.” Blondes may or may not have more fun, but they can have an easier time letting their hair grow in gray. “I dyed my hair forever,” says Jamie Grossman, 71, who colored her hair blonde with highlights. “One day, my stylist said, ‘Your hair is white; it’s about the same shade as what we are doing.’ So, all I did was, I stopped.” Dianne Cousins, 68, had a similar experience. As a young woman, she started graying and had brown hair with a white streak. BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 20
“Which I didn’t like,” she explains, “so I went blonde and I frosted, or what is now called highlighted, my hair, to make that white streak look purposeful.” Like Jamie’s, Dianne’s stylist pointed out that she had a lot of gray and it wasn’t that much different in color than what they had been adding. Dianne stopped coloring “and nobody noticed,” she says. They do notice her hair now in its all-white bob, though. “I get compliments all the time,” she says. Susan Farb Morris, who runs her own eponymous public-relations firm, is known for her striking white-silver hair. Susan, now 64, has been silver-haired since her 40s. People compliment her
hair almost daily, something that, she says, never happened when her hair was black. “Just the other day, a woman came up to me in the Walgreens, and just a day later, another stranger did at a performance,” she says. Both said Susan looked like Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mother and a model who has said she’s never been more in demand than she is now that she’s gone gray. While Angie, my stylist, and I had already started strategizing for my own transition to gray, the present situation with the coronavirus may have made that all moot. As the Facebook memes have it, we’re all going to know our true hair colors pretty soon. Maybe it’ll be a nice surprise.
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 21
NEIGHBORS by Cathy Gordon, staff writer
Grandmier’s Guidebook lawellphoto.com
Unibrows, tooters and life lessons
W
ow, the brows. If meticulously cared for, they preen like a Japanese garden, plucked, trimmed and shaped. Left neglected, they can invade like a pervasive weed, encroaching on each other’s turf. Heaven forbid they meet in the middle. “Oh no! The unibrow is never acceptable. It’s a situation that must be dealt with,” says 81year-old Tanglewood resident Cissie Rauch Kaplan, an impeccably styled woman with sparkling eyes, madcap humor and, yes, sleek, manicured eyebrows. “And hair above the lip? A little moustache? No woman wants that! Be gone!” declares Cissie, who serves up life lessons and female maintenance tips with a mix of genteel sorority decorum and mischievous tomboy in I’ve Taken to the Bed: Grandmier’s Life Lessons, dedicated to her five granddaughters. The uproarious mini book, printed for family and friends, addresses facial hair woes, the importance of wearing heels (“the higher, the better”) and all things in between, including the inevitability of shifting teeth and crepey upper arms. And don’t forget “upper and lower tooters,” of which she writes: “If by accident one escapes in public, make sure to either pass the blame on someone else or play dumb. Keep your poker face strong.” All great advice, agrees eldest granddaughter Allison Asarch, 25, a singer-songwriter in Nashville and follower of Grandmier’s golden rules. “I love that book! It’s stuff I’ve heard from her my entire life, like there’s no such thing as a heel too high as long as they’re cute. Just have the bandaids ready for blood and blisters. I love wearing heels. They can kill, but they look good!” exudes Allison, aka Catuba San. That’s right. Cissie loves nicknames. Each granddaughter was blessed with an original. “Allison was a honker, a chub, a big baby. Catuba San seemed to fit,” Cissie deadpans, pointing to five framed ultrasound pictures, displayed on her bathroom vanity. The sonogram images and accompanying nicknames grace the dedication page of her book. And as far as her own moniker, Grandmier? “I thought it sounded regal, queen-like,” she says BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 22
STYLE AND A SMILE Stylish Cissie, known for her humor, looks over her “wisdom for the ages masterpiece” of life lessons and grooming tips at her Tanglewood home.
with a chuckle. “When Allison came along I said, ‘Listen, you. There will be no grandma, granny, nanny or neenie. You can call me Grandmier or Miss Rauch.” (That’s the maiden name she went by before marrying Dr. Alan Kaplan.) “There’s no one else like Grandmier,” extols
Allison’s youngest sister, Catie, 21, aka Glamorina, soon to graduate from Auburn University. Catie was blessed with thick hair, ergo, substantive brows. When hairs started frolicking in the middle, Cissie took note. “I was probably in the fifth grade when
lawellphoto.com
GIFT FROM GRANDMIER Cissie Rauch Kaplan doles out grooming tips and life advice in a humorous booklet dedicated to her five granddaughters. On right: She might be classy and sassy, but she’s equal parts all-out humor, say friends who’ve known Cissie for decades. Here, a young Cissie takes on the world in supersized sunglasses.
Grandmier said, ‘We’ve just got to do something about that unibrow,’” recalls Catie. “That’s when I learned that maintenance hurts, that beauty is pain. But it’s worth it in the end. I’ve kept my eyebrows in shape ever since. “And I’ve mastered the upper and lower tooters.” Lindsey Payne, 24, middle sister to Allison and Catie, takes Grandmier’s tips to heart. She loves the book for its life advice: Have bonding “Chat & Chew” sessions with girlfriends. Girlfriends’ secrets go to the grave with you. You will not grandparent as you parent. Have a bit of money that belongs to you and only you. “And marry your best friend. That’s an important one to Grandmier,” says Lindsey, nickname So Fine. Lindsey and husband Larry met with Cissie and Alan before tying the knot. “Grandmier talked to us about how they can count on each other for everything. They’re best friends. She wished that for me as well. And I know for a fact that she took to the bed after we got married.” “Absolutely,” quips Cissie. “It’s like a re-set. There are times when you just have to ‘take to the bed’ [in Cissie’s world, a favorite phrase for when she can’t cope]. Like the time I took Allison shopping for training bras years ago. I
grew up with a brother and male cousins and did all boy stuff. I can’t handle the training bra and periods kind of thing. When I was young, I used to sit on the toilet backwards to be like the boys. If I couldn’t stand up, at least I could face the back. And that’s the God’s honest truth!” Sounds about right, says Melissa Levin, Cissie’s first cousin, once removed. “She’s got an inner tomboy beneath all that beauty and class.” Melissa, a marketer, helped make the book reality and is the brains behind its cover – a pop art presentation of floating Cissie heads in sunglasses. “Cissie is definitely not an egocentric maniac, but I thought it would be funny to have a cover like that because I knew she’d think it was hysterical,” Melissa says. “If you don’t know her, you might think she’s a prissy prima donna giving advice, but you’d be wrong. She can be naughty and even crass sometimes, and it’s hilarious. She’s my favorite person. She’s so real, and because of that, her advice carries street cred with me.” She carries street cred with husband Alan, too. They met on a blind date more than three decades ago, and she has had him in stitches ever since. “She is very funny. I knew from the start that she was the one for me,” says the revered Dr. Kaplan, former chair of the
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Houston Methodist Hospital. They married on February 13, 2004. “Yes, Friday the 13th. I wasn’t about to get married on Valentine’s Day,” cracks Cissie. “That would have been too nauseatingly sweet.” Yeah, Cissie doesn’t do sugary sweet, say friends who have tales to tell. Like the time she met friends at a restaurant, a string of twinkling red lights strategically placed beneath her blouse. “It’s something only Cissie would do,” says lifelong friend Esther Cohn. “She can be hilariously outrageous.” Esther moved to Nashville in 1958 and has been there ever since, but the miles apart don’t matter. The pair is still as close as those two little girls who giggled together at Houston’s Congregation Beth Israel. “When her first grandbaby was on the way, she sent me a picture of the ultrasound and said, ‘I think the baby looks just like me,’” Esther says, laughing. “And there’s the time when Barbara Bush asked her to come inside, and Cissie said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, but I have a beauty shop appointment.’ Who does that? Cissie does.” Yes, that happened. The former First Lady and 41st President George (continued on page 24) BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 23
lawellphoto.com
SAGE ADVICE Top left: Want a happy life? “Marry your best friend,” says Cissie, here with husband Dr. Alan Kaplan, the yin to her yang. Bottom left: Not one of Cissie’s granddaughters would be caught dead in blue eye shadow, thanks to Grandmier’s makeup advice. Cissie (top row) is flanked by granddaughters Catie Asarch (left) and Allison Asarch, (middle row) Lindsey Payne and Shelby Casper, and (bottom) Natalie Casper. On right: The motto “Less is More” pertains to nearly all things in life, advises Cissie, who recommends a tissue kissed with lemon to protect the nose against perfume offenders. (continued from page 23) Herbert Walker Bush lived
two doors down. Cissie recalls another Bush-related story. She was in the kitchen taking off her pantyhose on a steaming hot day when the doorbell rang. “Who is it?” she shouted. “Barbara Bush,” a voice replied. “Yeah, and I’m the [expletive] queen of England,” Cissie responded, opening the door to reveal the former First Lady. “My life flashed before me. If she heard me, she never let on. And we became friends. I loved walking the dogs with Babs. I mean, why not? Those Secret Service men were so cute!” Marlene Finger, a friend since seventh grade, recalls a young, pajama-clad Cissie singing beneath her bedroom window to wake her up. “She’s always been funny. She’s the most loyal friend you could ask for,” she says. “And you can trust her with a secret.” Marlene gets credit for a page in the book. “I suggested that every woman should have a little black dress.” To which, Cissie added the text, “And, to go sleeveless depends on your age and BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 24
your arms. No one wants to see Hadassah arms floating in the wind.” There are numerous tips relating to skin, says granddaughter Shelby Casper, 23, aka Fannie Gene, so named for Cissie’s mother Fannie, who died at 105. Her late mother liked things neat and orderly. Turns out Shelby has that propensity too. The medical scribe who is applying to physician’s assistant school knows all about gravity and its damage. Not from personal experience, but from Grandmier telling her since age 5. “Makeup goes on with upward strokes so you don’t pull things down. Gravity will do that job soon enough,” Shelby recites. “Oh, and never ever wear blue eye shadow unless you’re in a play or something.” Shelby is responsible for younger sister Natalie’s Grandmier-given nickname. “I’d gone to the ultrasound appointment with my mother. Then Grandmier asked me what the baby looked like. I said ‘I don’t know. It just looks like a plain baby.’” “I was struggling for a name,” Cissie says.
“Plain Baby worked. Of course, I had to explain the story to Natalie. I didn’t want her to spend years on a shrink’s couch.” No offense taken, says Natalie, 16, a junior and varsity tennis player at St. Agnes Academy. “I love Grandmier. She’s been one of the biggest role models in my life. If I have daughters one day, they’ll have to read this, memorize it, get quizzed over it.” Natalie’s known since age 6 that less is more, a lesson thoroughly covered in Grandmier’s book. That advice pertains to all things, says Cissie: makeup, jewelry, knick-knacks in the home, flowers. “And no fake flowers. Ever.” And carry a lemon-spritzed tissue to protect the nose against those who generously douse perfume as if a spray truck after a mosquito. “My advice are all things I really believe in,” says Cissie, who, above all, advises living in the moment, laughing at one’s self and cherishing family and friends. “But there is a lipstick color I love that you just can’t get anymore. I’m about to take to the bed over that one.”
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 25
NEIGHBORS by Pooja Salhotra, staff writer
lawellphoto.com
Mandy’s Miracle A one-in-5.7-million heart
A
cross the globe, people have been coming to terms with a new reality: maintaining a six-foot distance between other human beings, scheduling happy hours via Zoom video conference, venturing out only as far as their own backyards. It’s a strange time, to say the least, but it’s one Mandy Nathan knows all too well. The 52-year-old lawyer and former Bellaire mayor pro tem spent more than six months stuck inside a hospital, without a single breath of fresh air. Her reality was one that, even now, as the coronavirus pandemic forces many of us to self-quarantine, is difficult to imagine. Mandy, a natural leader who comes across as friendly and down-to-earth, suffers a genetic heart defect that caused arrhythmias and ministrokes for several years. She ultimately faced heart-failure symptoms and was put on the heart transplant list last June. One hundred seventythree days lapsed while Mandy awaited a heart in Houston Methodist Hospital. When she finally did get a viable donor heart – a statistical miracle, it turned out – the only place Mandy wanted to go was home. “People always said to me, where do you want to go when you get out, and I’d say I just wanted to go home,” said Mandy, dark-haired and slim. “I just wanted to sleep in my own bed and sit on my couch and out on my back deck. Just the normalcy of it all is wonderful.” According to guidelines from her doctors, Mandy’s first three months with her new heart were to be spent primarily at home, for the risk of infection was high. When she did go out, for a doctor’s visit or a walk in her neighborhood, she was instructed to wear gloves and a mask. As soon as Mandy hit that three-month marker, coronavirus took center stage, and she was forced to take even greater precautions, neither leaving her home nor having friends come over for afternoon visits. It was disappointing, she admits. Just when she was ready to return to semi-normal life, Mandy was instead forced into an even greater state of isolation. And yet, Mandy’s experience of spending 206 days in the hospital has left her and her family BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 26
MIRACLE Against all odds, Mandy Nathan received a successful heart transplant in November and was discharged from the hospital in December.
with a changed mindset. They remember the gift that is simply waking up each day. When the instinct is to complain – for instance when Mandy is taking what feels like the 800th pill for the day – Mandy’s husband David pipes in with: “You know what doesn’t suck? Having a heart.” “It might be trite, but we do have a tad bit of perspective here,” he says. “The world might be going up in a pandemic, but we had our own personal crisis and managed to get through it. So in
a way it feels like, if everyone just does their part, hopefully we can get through this one too.”
I
n 2013, David was in morning advisory at St. John’s School, where he works as an upper school English teacher, when he got a call from teenage son Zach. Zach explained over the phone that his mom was acting strange. She was unable to get her words out and was “not right.” David instructed his son to immediately call 911 while he rushed
Michael Gilbert
GRATITUDE Left photo: Mandy Nathan takes her first breath of fresh air after spending more than six months in the hospital. Right photo: Mandy is thankful for sons Zach (at left) and Max (at right) and husband David for their support.
home from school. What Mandy was suffering that day was the first of several transient ischemic attacks (TIA), also called a mini-stroke. Mandy was generally healthy but had dealt with smaller heart problems since age 21, when a doctor discovered during a typical checkup that Mandy had supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). Although it causes a rapid heartbeat, SVT is usually not dangerous and did not affect Mandy’s daily life. In 2006, the SVT developed into atrial fibrillation, a more significant heart-rate abnormality that can increase one’s risk for stroke. Still, it wasn’t until the TIA that Mandy’s life was disrupted. For Mandy, the TIAs manifested as temporary bouts of hampered vision, unclear speech and restrained movement of her limbs. At first, Mandy was put on medications. But when she suffered repeated mini-strokes over the next couple of years, doctors implanted a cardioverter defibrillator device in her chest. The implant helps control arrhythmia by delivering an electric shock to bring the heart rate back to normal when it is out of rhythm. Even as Mandy recounts her medical history, making her way to a low point in 2018 when she told her cardiologist, “I feel like I’m going to die,” her sense of humor is evident. Her narration is peppered with witty commentary – for instance, that the genetic heart defect she was ultimately diagnosed with after thorough testing in 2018 is supposed to cause heart failure or arrhythmias, but, of course, with her luck, she got both. She easily throws her head back for an unrestrained laugh, finding the bits of humor in a situation that could easily drive one to depression. During her stay in the hospital, Mandy’s wit persisted through CaringBridge, an online journaling platform where patients can share their health journeys with family and friends. Mandy’s posts were filled with anecdotes and
musings about life in the hospital. Each post was titled with the name of a song or a pop culture reference; one is named, “Have You No Sense of Decency, Madame, at Long Last?” (referencing the McCarthy hearings) and focuses on Mandy’s “hospital induced lack of dignity.” She speaks openly of the extra-large hospital gowns that “don’t cover what they should,” her “potty situation,” and, in a paragraph she instructs the gentlemen to skip, an uncomfortable pelvic exam. A pervasive undertone of the posts is that Mandy is on the verge of “beating the system,” for instance, when she managed to sneak a refrigerator into her room or when she got the entire resident staff to implement “Mandy’s Rules,” which dictate no waking her up before 6:30 a.m. for protocol check-ins. Of course, there were times in the hospital that Mandy felt down. “There were days I wanted to just not get out of my bed, but you’ve got to make yourself, and you have to believe that what happens is God’s plan,” said Mandy, who, both naturally and purposefully, opts for positivity. She says her faith, along with a strong support network of family and friends, helped her get through the most difficult days. Along with her husband David, Mandy’s two sons Zach, 23, and Max, 21, visited their mom when they could. Max, who studies at Tulane University, spent the summer in Houston, lifeguarding at the Bellaire pool, while Zach was interning in Houston before starting a graduate accounting program at Rice in the fall. Mandy’s parents, who live in Galveston, also made weekly visits. Some of the most challenging days, when Mandy most needed to lean on friends and family, came just weeks before she finally got a heart. When Mandy was first put on the heart transplant list, she underwent a series of protocols aimed at reducing her antibody levels. While
antibodies typically help us fight off infections, high levels reduce the number of donors from whom one can receive a heart. Mandy’s levels were unusually high. Even worse, none of the typical protocols seemed to be working. After receiving multiple plasmapheresis treatments, intravenous immunoglobulin treatments and a regimen of chemotherapy drugs – all of which have their own set of uncomfortable side effects – Mandy’s antibody levels were still too high. Mandy’s doctor came up with one other possible treatment he discovered after scouring the research. That treatment had worked on one other patient, all the way in France, and it was a last-ditch effort. If this eight-week treatment plan didn’t work, it was unclear what would come next. “Before that [treatment], we would always point to a Plan B or a Plan C the doctors had,” says David. “There was always something else. This really was kind of the last thing. We really didn’t know what the back-up plan was going to be after that.” By this point, Mandy found herself asking questions like: “Why in the world is this happening to me? What if I don’t get a heart? How long will they let me just hang around in the hospital waiting for a match?” The alternative to a heart transplant is typically a mechanical pump called an LVAD, but those increase the risk of stroke, which Mandy’s condition already put her at risk for. She started thinking about everything she would miss if she did not survive the ordeal: her sons’ graduations and weddings and children, the years with her husband. She felt overwhelmed knowing that her passing would cause immense grief for her family and friends. Mandy shared this earnestly while beginning to tear up. A long-time attendee of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, (continued on page 28) BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 27
lawellphoto.com
(continued from page 27) Mandy says her faith
taught her to take one day at a time instead of worrying about the future. “A Bible verse I recited several times was Matthew 6:34, which says, ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow brings worries of its own. Today’s troubles are enough for today.’ “I don’t sit in my room thinking that God has forsaken me,” Mandy wrote in an Oct. 15 entry on CaringBridge. “I’m not afraid of dying, and I’m clinging – more tenuously at some times than others – to the knowledge that God is walking and suffering along with me on this walk, and that whatever His plan for me is the right plan.” Getting to that point of acceptance involved deep conversations about heaven and prayer with family, her best friend Julie Ellerbrock and with the Reverend Brian Gowan, senior chaplain for spiritual care and education at Houston Methodist Hospital. Mandy’s ultimate rock was David, who says his role was to be the “voice of unreasonable optimism.” A natural at making others laugh, David, upbeat in disposition, was always steadfast in his assurances to have faith. Whether he was in denial or simply too busy to think of all possible scenarios, David says he never really thought about the possibility that Mandy might not make it. Throughout Mandy’s stay at the hospital, David continued teaching at St. John’s, while visiting the hospital as much as possible. “When all this is going on, you’re just trying to get the laundry done and keep your head down and get your [work] done,” David says. “I really wasn’t planning for any inevitabilities. If you did that, you couldn’t get what you needed to get done each day.”
A
round 11:30 p.m. one Saturday in November, David got a call from Mandy. He prepared himself for the worst – Mandy never called with good news late at night. What he got instead was the greatest and most improbable update he could ask for: Mandy was getting a new heart. “The last thing in the world I was expecting was good news,” David says. For several weeks prior, the focus had been on getting Mandy’s antibody levels down. Nobody would have expected doctors to find a match. By all accounts, the donor heart was a miracle. Reverend Gowan recalls the “m-word [miracle]” circulating the halls for days after Mandy’s successful transplant surgery. David later found out that statistically, the odds of finding a match were one in 5.7 million, a number so small it’s impossible to fathom. “They never said those numbers aloud,” said Mandy’s friend Julie. “They just kept saying it would be rare. But when you hear those numbers, it’s staggering. It’s one of God’s miracles. That doesn’t just happen.” Mandy expresses deep gratitude for her donor, whom she doesn’t know too much about. She knows the donor was a young woman from another state. And she understands that while the heart BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 28
TOGETHER Mandy says her husband of 28 years, David Nathan, was her rock throughout her transplant journey. Finally back at home, Mandy now enjoys simple moments with David – relaxing in the backyard, watching television, dinner at the kitchen table.
was the greatest gift she could ever receive, it was simultaneously another family’s greatest loss. Today, Mandy is back home, spending much of her time walking, reading and catching up on television shows. Physically, she feels strong aside from back pain and minor side effects of medications. “If it weren’t for my back, the day I walked through my front door I would’ve said I felt almost completely back to normal,” she said. Mandy suffered a back fracture just days after her heart transplant surgery. The steroid drugs she was on while undergoing the antibody-reduction regimen gave her osteoporosis, increasing her risk of fracture. It was a simple twisting motion – to slide out her tray for a meal while in her hospital bed – that caused the fracture. For her new heart, Mandy will continue to take a host of medications, including three antirejection pills; each year she’ll visit the cardiologist for an annual biopsy. “Usually how long your new heart lasts depends on age, general health and response to
the transplant, all of which play in my favor,” she says. “That said, it is never far from my mind that things can go wrong at any time, so I’m living each day with that in mind.” This year has been one of uncertainty for much of the globe; each day seems to bring a new update on the spread of the coronavirus, and none of us knows whether our lives will go back to how they were, or if a new normal will persist post-pandemic. For Mandy, those uncertainties and doubts are amplified a hundred times over. Thus, while sequestering herself to her home, Mandy enjoys the small things – sleeping in instead of being woken up by the sound of a medical machine, lounging outside with her two cats, binge-watching television series like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with David. “Thinking you’re going to die or have to accept a heart that might render you disabled definitely gives you a new perspective on life,” Mandy says. “Every day is a miracle, and I’m grateful for every one.”
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 29
Joanna Brandt
FOOD by Andria Frankfort, staff writer
A Life in Recipes Through good times and bad
S
hannon Gosda recently wrote to “Back Porch Table,” a weekly recipes blog I write at thebuzzmagazines.com. She wrote that she related emotionally to what we were doing “because I, too, love connecting recipes with memories.” Then she shared with us how she did just that, in a very special way. “My grandmother Mavis was the most amazing Southern cook – of course, we’re biased – ever,” says Shannon, a preschool teacher and mother of Zach, 14, GG, 11, and Marinn, 10. “We all grew up on her amazing cooking. In the 1950s, she and my grandfather hosted lots of parties, and that was when people got dressed up for everything. They gave their kids a fun, family-filled life that revolved around food and good company.” As it is for many of us, food was how Mavis, or Mae-Mae, as her grandchildren called her, showed love to her family. Shannon found a way to show that love right back to Mae-Mae. “As my grandmother aged, we started to be terrified that she might die and we wouldn’t have all of her recipes,” Shannon says. “When she was about to turn 90, my Aunt Holly realized, ‘We’ve got to do something right now, because the clock is ticking.’” That something was to compile MaeMae’s recipes and stories and turn them into the book Monday Through Sunday in Mavis’ Kitchen: A Southern Cooking Lifestyle. “For us,” Shannon says, “these recipes were a legacy. They had to be in print.” Holly, who lives in Los Angeles and had written a book previously, took charge, finding a template online that allowed them to enter recipes to create a book. “But there was really no way to be creative and cute and fun,” Shannon says. “We were in a major time crunch because everybody was getting together in Dallas for Mae-Mae’s 90th birthday. Aunt Holly wanted to do a book signing, so we got it done and had books in hand.” Mae-Mae signed them for everyone in the family. After the work of the first book, Holly and Shannon took a break. The problem was that Shannon had a background in editing and writing. “I was very aware that this book was inconsistent and boring, with a bad layout,” she says. “I knew this could be something really special. So I BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 30
COOKING WITH MAE-MAE Shannon Gosda published a book of her grandmother Mavis “Mae-Mae” Powell’s recipes, which tell the story of her life.
started going to Dallas to visit with Mae-Mae, and I sat down with her and went through the book. “I started asking her, ‘When did you make this?’ and ‘Tell me a story about this.’ We pulled out boxes and boxes of pictures. And we started putting the pictures together with the stories that were connected to the recipes. “It was just glorious, interviewing her.” Holly and Shannon redid the book together, which was made easier because Holly already had a graphic designer and publisher. “The majority of the recipes in the original book were Mae-Mae’s handwritten notes,” Shannon says. “Holly took a pile, and I took a pile, then my mom [Nancy Powell Bartlett] and [my mom’s sister] Janis had some recipes they had put in online in the original book. I sat down and went through the whole thing and marked up everything. “I manually put the whole thing in Word. I put pictures and captions where I wanted them and did the table of contents and counted pages and did an index. After that, I sent it all to Holly, who sent it to her publisher, who format-
ted it and had a graphic designer put it into a format to print. I don’t know what that magic is, but it’s magic!” Mae-Mae saw the book before she died, just before her 95th birthday, in 2017. Shannon says, “She joked, ‘My kids pushed me into doing this book because I might die!’ But as she got to the end of her life and saw the book, it felt like the culmination of all her joy. She was thrilled beyond words, out of her mind, smiling and beaming ear to ear.” Recipes include stories about the first thing Mae-Mae ever made for company, Chili and Tamales con Queso, and the soup that her mother would make for “hobos” passing through during the Great Depression, Pearlie's Vegetable Beef Soup (with Mavis’ Additions). “Considering the strange times we are living in,” Shannon says, speaking during the coronavirus health crisis, “the story provides a snapshot in time during the Depression, which is a reminder that humans have been through, and come out victorious from, tougher times than this.”
Also, Shannon says, the recipes use ingredients “that should be available at stores, and they’re good comfort food, which we need right about now.” Shannon learned about more than recipes from her visits with Mae-Mae. “Life-application things,” Shannon calls them. “There was a super funny story about how to survive on a mutiny cruise ship! They were on a cruise going to Bordeaux, and before they docked, the staff mutinied and refused to work and disappeared. Mae-Mae said the passengers were just walking around. She told this story like, ‘Well, we all just went down to the ballroom and made ourselves drinks and had so much fun!’” Today, while everyone sticks to home, Shannon’s sixth grader GG has started baking her grandmother’s recipes. “She made cinnamon sticks today,” Shannon says. “They’re typically only for Christmas, but nothing is typical now. I was like, ‘We’ve got pecans, let’s go for it!’ “By the way,” Shannon told us, “I so enjoyed ‘The let's-get-real-about-the-pantry edition’ [of “Back Porch Table”]! To your list of must-haves [while staying home during the coronavirus outbreak], I ‘hoarded’ four giant rolls of slice-andbake cookies and four boxes of wine, because when it's in a box, wine doesn't go bad. But don't share that with anyone since that might cause a run on box wine!”
Chili & Tamales Con Queso From Monday Through Sunday in Mavis’ Kitchen 1 can plain chili 1 can tamales 1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated 2 pods garlic, minced 1 large onion, minced 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce Dash of Tabasco (or to taste) Serve with Fritos or tortilla chips In the top of a double boiler, pour in chili and tamales and use a fork to mash the tamales. Stir in grated cheese to mixture. Add garlic, onion, Worcestershire and Tabasco. Stir constantly until cheese is melted. Serve hot with Fritos or tortilla chips.
Pearlie's Vegetable Beef Soup (with Mavis’ Additions) From Monday Through Sunday in Mavis’ Kitchen Beef broth: 1 soup bone 1½ pounds stew meat or chuck roast, cubed Olive oil 1 onion, chopped 2 celery stalks, cut in half (include celery leaves) 1 green bell pepper, half diced, half quartered 2 cups chicken broth (or 2 teaspoons chicken granules in 2 cups water) 2 cups beef broth (or 2 teaspoon beef granules in 2 cups water)
PEARLIE’S LEGACY During the Great Depression, Pearlie Hollingsworth, Mavis’ mother, here with a young Mavis, would share her vegetable soup with anyone walking by who was hungry.
4 cups water 1 can diced tomatoes, 14 ounces 1 can tomato sauce, 8 ounces 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoning Salt Remaining ingredients: 1 package frozen vegetables 1 cup broccoli crowns, broken apart 2 potatoes, chopped 1 white onion, cut into rings 1 cup cauliflowerettes, broken apart 1 yellow squash, sliced in 1-inch rounds 1 zucchini, sliced in 1-inch rounds ½ small cabbage, quartered ½ cup green beans (fresh or frozen), cut in 1-inch pieces 6 green onions, chopped 2 cups okra, sliced (or whole if you prefer) Dash of Tabasco Crackers or cornbread as accompaniment
In a Dutch oven (or large soup pot), brown seasoned soup bone and meat in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the onion, celery and bell pepper; stir. Cover and steam about 5 minutes. Add chicken broth, beef broth and 4 cups water and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, allowing meat to season the broth. Add canned tomatoes (including liquid) and tomato sauce; stir. Add seasonings as needed. Cover and simmer for about 1½ hours or until meat is tender. Remove soup bone, remove meat from bone, and add meat to the soup. Add bone back to the soup for flavor. Add all the fresh vegetables you want, bring to a boil, then add frozen vegetables. Reduce heat, check seasonings, and cover. Then sit down and have a nice cup of coffee and enjoy the break! Add more water or broth if the soup is too thick. A dash of Tabasco gives a little lift. Serve with crackers or cornbread. BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 31
KIDS
.
by Annie Blaylock McQueen, staff writer
Buzz Baby
Quarantined – with kids
Buzz Baby is a column about life with babies. Writer Annie McQueen is a mother of four children under the age of 5.
B
efore March, I had never heard the term “social distancing.” The concept of staying away from others to prevent disease spread soon became part of our country’s daily vocabulary and a practice that I immediately had to teach my small children. Social distancing has been a hard adjustment for them. They constantly ask to see their classmates and cousins. Our neighbor’s kid got a cool new bike, and my son wanted to touch it. I had to jump forward and stop him from putting his hands on it – such a quick moment I could have easily missed. It’s been unusual and stressful – for all ages. But here’s a special slow clap, standing ovation, huge, huge shoutout to all the moms and dads holding it down with little ones. I saw a meme (by a guy named Winston Chang) that read, “If there’s a baby boom in 9 months, it’ll consist entirely of first-born children.” I feel the truth in that. As it goes with life though, there have been some silver linings. Adults have come up with creative ideas to keep children in their neighborhoods entertained. A personal favorite that I have seen is the “teddy bear hunt,” where families display stuffed teddy bears or pictures of teddy bears in their home’s windows. Neighborhood children then go on a “bear hunt” to see how many they can spot. There’s a Facebook group called “Rainbows over Houston,” where people are encouraged to display rainbow artwork on their home: painted pictures in the windows, chalk drawings on the sidewalks and more. The page reads, “Rainbows are a symbol that we are in this together that lift spirits and give kids a rainbow spotting activity while on family walks.” I’ve heard from a lot of Buzz parents who say that outside time, while maintaining social-distancing guidelines, has been the saving grace from being cooped up all day. Mom-of-two Emilee Scott says her 4-year-old son, despite the fact that his tee-ball season was BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 32
ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE Siblings Marin, 7, and Beckett Raish, 5, drew a colorful chalk mural in their driveway during the coronavirus quarantine.
postponed, wears his uniform – cleats, belt, baseball pants and old jersey – out to the front lawn for “practice” in the evenings. “They were only able to have one practice before they postponed everything,” said Emilee. It’s hard to drive down neighborhood streets with all of the walkers and cyclists. I saw former teacher Brooke Raish, sporting a bright-colored pair of printed leggings, out on a bike ride with her husband Andy and their four kids. Brooke was peddling while her 8month-old daughter Posey rode in a seat behind her. Callum, 3, rode in a bike trailer behind Andy, while Beckett, 5, and Marin, 7, rode their own bikes. Brooke has been a personal inspiration to me during these times with her kids – she’s always got her kids doing something fun and creative, yet simple, like collecting rocks outside, drawing with sidewalk chalk, working on math with manipulatives, or painting at the dining room table. If the kids ever get bored, she says, then that’s good too. I loved the quote Brooke shared on
social media from professor/author Brené Brown: “Boredom is sacred. We shouldn’t deny our children this holy experience.” Brooke is coordinating home schooling and learning time, too. “As long as we do one reading and one math activity per child a day, I feel like we are having homeschool success,” she said. Like a lot of us, she is juggling a lot right now, being the cook, the teacher, the housekeeper. “At one point, I was holding the baby with one hand while I was squatting down, wiping the shower glass with glass cleaner.” This time together has been eye opening. “It’s interesting to gain insight into how they are in the classroom,” Brooke said. “I didn’t realize my kids like to draw as much as they do. I’ve had them do an art lesson two days in a row on Art for Kids Hub, and I’ve been impressed with how well they are able to follow the directions.” Quarantine days are some of the slowest-passing days when you have young kids. But at least there is nobody around to remind us how quickly childhood flies by. We have no choice but to slow down and notice it all.
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 33
NEIGHBORS
.
by Cindy Burnett, contributing writer
Buzz Reads
Five picks for May
Buzz Reads is a column about books by reviewer Cindy Burnett. This month, Cindy recommends five recently released titles.
T
he Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask: The Address Book is a non-fiction deep dive into the importance of having a street address. Searching for the answer to a postal question inspired by a letter she mailed to her father, Mask stumbled upon an initiative called “Addressing the World, An Address for Everyone,” where she learned that most households in the world do not have street addresses (even places in rural areas of the United States). Intrigued, she headed to West Virginia to investigate this phenomenon herself by meeting with a friend of a friend who had recently petitioned his local county government for an address. From there, she fell down a rabbit hole of research and eventually ended up writing this fabulous and fascinating history of how streets are named, how street names are about wealth and identity, who counts and who doesn’t, and what happens today when someone does not have an address. The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey: Debut author Brooke Fossey’s life-affirming novel focuses on the importance of community, resilience and human relationships. Best friends Carl and Duffy, two octogenarians residing in the Centennial assisted-living home, spend their days trying to keep themselves entertained and out of trouble to avoid being transferred to the nearby poorly run nursing home. Duffy finds his life upended one evening when Carl’s previously unknown granddaughter crawls through their bedroom window with a black eye. Pushing aside concerns about eviction and trouble with Centennial’s management, Duffy befriends Josie and sets out on a mission to save her from her abusive boyfriend and put meaning back into his own life. This gem of a book will stay with me for a long time. Hour of the Assassin by Matthew Quirk: Matthew Quirk’s fast-paced political thriller starts out with a bang, and the action does not slow down until the book reaches its satisfying conclusion. Hour of the Assassin takes place in BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 34
WHAT TO READ This month's picks include a political thriller, a story about community, a debut that takes place in Odessa, a nonfiction book about street addresses, and a fun beach read.
Washington, D.C. and focuses on flaws in the United States political system and the ability of wealth and influence to insulate crooked politicians. Quirk’s intelligent protagonist and a couple of surprising twists and turns make this thriller worth the read. Feels Like Falling by Kristy Woodson Harvey: Set in coastal North Carolina, Feels Like Falling tells the story of two women who find themselves in drastically changed circumstances and whose unlikely friendship changes the trajectory of their lives. After losing her mother to cancer, her sister to a crazy husband and her husband to his assistant, Gray unwittingly gets a local pharmacy clerk named Diana fired from her job. Hours before, Diana had broken up with her boyfriend and moved out of their shared home. Feeling responsible for Diana’s job loss, Gray invites her to live in her unoccupied guest house, and as their friendship grows, each learns what it means to find happiness and fulfillment. Harvey’s latest is my favorite book of hers to date – it will provide breezy entertainment for your time at home. Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore: Wetmore’s
debut novel takes place in 1976 Odessa, Texas, a town centered around the oil business and filled with men who have come to work in the oil fields. Following the brutal attack of a teenage girl by an oil field worker, the town struggles to come to terms with the crime, and battle lines are drawn. The tale slowly unfolds through the perspectives of numerous women in the town – women who understand that the odds are stacked against them but are willing to stand up for what they believe. Wetmore’s lyrical prose and stark descriptions of the dusty landscape and impact of oil discovery on the region create a haunting and ultimately redemptive tale that I could not put down until I reached the last page. Editor’s note: Southside Place resident Cindy Burnett also writes our weekly Page Turners column at thebuzzmagazines.com. She is co-creator of the Houston literary event series Conversations from the Page, runs the Instagram account Thoughts from a Page, contributes to bookreporter.com and shereads.com, and regularly speaks to groups about books.
TRAVEL
.
by Tracy L. Barnett, staff writer
Travel Buzz
Armchair travel with the Harbisons
R
ocio and Matthew Harbison have been traveling with their five kids since the children have been old enough to pop into a baby carrier. They’ve been to Hawaii and Alaska, New York and Colorado, England and France and Holland. And of course they’ve been to Rocio’s native Puerto Rico many, many times. So it was with great excitement that they looked forward to Spring Break 2020, planning their first trip together to Asia: to Tokyo, at the height of cherry blossom season, for the Olympics. And then… coronavirus was all over the news. They looked for destinations closer to home, thinking maybe that would be safe. But it didn’t take long to realize – especially as Rocio and Matthew are both medical doctors – that it was time to do the responsible thing and set an example. Spring Break 2020 would be spent at home. So it was that during this Spring Break, they all sat down together at the kitchen table – in the way that many of us are becoming more accustomed to these days, via video chat – and relived some favorite travel memories with The Buzz. Rocio and Matthew took a break from their telemedicine sessions, and the kids took turns sharing highlights of their Alaska trip in particular. It all began 14 years ago with Gabriel, who was joined three years later by Natalia, now 11, and then Alanna, now 9. Traveling with three little ones didn’t slow them down, and when twins Xavier and Aspen, now 8, came along, they just kept going. They wanted to give their kids a global education, to introduce them to different cultures, landscapes and ways of life. Because they both travel a lot for their work, they accumulate a lot of frequent flier miles, and so the kids can fly for free. They started with shorter trips, to get them accustomed to the idea. “We were really working with our kids to get them used to the travel routine – how to get on a plane, how to take care of your backpack, how to be a little more self-sufficient,” said Matthew. A week in Hawaii was their first long-haul trip, where they went to celebrate Rocio’s birthday with a luau. They spent time on the Big Island, swimming with dolphins and sea turtles, and they BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 36
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE Taking a moment from their exploration of Mendenhall Glacier to strike a pose are (from left) Matthew, with twins Aspen and Xavier, Natalia, Gabriel, Alanna and Rocio. Lower photo: The Harbison family was able to observe brown bears fishing for salmon on Chinitna Bay on the Kenai Peninsula.
were hooked. That was to set them up for a bigger adventure: Alaska, in the summer of 2018. “As physicians we were burned out,” said Rocio. “We wanted something that was in nature, where we could get some fresh air. Alaska just sounded great, getting back to nature and
reenergizing ourselves – and showing our kids the importance of the wilderness and some of the things that you miss when you live in a big city.” The Harbisons are independent, self-guided travelers from way back. “In all honesty, we’re not cruise kind of people,” said Rocio. But this
WORLD OF WONDERS The Harbisons were thrilled with the views of glaciers, wildlife and Prince William Sound with a pilot from Rust's Flying Service. The plane landed in pristine environments where they could observe the animals, harvest wild blueberries and witness a glacier calving.
time they opted for a cruise because of the need to navigate great distances and have access to remote sites like glaciers. The Princess Cruise also offered educational activities for the kids, and the shore excursions allowed travelers to choose their own adventures at every port, including some pretty off-the-beaten trail options, so they were happy about that. And they opted to spend five days on their own in Anchorage before the cruise began. This would be their first cruise as a family, and they wanted to be prepared. With five kids, you can’t afford to leave things to chance. With all the practice, they’ve gotten the packing down to an art: one big suitcase for Mom and Dad, one for the girls, and one for the boys. Rocio’s developed an “outfit of the day” approach so the kids don’t rip through the suitcase and create chaos. That came in handy especially for the wide climate variations in Alaska. “We put a shirt and a pair of pants together, and we roll them up together,” explained Rocio. “For the day we were going to be in Glacier Bay, for example, I packed turtlenecks and warmer pants, and then for the day we were riding bikes, I packed jeans and short-sleeved T-shirts. I always try to carry an extra shirt in case they get really dirty, especially for the little ones.” And, of course, especially in Alaska, layering is key. Each child also has their own backpack, which they’re responsible for packing and keeping track of throughout the journey. This is where they keep their snacks, a plush animal, an extra set of clothes, their electronics and a book. In the early days, Rocio and Matthew would each pair off with one of the little ones; now that the kids are bigger, they pair each of the little ones with an older brother or sister. That frees them up to spend a little time together on the flight. “Now they take care of each other, and they do really, really well,” said Matthew. “I think one of the best compliments we ever got was after one long flight when we stood up and were making sure we had everything, and one of the passengers near us said, ‘Man, I’m proud of you – I
didn’t even know you were traveling with kids.” Excitement fairly burst from the twins, who couldn’t wait to share their favorite moments. “Whale watching!!” exclaimed Xavier, eyes still wide at the recollection. “Our dad found wild berries that bears eat – and, and, we brought them to our hotel so we could make a stew with it!” recalled Aspen. For their time in the Anchorage area, they chose to stay at Alyeska Resort, a short drive from the city but far enough to be immersed in nature. The ski resort shifts in the summer months to a departure point for wilderness explorations, and its gondolas and shuttles serve to deliver its passengers to trailheads high in the mountains. Highlights included their first hike – 3½ miles, just to get them acclimated. They ended up at the mountaintop Seven Glaciers Restaurant, where they could look out and actually see seven glaciers. “It was misting and raining the entire time – it was great,” said Matthew. “We were nervous about the kids, but they were absolutely fantastic.” A naturalist oriented them as to what plants they were seeing, and which ones they could eat; the wild blueberries were ripe so they feasted on the delicious fruits all along the way. The most challenging part was when they came to a pulley system used to cross a huge chasm. The ropes were wet and heavy, and they weren’t sure they could do it – but fortunately some French and Austrian tourists came along, and they all helped each other across. “I was like, I can’t look down, I can’t look down,” recalled Aspen breathlessly. “And I looked down, and I was like ahhhhhhh!” In the following days they used a company called Rust’s Flying Service to go bear watching in Chinitna Bay, where they observed as the magnificent creatures fished for salmon and mussels, which they pried open with their strong claws. They also flew a water plane over a number of glaciers and took in the spectacular views; they landed on one of the bays and explored the islands, watching the glaciers calving and hearing the crack and boom as the huge slabs of ice
fell into the sea. The effects of climate change were manifest on this trip, as guides showed them where the glacier used to be and how far it’s receded. In the case of the Mendenhall Glacier, one of the most impressive ones they were able to see, it has retreated about 2½ miles since its height in the 1700s; but in just the past 30 years, the changes have been dramatic, and have become central to the National Forest Service and other naturalists’ presentations to visitors. Mendenhall Glacier was just one of the many eye-opening excursions along the way; they were entranced by the gooseberries and blueberries of the islands, and the squishy peat bog that they were able to walk on. For Alanna, it was the huskies that pulled the sleds that won her heart – especially the puppies. “They were like mini wolves,” she recalled, smiling at the memory. Natalia loved learning about the medicinal uses of native plants, such as one referred to locally as Devil’s Club or Alaskan ginseng, used locally for a variety of skin ailments. Gabriel recalled the perfect clarity of the waters, the powerful beauty of the waterfalls and the amazing sight of salmon swimming upstream against a powerful current, their silver bodies flashing in the sun. He was also fascinated by the native culture, which they were able to learn more about from the native sled-dog handlers. “I think I have more respect for wildlife and nature after the Alaska trip,” said Gabriel. “It gave me a sense of some of the culture you could find there among the Alaskan people.” An hour passed quickly with the Alaska memories, and we hadn’t even gotten to London, or France or Germany. “We’ll have to tell you about eating across London with five kids, another time,” promised Matthew. A promise I hope one day we’ll keep. Editor’s note: Buzz travel columnist Tracy L. Barnett is a Lowell Thomas travel journalism award winner and longtime travel and environmental writer. BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 37
Photo courtesy of the Junior League of Houston
FOOD by Catherine Barrett, contributing writer
Cooking Buzz Mother’s Day brunch Cooking Buzz is produced in partnership with the Junior League of Houston, a women’s charitable and education organization founded in 1925.
M
other’s Day brunch has always been one of my favorite family gatherings. Maybe you are lucky enough to celebrate your mom, mother-in-law or another special woman in your life in person this year, with a special meal, maybe even on treasured china. Or maybe, because of quarantine, you are limiting your celebration to a phone call or video chat, or postponing it until later. Or you’re safely delivering brunch-to-go to her porch, possibly with some inventive ingredient substitutions. In any case, I hope these recipes give you some inspiration in the kitchen this season. I like to start off brunch with my mother-inlaw’s favorite Peace Meals recipe, Ranch Style Eggs with Chorizo and Tomato Red Chile Sauce, already plated and replacing the soup course. Since this menu has more courses, we keep it to just the eggs, but you can also serve it over chicken or grilled flank steak. I like to enlist my father-in-law, the bacon guru, to help with the Brown Sugar Bacon Twists from Peace Meals. The secret is to use thin bacon for the twist. This will be plated with two hearty dishes from The Star of Texas Cookbook, Lucy’s Company Ham, Cheese, and Eggs and Salmon and Fresh Mushroom Quiche. We round it all out with the Houston Junior League Cookbook’s Breakfast Potatoes. Then comes my mom’s favorite, German Pancake with the Blueberry Basil Compote from Peace Meals, as its own course and acting as dessert. The pancake is puffed up when it comes out of the oven and falls as it cools. Happy Mother’s Day!
Ranch Style Eggs with Chorizo and Tomato Red Chile Sauce From Peace Meals Sauce: 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 large red onion, coarsely chopped 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped 1 cup dry red wine BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 38
LET’S GET IT STARTED The Ranch Style Eggs with Chorizo and Tomato Red Chile Sauce from Peace Meals is good on its own, or with chicken or grilled flank steak.
3 cups (24 ounces) canned tomato puree 2 Tablespoons ancho chile powder 1 Tablespoon pasilla chile powder 2 Tablespoons honey Coarse salt Eggs: Canola oil 6 to 8 (6-inch) yellow or white corn tortillas Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper 8 ounces Mexican chorizo sausage, casings removed 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into Tablespoons 12 eggs, lightly beaten with 2 Tablespoons water ⅔ cup sour cream ¾ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese Chopped fresh cilantro 1 avocado, pitted, peeled and chopped Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high. Sauté the onions, stirring until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until completely reduced. Stir in the tomato puree, chile powders and honey; season with salt. Cook over mediumhigh heat until the sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally, about 20 to 30 minutes. Set aside.
Pour the oil in a medium skillet to a depth of 2 inches. Heat to 360 degrees F over medium-high. Fry the tortillas, turning once, until lightly golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels and season immediately with salt. Heat a large skillet over medium-high; add the chorizo and brown, using a spoon to break up the meat. Remove the chorizo with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate and let cool slightly. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of the chorizo drippings and add the butter to the pan. Once the butter is melted, turn the heat to medium-low, add the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture resembles soft curds. Return the chorizo to the pan and stir gently to mix, making sure the chorizo is in small pieces. Place 1 teaspoon of sour cream in each of 6 to 8 large shallow bowls to secure the tortillas. Top each dollop of sour cream with a tortilla, then spread 1 tablespoon of sour cream on the top of each tortilla. Place equal portions of eggs on each tortilla and ladle the warm Tomato Red Chile Sauce over the eggs. Sprinkle each with the cheese, cilantro and avocado. Serves 6 to 8.
MORE ONLINE See thebuzzmagazines.com for more recipes.
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 39
SPORTS
.
by Todd Freed, staff writer
SportzBuzz W
ith a magnificent 20-1 regular season under its belt, the UIL Class 6A state’s No. 2-ranked Memorial Mustangs girls’ soccer team looked primed and ready for another serious run at a state championship. But, as was the case for high school teams in sports across the state, the season was halted much too abruptly by the spread of the coronavirus. As of press time, the UIL (University Interscholastic League, for public schools) had suspended all extracurricular activities. “We had such a great team and were really looking forward to the playoffs,” said Mustangs head coach Lindley Amarantos. “It’s especially devastating for our seniors, including a few of our girls who played on our state championship team of two years ago. One day we’re practicing, and the next day the season is suspended indefinitely. We really had no closure, which makes it especially tough.” “I’m grateful that we were at least able to play the regular season and enjoy senior night together,” said Mustangs senior captain Reagan Goodwine. “But when you look at all the hard work and dedication we’ve put in since back when we were freshmen, it’s a super hard thing to have to accept. You just need to have faith and know that things will work out. We had such a dynamic and talented team with amazing senior leadership.” On the field, Texas Longhorn commit Kelsey Hranicky was in the midst of a spectacular season with 36 goals and 28 assists in 21 games. In addition, senior Blakeley Buckingham had 13 goals with another 20 assists while freshman Adelhia Ghonda owned 17 goals with 16 assists. Remarkably, Memorial outscored its district opponents by a lofty 82-to-6 margin while securing the district title with an undefeated 15-0 record. On the private-school level, it was pretty much the same scenario for hundreds of teams and thousands of athletes who had their seasons cut short in the wake of the coronavirus. “What happens to us in athletics is subject to many of the same variables that are going on locally, across the state and across the nation,” said St. Thomas Eagles athletic director Mike
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 40
SEVEN IN A ROW Days before the season was suspended, the Bellaire Cardinals girls soccer team won its seventh straight district championship. Over that dominant seven-year span, the Cardinals own a remarkable 84-2-4 record in district play.
Netzel. “We’re in a huge holding pattern, and the longer it gets pushed out, the more difficult it gets to create a real champion. It’s tough not to be able to see these athletes compete for something they’ve worked so hard for since they first arrived at St. Thomas.” Netzel added that it’s an especially difficult situation for seniors who are chasing after collegiate scholarships. “I feel for our guys who are openly being recruited. They're doing their best to be seen right now. Also, since many collegiate athletes who lost their senior seasons are being granted an extra year of eligibility, there may be fewer scholarships available to high school graduates.” Just days prior to the indefinite suspension of the season, the Bellaire Cardinals girls’ soccer team captured its seventh consecutive district championship. “The competition in our district has become tougher and tougher each year, so our girls really had to work hard at earning this title,” said Cardinals soccer coach Alan Thompson. Amazingly, over its seven-year reign as district champs, Bellaire has posted an 82-2-4 district record. “It’s really a credit to the kids buying into the program.”
The Cardinals were led this season by senior captain Demi Pappas, a four-year starter who anchored a Cardinals defense that posted 14 shutouts this season. In addition, junior goalie Cate Plagens allowed only 10 goals in 22 matches. Offensively, freshman striker Anneliese Switzer led the team in scoring with 17 goals, with junior three-year starter Bich-Ly Nguyen adding six goals and eight assists. As for the abrupt stoppage in the season, Thompson said his team has done a tremendous job of handling a difficult situation. “It’s a lot bigger than just soccer, and our coaches are doing everything we can to keep everyone connected. It would certainly be easy to go into negativity, but we’re doing a lot of virtual meetings to keep them mentally in a good space. These girls have really battled well through adversity all year.” Editor’s note: Todd Freed is the Emmy Awardwinning co-host and producer of the KUBE SportsZone, which airs Saturday and Sunday at 6 p.m. on Channel 57-KUBE. To submit high school sports news for possible inclusion in SportzBuzz, please email todd@thebuzzmagazines.com.
Enter The Buzz 2020 Photo Contest
and Win a Trip to Telluride Entry Deadline May 15
Entries are now being accepted for our fifteenth annual Photo Contest. Our grand prize winner will receive a trip for two to Telluride, Colo., which includes four nights’ lodging for two people at The Peaks Resort & Spa, along with four days of skiing for two or two days of golf for two. Winning photos will be published in our July issue and online beginning July 1. To submit photos, and for contest rules and prize details, visit thebuzzmagazines.com and click on the banner at the top of the home page. You can also view our 2019 winners online. Sponsored by
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 41
Dee Zunker
SPORTS
.
by Angie Frederickson, staff writer
W
elcome to SportzBuzz Jr., a column spotlighting neighborhood athletes in elementary and middle school.
Opening day to remember
Emily Lepow
SportzBuzz Jr. The Bellaire Little League (BLL) National League Nationals team (top photo) storms the field after running through a giant inflatable cardinal at the Opening Day ceremony. The celebration kicked off the 2020 spring baseball season, which is now on hold because of the global pandemic. The Opening Day celebration honored more than 500 players representing 50 teams. As the teams were introduced, they were cheered on by Bellaire High School cheerleaders and varsity baseball players. Emery/Weiner School senior and college basketball recruit Peter Berry spoke to the crowd, followed by Dominic D’Ambra throwing the first pitch to Colton Rich. The crowd then turned their attention to the annual moms’ softball team and home run derby. The National League Nationals are Zachary Chen, Nickolas Moga, Charlie Dabney, Luke Pridgen, Maxwell Wu, Matthew Yip, Harrison Blashki, Ashton Ray, Asher Wilson, Evan Zager and Rubaine Singh.
Basketball, social distance-style Emery/Weiner School sixth grader Benjamin Lepow (middle photo) plays his own variety of “distance basketball.” With school closed and social distancing the new normal, he is enjoying the next best thing to an actual basketball game. Benjamin’s friends are each using their own basketball hoops at home, and communicating their shots via cell phone. He managed to lead a game of HORSE by taking a shot, and then telling the others whether or not it went in the basket. Benjamin hopes to be back on an actual basketball court soon, as he was earlier in the year with his Bellaire Rec League Knicks team. Next season, he hopes to join the Emery/Weiner middle school team. See more on families creatively spending time outdoors; search thebuzzmagazines.com for “Outdoor Entertainment with Kids Near Home” by Rachel Teichman.
Holding out hope Brothers Brandon, Drew and Jordan Sorkin (bottom photo, from left) are practicing baseball at home while the Bellaire Little League season is on hold. Brandon, 12, is on the American League Yankees, and younger brother Jordan, 9, plays for the National League Mets. The youngest Sorkin brother, Drew, 6, is ready to join his teammates on the SMU Mustangs team in the Texas League. They attended the BLL Opening Day ceremony to kick off what should have been the long-awaited spring baseball season, but baseball and most other spring sports will have to wait until the pandemic subsides. BLL coaches are encouraging the players to work on their skills at home. Editor’s note: Send your best high-resolution photos and behind-the-scenes stories about young local athletes, in both team and individual sports, to SportzBuzz, Jr. BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 42
at info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Include all contact info, names, ages, grades and schools. Featured athletes must live in Buzz-circulation neighborhoods. Items will be published on a space-available basis.
We help your child: • Build a solid foundation in academics and character • Develop a love of learning as abstract concepts are presented concretely with the use of excellent learning materials. Our alumni have a record of high achievements at prestigious high schools and colleges. Fun Summer Camp with Enrichment Ages 3 months – 8th grade www.montessorilearninginstitute.com 713-771-5600 713-774-3793 Beechnut Campus Maple Campus
Get Your Morning Buzz Every weekday morning, enjoy your coffee + the buzz in your inbox. Our e-newsletter, Morning Buzz, features buzzworthy stories about neighbors every day, Monday-Friday. Sign up to find out what we’re buzzing about at thebuzzmagazines.com/morning-buzz.
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 43
SPREADING POSITIVITY Friends Maya Harpavat (on left) and Mary-Ellen Abshire (on right) wrote with chalk on sidewalks to spread positive messages during the coronavirus pandemic. Maya is a sophomore at St. Agnes Academy, and Mary-Ellen is a sophomore at St. Thomas’ Episcopal; the two have remained friends since their elementary-school days.
KIDS
by Maya Harpavat, age 15, and Mary-Ellen Abshire, age 16
Buzz Kidz
Connect and chalk it up
O
n the first day of fourth grade at St. Thomas’ Episcopal School, bonding over a love of baking, we instantly became close friends. As time went on, baking cakes turned into bike rides, writing articles for our school newspaper, travelling to DC, performing in musicals, and even starting our own Etsy business, in which we paint and tiedye shoes. The friendship that began with making cakes has blossomed, despite attending different high schools. When our schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, we wanted to do something to spread positivity, so we decided to chalk up the sidewalks in Bellaire with encouraging quotes to brighten neighbors’ days. Maya had seen the sidewalk-chalk idea on TikTok, and we
decided to continue the trend here. Filling the sidewalks with sayings, like “You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out,” was not only a nice way to get out of the house for a little while, but it also made people happy and showed us how a small action was able to help our community come together. As we were drawing, people smiled as they were passing by and commented that seeing the art had made their day. Along with quotes, we also filled the sidewalks with friendly reminders on how to stay safe during the pandemic, including “Remember, six feet apart” and “Make sure to wash your hands.” One of our sidewalk-chalk art pieces was even featured in the introduction for Channel 2 news! One small act that takes just a little
time can spread like wildfire, changing things for the better. Other young artists also showcased their art on sidewalks around Bellaire, creating their own masterpieces to inspire neighbors. We encourage you to chalk up the sidewalks around your home to continue this trend and spread positivity in these crazy times – one sidewalk at a time. Editor’s note: Both Maya and Mary-Ellen contribute to our School Buzz blog for their high schools. See thebuzzmagazines.com/school-buzz. Want to be a Buzz Kid? Email approximately 350 words, a high-resolution photo and caption to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Or mail it to The Buzz Magazines, 5001 Bissonnet, Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401.
Every service is backed by our 2-year warranty • Houston’s premier appliance service provider • Family-owned and operated • Serving the Houston area since 2009 • Service every major brand • Specializing in Sub-Zero, Viking, Dacor, Thermador, CellarPro and La Cornue
281.758.9978 • www.uptownappliancerepair.com
Ask about our summer tent specials.
Free Queso with any pick up or delivery over $40 Through May 31, 2020
Try our Pete Rita’s Available to go or with delivery
FREE DELIVERY Through May 31, 2020
6719 Weslayan St., Houston, TX 77005 713.723.8100 • www.fajitapetes.com BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 44
A
D
V
E
R
T
O
R
I
A
L
Emergency, temporary estate planning As the pandemic spreads, I understand and share the anxiety of those on the front lines, whether healthcare or public safety or other essential services, who desperately need a will, but lack the time or ability to meet with a lawyer. They fear for a spouse or children, and don’t know what to do. This is a difficult time for estate planning. Lawyers are overwhelmed with existing clients, slow to respond to new ones, and struggling to meet safely with anyone. Services like 10minutewill.com allow you to go online and print a will in minutes. Unfortunately, you cannot sign or witness a will online. In Texas, printed wills require three signatures: the testator (you) and two disinterested witnesses. The online will’s no better than a grocery list without those witnesses. If family or other beneficiaries witness your will, they risk losing all or part of your gift to them. In safer times, you could ask neighbors, but that’s too dangerous now. Fortunately, there is an alternative, a holographic will. Texas respects a will with one signature, yours, if the entire will is wholly in your handwriting. Start with a blank sheet of paper, without any printed words. Write out your will by hand. Cursive or hand printed, it does not matter, so long as someone, not one of your beneficiaries, can testify they recognize your handwriting. When done, sign and date it. For a thoughtful model, see William D. Pargaman, A Guide to Executing Estate Planning Documents in Uncertain Times. With Bill’s permission, I’ve posted a link and his Holographic Will Form to bellaireprobate.com/2020/03/holographic_will_form. On death, families are disappointed to learn that holographic wills require
the testimony in probate court of handwriting witnesses, an avoidable expense in normal times, when a notary and two witnesses can instead quickly and cheaply complete a self-proving affidavit when the will is signed. Let one or two people know where to find the original and how to locate at least two disinterested handwriting witnesses (better yet, three or more, in case any predecease you). If you have a lawyer, share the same information, send them a copy, and ask how to coordinate your beneficiary designations. Lawyers dislike holographic wills because, in the interest of brevity, language typically is omitted regarding contingent trusts for minor or incapacitated beneficiaries, asset protection, and tax planning. Following the all clear, promptly replace any holograph. While waiting on a lawyer, visit a notary to add a self-proving affidavit. A free one’s available at bellaireprobate.com/client-resources/holographic-wills/. We write wills and go to probate court. We offer no-obligation initial interviews for estate planning and administration, so it costs nothing to hear specific recommendations that suit your needs. Foreign nationals and international families welcome. Russell W. Hall, J.D., LL.M. (Tax), Board Certified – Estate Planning and Probate Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization, 6750 West Loop South, Suite 920, Bellaire, Texas 77401, 713.662.3853, bellaireprobate.com/blog
PERSONAL TRAINING NUTRITION COACHING LIFESTYLE MANAGEMENT Where busy professionals and their families go to move more, eat cleaner and feel better.
Call 832.814.9601 or visit PledgeToFitness.com to schedule your complimentary assessment + workout + stretch Offer expires 5/31/20
Visit our new Bellaire location at 5312 Bellaire Blvd., Suite A BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 45
sponsored by
PETS
A
D
V
E
R
T
O
R
I
A
L
Replenish your spirit
Neighborhood Tails Lulu, age 5, Labradoodle, Heatherglen Dr. Hi! My name is Lulu. My nickname is Lulu Lemon or sometimes plain old “Beautiful.” My parents adopted me five months ago from Doodle Rock Rescue in Dallas. I have no idea what I did to get dropped off at the rescue, but I am thrilled about my new mom and dad. They give me love every day, and I go to the groomer every three weeks. My new family includes two cute grandchildren who adore me. I give them kisses all over their faces. I love walking and playing catch with my dad a few times every day. It is said that when one door closes, another door opens, and I couldn’t have opened a better door. At the end of my day, I jump into bed to snuggle between my mom and dad, and soon I am snoring away. I hope to see you while I am on one of my walks! Got a cute critter? Email a picture of your pet with approximately 150 words to info@thebuzzmagazines.com or mail it to The Buzz Magazines, 5001 Bissonnet, Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401.
The coronavirus has taken a lot from us, but it has also given us something important: time. Family members who are providing in-home care for a loved one with dementia or other health issues can use that extra time to engage in activities that relieve the increased stress and depression that come with caring for someone who is medically compromised during a pandemic. Simply by taking time to reconnect with old hobbies you’ve neglected in the day-to-day bustle, or playing a game with other family members, caregivers can replenish their spirit. Taking that time for yourself is just as vital for caregivers’ mental and physical well-being as frequently washing hands and practicing other healthy habits. If you’re a caregiver to a loved one, find something that sparks your interest and distracts your mind: Knit. Build a model. Do a puzzle. FaceTime friends. Watch online seminars or take an online language course. Watch movies you’ve been meaning to catch – or rewatch old favorites. Doing so will help you and your loved one be in a healthy place when this pandemic is over. And if you need advice, S. Gerber & Associates is here. We’re taking every precaution and care to prevent the spread of the coronavirus while we continue to serve our clients and their families. S. Gerber & Associates, 3730 Kirby Dr., Suite 1200, Houston, TX 77098, 713.857.3227, sid@personalcaregiving.com
Create a buzz for your biz.
A Grandmother’s Love A grandmother’s greatest joy is lavishing love on her grandchildren. Creating portraits of love for over 25 years. A Portrait Remembers 713.523.4916 • nikky@lawellphoto.com • www.lawellphoto.com
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 46
BELLAIRE MEMORIAL RIVER OAKS TANGLEWOOD WEST UNIVERSITY Mailed to 58,000 homes monthly. To advertise in The Buzz Magazines, contact us at 713.668.4157, ext. 11 or advertising@thebuzzmagazines.com
A
D
V
E
R
T
O
R
I
A
L
Allergy/immunology and coronavirus Here are some questions and answers for the allergy/immunology patient during the COVID-19 outbreak. Is it ok to use my everyday asthma inhaler? It has steroids in it. Don’t steroids suppress your immune system? My Flonase has steroids too. Absolutely, yes, it is ok to continue them. Asthma patients taking inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) should be advised to continue these medications as they have been shown to prevent or reduce asthma exacerbations in part by reducing ICAM-1 levels and/or acidic endosomes important for modulating airway inflammation associated with viral infections. Further, a recent study reported that ICS actually inhibit the coronavirus strain, HCoV-229E, replication partly by inhibiting receptor expression and/or endosomal function, thereby modulating infection-induced airway inflammation. Therefore, don’t stop your Flonase, Breo, Advair, etc. unless you first discuss it with your allergist or health care provider. I have immune deficiency and take replacement gamma globulin infusions. Am I at increased risk to have a bad outcome? Unfortunately, the answer is probably yes. A joint statement on the current epidemics of new coronavirus by the world's different primary immunodeficiency organizations has been published. Their recommendations for patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) state that there are currently no data pointing to whether PID patients are actually at higher risk of more severe disease from COVID-19. However, it is believed that PID patients might be at higher risk for this infection or a more severe course of the disease. Thus, patients with PID need to take extra care to prevent from
getting this infection. Are there any vitamins or supplements that will help me? Maybe. The problem with studies on vitamins and supplements is that most are generic and no one stands to make $1,000,000,000 by selling them, so they can’t afford to do high quality studies that would be accepted as “evidence-based medicine.” Having said that, Vitamin D does seem to help fight viral infections, and so does zinc. Be careful with Vitamin D; too much can cause side effects like kidney stones. Previous studies on Vitamin C did not show a benefit, but we have heard that some doctors in New York are using very high dose intravenous Vitamin C to help critically ill patients. Taking Vitamin C by mouth to prevent COVID-19 is not thought to help. It’s always a good idea to discuss use of vitamins and supplements with your health care provider before taking them. No one nose allergies like we do.™ Note: Information contained in this article should not be considered a substitute for consultation with a board-certified allergist to address individual medical needs. David B. Engler, M.D., The Allergy Clinic, 7707 Fannin, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77054, 713.797.0993, *1200 Binz, Suite 180, Houston, Texas 77004, 713.522.9911, www.allergyclinic.com, *Operating as Houston Allergy and Asthma Clinic
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 47
NEIGHBORS
.
by Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld, staff writer
Buzz About Town Fulton Davenport of PWL Studio
Teddy bear hunt
Jessica Laviage
Across Buzz neighborhoods, during social distancing, it was common to see teddy bears peeking out of windows. Inspired by the children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, neighbors, including Jessica Laviage, organized teddy bear scavenger hunts to keep kids engaged while staying safe. Laviage created a form to share with parents who lived nearby, explaining where bears would be. Kids, including Laviage’s daughters Mia, 9, and Charlotte, 5 (pictured), took to the streets
Lepow and her daughter, Samantha, documented each of the 24 items on the list and won first prize, a $25 Amazon gift card. For more, search “2020’s Spring Break” by Angie Frederickson at thebuzzmagazines.com.
Knitting happy
anniversary celebration will now be held Aug. 29, 5-9 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church. Troop 11, which has been sponsored by First Presbyterian Church for 100 years and is currently led by Scoutmaster Chris Bryant, has 98 Scouts and over 60 registered adults. Pictured are (from left) Alden Davenport and Alex Wallin with the proclamation. See thebuzzmagazines.com for a photo of Troop 11 marching in the Armistice Day Parade in November 1926.
Spring Break scavenging carrying clipboards and pencils tallying the bears they saw while keeping their distance from neighbors. Laviage also sent parents ideas for more activities, such as writing a news article about a bear found wandering the neighborhood. For more, search “Teddy Bear Hunt: Seeking Stuffed Animals and Adventure” by Deborah Lynn Blumberg at thebuzzmagazines.com.
100th year of Troop 11 Scouts BSA Troop 11 marked its 100th anniversary on March 29. Recognized as the oldest Boy Scout troop in the Sam Houston Area Council, the troop was chartered in 1914 and re-chartered in 1920 after a one-year absence in 1918 due to the Spanish flu pandemic, when thousands were quarantined in their homes and troop meetings were banned. History seemed to repeat itself as Houstonians were under the stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus. Troop 11’s 100th BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 48
Julie Levine, with the help of daughter Riley, 14, created an online scavenger hunt over Spring Break at home. Nearly 70 families participated. The creative list of random objects could all be found inside people’s homes or yards. They included a bobblehead, a wristwatch with hands, a coin dated earlier than 1977, and six different colored socks. Other goals required action, such as creating a pyramid with cups, drawing a family portrait and making a kid’s bed (a particularly popular one with parents). At the designated start time, everyone began furiously hunting down items and taking photos, trying to be the first to complete the list. In the oldestcoin category, Deborah Rose Kopel’s family located one from 1890, and Hayden and Dylan Kramer (pictured, from left) discovered that their family collection contained some that are about 1,500 years old. After just 21 minutes, the first completed set of photos arrived. Heather
Naomi Shenker had started working on creating a “happy tree” in her yard before the coronavirus pandemic hit but realized that, once everyone was at home, it would especially bring some much-needed brightness to the neighborhood. Her happy tree follows a concept called yarn bombing, which wraps an object – like a tree – with colorful yarn. She was thrilled to receive positive reactions from neighbors walking by. For more, search “Knitting up the Happy Tree” by Karen Vine Fuller at thebuzzmagazines.com.
Parker flash mob As schools went virtual, Parker Elementary music teacher Lisa Vosdoganes helped daughters Sarah and Emily (continued on page 50)
Your smile can last forever Anna Maria Salas, D.D.S., M.S. Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics
713-481-4885 3642 University Blvd. Suite 102 Houston, TX 77005 www.westuortho.com
Bellaire Strong! Since its founding in 1908 Bellaire has retained its small town feel while enjoying the proximity to big city amenities. Our tree line streets, outstanding schools, private city services and numerous parks and pools make us a vibrant community. With convenient access to the world renowned Texas Medical Center, top universities and a diverse job market, Bellaire is a great place to live and work. We have weathered storms before and always pull together and emerge stronger.
Eric Campbell • Coldwell Banker United Realtors Bellaire Office • 713-349-7236
www.vbaf.com • Family Owned Since 1952
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 49
Travis Pichot
(continued from page 48) Wheeler keep in touch
with their friends through FaceTime sessions. Watching Sarah and Emily “playing” with friend Lila Parzen through FaceTime sparked an idea. Lisa posted on a Parker Facebook group asking parents if the kids would participate in a “flash mob” in their front yards in Westbury, to give the kids a sense of camaraderie and create joy for neighbors. The response was a resounding yes. On the scheduled date, Parker students came out in their yards with their musical instruments, creating a mini orchestra together – standing or sitting at least six feet apart.
Neighbors came outside to watch and applaud. The Quarantine Flash Mob was so beloved, it turned into a weekly event on Monday mornings, including themed events. Pictured are Chrissy Stewart, Sierra and August Pichot performing in their yard. Search “Spreading Cheer Through Song: Quarantine Flash Mob” at thebuzzmagazines.com for more.
baskets and Seder plates were collected prior to each holiday so the items could be isolated safely in advance. Pictured are Camryn and Jackson Suminski with their festive Easter baskets.
Star guests at virtual prom
Spreading springtime joy Bellaire kids put together colorful Easter baskets as well as Passover Seder plates for residents at The Village of Meyerland. The homemade Easter
Prom was cancelled for the St. Thomas High School Class of 2020, but some moms organized a virtual “pre-prom” for the students. The promgoers all connected by video via Zoom and were shocked to see two special visitors on the call: Astros baseball players Lance McCullers and Alex Bregman. The two (continued on page 52) BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 50
BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 51
(continued from page 50) players chatted with the
students, and, even though prom was cancelled, it’ll definitely be a night the students will remember. Pictured are Saphia Zaman, Chris Rootes and Julia Cook, in disbelief to be on the same call as Bregman. For more, search “Virtual Prom Hits a Grand Slam” by Karen Vine Fuller at thebuzzmagazines.com.
Spreading the love
Wrote a book
Praying together, separately For more than 20 years, Bellaire resident Peggy Reynolds has organized a National Day of Prayer gathering at the gazebo in Bellaire. She decorates the gazebo with patriotic colors and invites neighbors to come together, hear from Bellaire police officers and firefighters, and pray together. This year, May 7, the community will not gather in person due to the pandemic. She is encouraging neighbors to say a prayer with a friend or family members over the phone or video chat, go out for a prayer walk in the neighborhood, or just take a few moments at home to mark the day.
Helping the helpers
Bellaire resident Amy Brazda (pictured, at a past book signing) is a first-time children’s book author. Her book, Jesse Unleashed, recently won BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 52
Houstonians stepped up to help one another during the pandemic. Among them is Samir Mehta, who discovered a website to coordinate food delivery to Chicago’s healthcare workers and decided to create a similar page in Houston. He enlisted the help of friends Jennifer Cross and Kristi Coffey to set up a page where people can sign up to have catered meals delivering to a designated hospital – a win-win, as this would help healthcare workers while supporting local restaurants. Just 10 days or so after the page launched, more than 2,500 meals had been delivered. Pictured: MD Anderson healthcare workers received dinner from The ‘401 Table and Tap. For a link to the page and other ways to help, search “Helping the Helpers:
Houstonians Step Up to Assist Frontline Workers” by Pooja Salhotra at thebuzzmagazines.com.
Modeling success Daniel Ortiz
During the pandemic, many families were creatively sharing positivity and love while staying safely apart. The Blumbergs were one such family. Mom Julie heard about #aworldofhearts from friends in Dallas and loved the idea. She turned it into a fun project with daughter Zoe. Julie cut out hearts while Zoe sorted them. Together, they counted them and taped them so neighbors could admire them. The “A World of Hearts” effort began on a Facebook page in late March.
Story Monsters Approved’s book contest in the Family Matters category. The book, inspired by her own pup, features a chocolate Labrador puppy who spreads kindness and does good deeds. A portion of the book sales go to the Alzheimer’s Association in memory of Amy’s father, who Jesse is named after.
Nearly 200 supporters of Dress for Success Houston gathered at their facility for the 17th annual Models of Success event, which featured inspiring success stories of clients whose careers and lives have improved from DFSH’s programs. The event also served as the kickoff for DFSH’s city-wide suit drive. After mixing and mingling, well-suited “models” walked the runway while emcee Ilona Carson shared their stories. Pictured are (from left) Genora Boykins and Leanne Schneider. Editor's note: All in-person events featured in this month’s column took place prior to the coronavirus pandemic. See thebuzzmagazines.com for more stories about your neighbors. Be seen in Buzz About Town. Send your high-res photos and community news to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Items are published on a space-available basis. Also share your upcoming-event listings on thebuzzmagazines.com.
Relax and Enjoy Tea Time at Home
Use discount code MOM20 to get 20% off any loose leaf tea through May 31, 2020. Free shipping on all orders through May 31, 2020 Special $10 gift for all tea orders over $50
713.218.6300 • trueleaftea.com • info@trueleaftea.com
ld
So
4329 Valerie Street • Bellaire $1.3M • New construction
4340 Lula Street • Bellaire $1.278 • New construction
3410 Broadmead Knollwood • $1,189,000
9015 Manhattan Drive • Available Meyerland, 16,000+ SqFt Lot, 6/5.1
8306 Will Jordan Way Bellaire • $1,999,000
ct
tra
r
de
Un
n Co
5411 Alder Circle Bellaire • $849,000
Come visit our new location - Bellaire Town Center 5107 Bellaire Blvd, Suite 200, Bellaire, TX 77401 713.857.2625 Direct • 713.349.9700 Office www.joneshomegroup.com • ken@joneshomegroup.com
Ken Jones BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 53
NEIGHBORS
by Andria Frankfort, staff writer
Back Porch I
That quarantine mom
t’s not my job to make you like me. On a normal day with kids, that’s my mantra. I love my children dearly, and I know they love me. But when you strip it down, my job is to guide them to be self-sufficient, good people, and to keep them healthy. Not to make them like me. I tell them this when they want to go out with friends instead of going to a family dinner, or when I drag them to the doctor for a sore throat, or when they roll their eyes and tell me, “You don’t have to make everything a life lesson.” But over the past six weeks, all that’s been amped up a thousand times, now that we are all living together at home, not going to school or work or lunch. It’s been amped up because we are all together, all the time, and because now, there isn’t anywhere else to go. There’s no point even asking. Still, they want to be with friends, in houses, in cars. Which I understand. I, too, want to be with friends, and with family for that matter. Nobody wants to be stuck at home all day long, every day, I tell them. Nobody is trying to isolate you or make your life miserable. Nobody wanted you to have to sit in front of your computer at home and see your teachers and friends in Brady Bunch tiles on a screen. Nobody wanted you to have to end your spring semester at college early. Nobody wanted any of this. But here we are, in the middle of a pandemic that’s wreaked havoc on our health and economy and emotional states and life as we know it. And our only choice, if we want any chance of making this coronavirus situation any better at all, is to stay home. But my kids aren’t convinced. “I am the only one who didn’t stay at school,” my college student tells me, as she shows me videos of friends dancing in their apartments, sheltering-in-place together. I’m so sorry, I tell her. “Everyone else is getting together,” my high schooler tells me as she looks at Instagram pictures of kids gathered in each other’s homes. Yes, some of them are, and you’re not. “I can’t get dressed in a T-shirt and be here and not go anywhere for one more day,” they tell me. I know, and I know there are a whole lot of worse things going on in the world, so get dressed up if you want to, but you’re staying home. BELLAIRE BUZZ MAY 2020 54
behance.net/runamokstudios
.
It’s not my job to make you like me. Everything about this pandemic is hard. That includes the fine line between being able to tell a college student, who is used to being relatively independent, what she can and can’t do. But I’m just going to throw this out there: The parents letting their kids get together with friends are making it that much harder for those of us mean moms and dads standing our ground. I’m sorry if you’re a fun parent and hope I’m not offending anyone. At least your kids like you. During this closTOGETHER TIME It hasn't been easy keeping kids cooped up, but nobody ever e r - t h a n - w e ’ v e - said being a parent was going to be easy. been-since-theythe lawns; games of Onze and gin; movie nights. were-toddlers phase, I have withstood a whole Oh, who am I kidding? None of our kids are lot of eye-rolling and a whole lot of, “You are ever likely to cherish the time they got to spend the most freaked-out person we know.” Maybe with us, cooped up in our houses. But maybe so. But you know what? That’s my job. they will understand someday that we were just And besides, the time together not spent jocktrying to protect them, keep them healthy, do eying for the best Zoom spot in the house has our jobs. actually turned out to be a gift. Because while my For now, though, it’s not my job to make children and I haven’t spent this much time them like me. together since the baby days, we’ve also never Note: This story was written at the beginning of spent this much time together since they’ve April. We have no idea what May will look like, grown into real people who can have real conwhen the magazine is in print. I am hoping that versations. I dare say there might actually be everyone you and I love stays healthy. And I have some things we all will miss about this time: faith that my children – and all of us – will have settwice-daily walks through the neighborhood tled comfortably into the new normal. with the dog; reconnecting with neighbors on