As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on June 24, 2010. Before she set foot in Guatemala last month, Lauren Scharmer sensed her life was about to change. Her intuition was correct. Scharmer was one of 16 seniors and two chaperones from Convent of the Visitation School whose mission trip to Central America took
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As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on June 6, 2010. As an appearance-conscious society, we are rather obsessed with our hair. We cut and color and change curly to straight to showcase our crowning glory. While a shaved head can be stylish on men (e.g. Taye Diggs, Chris Daughtry, and Bruce Willis), there
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As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on May 28, 2010. Earlier this month, Sgt. Joe Bergeron, a 26-year veteran of the Maplewood Police Department, was memorialized after being executed in his squad car. He is survived by a large family and many in law enforcement who are mindful that, on any given day,
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As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on April 29, 2010. Many recognize St. Paul native Vince Flynn as the creator of Mitch Rapp, protagonist in 11 bestselling, page-turning thrillers. How many know that, while words have been his ticket to success, they have also been his nemesis? Flynn was an average student at
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As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on April 16, 2010. I never thought of myself as a pet person. I was the last among my dog-crazy siblings to acquire one and did so only after my daughter Julia launched a relentless campaign that ended when we fell in love with a Cavalier King
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As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on March 12, 2010. It’s curious how we live life in denial, disregard, or even defiance of the one thing that is certain to occur to all. Death. It’s been 12 weeks since I got the phone call I’d strangely never anticipated. My husband, Ted, bearer of
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As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on January 15, 2010. When Pat Leseman was a young girl, her Italian grandmother told her, in broken English, that God sends everyone an angel or two in their lifetime. They do not come dressed in white and they don’t tap you on the shoulder to introduce
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As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on December 11, 2009. They were once parents, children, and friends who lied, stole, betrayed, neglected, and prostituted themselves to support their addictions. Many lived lives full of chaos and confusion and lacking in love and acceptance. Others came from stable homes with no history of addiction
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It has been 16 years since we learned our son has autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Since that time, I have traveled a very confusing and circuitous route. At the beginning, I stubbornly resisted one professionals’ opinion that the ASD would endure. But recently, I sought confirmation that our 18-year-old still has ASD. That diagnosis is
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This fall there has been a lot of buzz in my world about a trend of which I had been oblivious – “grinding” at high school dances. The discussion followed controversial decisions by school administrators striving to limit a dance floor activity that, to adult observers, looks an awful lot like sex with one’s clothes
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