Donna Vickroy – Page 29

Keith Lewis, owner of Bookie's Bookstore, helps customer Basil Booton look up a book.

Owner of Bookie’s Bookstore in Homewood shares his story and his Top 10 reads

November 4, 2019 at 8:32 a.m.

Among the reams of interesting stories inside Bookie's in Homewood is the one that belongs to the owner, a former high school English teacher whose casual conversation inside a tiny...

Decorative sugar skulls, or calaveras, are placed on ofrendas to represent the individual personalities of the departed during Day of the Dead. Alters, or Ofrenda's, containing favorite foods, drinks and items of past loved ones are built for Day of the Dead, a celebration that originated in Mexico.

Unlike Halloween, Mexico’s Day of the Dead meant to be celebration of lost loved ones

October 30, 2019 at 8:29 a.m.

In Mexican culture, says Rita Arias Jirasek, a person dies three times: 1) Physical death, when your heart stops beating and you stop breathing; 2) Ceremonial death, your burial or...

Becky Cortesi-Caruso, who has worked in public education across the suburbs, has now written a book about her adopted daughter. "Chasing Charleigh" addresses the important issues of adoption and diversity from the point of view of a child. (Donna Vickroy/Daily Southtown)

Lemont educator’s children’s book ‘Chasing Charleigh’ addresses race and open adoption through eyes of a child

October 27, 2019 at 8:49 a.m.

Children have been known to ask some tough questions. Those who were adopted likely ask some of the toughest. It's up to their parents to find the words to explain...

Emily Fellmann comforts her husband, Denis, as he shares his story of recovery from cardiac arrest. When fellow Orland Park resident Tom O'Brien, out for a run, found Denis collapsed on a forest preserve trail he performed CPR and called 911.

A chance encounter on a lonely stretch of Swallow Cliff trail in Palos Township saves a life and grows a friendship

October 28, 2019 at 8:17 a.m.

The serendipity of it all. That Tom O'Brien would choose that fateful Friday to break with his running routine. That Denis Fellmann would collapse on a lonely stretch of forest...

Rikk Dunlap talks Sept. 30, 2019 about the moment his agent told him his novel was being made into a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.

A suburban school maintenance worker’s novel has been turned into a Hallmark Christmas movie

October 24, 2019 at 9:19 p.m.

Rikk Dunlap calls it "uplift-erature." The term, referring to stories that leave a person feeling good, has become his mantra, his guide and his ticket onto the Hallmark Channel. It...

You’re tired, I’m tired, we’re all exhausted. Thanks, Washington.

October 21, 2019 at 3:11 p.m.

I'm with you America. Exhausted. As if social media notifications, a daily bombardment of robocalls, a 24-hour news cycle, a Rubik's Cube of TV access options and a need to...

A kindness campaign at Oak Forest High School is honoring the legacy of a student from a rival school

October 18, 2019 at 1:57 p.m.

For the past 13 years, since they were placed in the same conference, the Oak Forest High School Bengals and the Lemont High School Indians have been going at it....

Ashley Spitzer (left) and Robbyn Yuen, of Creative Cakes in Tinley Park, recently returned from Las Vegas after taking second place in a national cake decorating contest hosted by Pillsbury.

Tinley Park cake decorators take second place in Pillsbury competition

October 18, 2019 at 10:22 a.m.

For the second year in a row, decorators from Creative Cakes won second place overall in the Pillsbury International Baking Industry Exposition's Creative Cake Decorating Competition. Ashley Spitzer, of Midlothian,...

Sandburg High School students stage docudrama ’26 Pebbles,’ based on Sandy Hook massacre

October 14, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.

This week Sandburg High School theater students stage a production based on a tragedy that tested the faith of an entire community and much of the nation. On Dec. 14,...

Skunks feed on earthworms and grubs, which is why they tend to like the well-watered lawns of golf courses and neighborhoods, says Chris Anchor, wildlife biologist with the Cook County Forest Preserves. (Wallace Keck/National Park Service via AP)

Coyotes, mice and deer, oh my! How to avoid unwanted wildlife encounters this autumn

October 13, 2019 at 9:08 a.m.

We all know what's coming. Just like humans are busy getting heavy coats out of storage, breaking down gardens and adding storm windows, the animal world is getting ready for...

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