Weekly G
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Frankie Art VIP
This week’s Art VIP was Frankie due to his hard work and positive attitude in the art room! He got to choose 2 friends to join him at the VIP table and earned exclusive free time at the end of class! Great work!
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John’s Winter Band Concert, 2024
John and the rest of the Mount Sinai 5th Grade Band did a wonderful job at their concert. John is playing trumpet in second chair. He is sitting in the third row all the way the left.
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Principal’s List and Honor Roll
Mom and I are so proud of Philomena and John for being named to the Mount Sinai Middle School Principal’s List (Philomena) and Honor Roll (John).
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Maker Faire 2024
This year, Philomena’s dance recital was on the same day as the Maker Faire. This meant that she was busy preparing and rehearsing and getting dressed up, however the boys and I took the opportunity to spend a couple of hours at the Faire. We met up with John’s friend Lily and her family as well as Frankie’s friend James and his family. John hung out with Lily most of the time and me and Frankie were on our own, so I got more pictures of Frankie but Lily’s dad sent me some photos of John. We made bracelets by hammering patterns into metal and then bending it and made art prints as well as learning how to solder!
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Flag Day Celebration at Mount Sinai Elementary School
John played trumpet in a small group as well as playing with the band during the Flag Day celebration.
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Remembering Lora Stewart/Trip to Nantucket
This past weekend, we made our first trip to Nantucket since my accident. Last year, I arranged with our neighbor Andy Bennett to redo the porch and deck on the house to include a ramp that would allow me to access the front door. This is our first opportunity to give it a try and it worked out very well. Not only could I access the house but the ramp and deck are very sturdy and I can get around in the house as well.
The service for Lora was a success I think. There were a few tears but mostly, it was uplifting which is what Lora would’ve wanted. I think we are all still shaken by the loss. It happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that it seems magnified. The service was led by her childhood friend and Paul. Their kids, Perry, Dan, and Diana also spoke and read poems. Something interesting was that, a few years ago, Lora had gone through a workshop in which she wrote her own obituary and indicated what she would like said at a service for her. The product of that workshop and the notes that she left behind guided Paul in creating the program for her service. The service was followed by a reception at Bartlett’s farm. As Ariele put it, it was “the sad bright side of these types of occasions” as we got to see many relatives that we don’t get to see often and catch up. It was wonderful to see Frankie and Nat Stevens interacting in such a wonderful way. Nat was one of my favorites growing up as was Paul and great uncle Tom.
Gerry Gianutsos and Nat Stevens at the reception at Bartlett’s farm Perry also told me that Arielle is pregnant with a boy who is due in July. This was really exciting news. Since she is so far into her pregnancy, she was unable to make the trip to Nantucket and attend. Their daughter, Millie, also stayed home with her. Perry’s brother Dan and his wife Jennifer were there with their two kids, Avery and Colby. On Sunday, the day after the service, Philomena, John and Frankie got a chance to get to know Avery and Colby at Jetties Beach, where we went with Diana, Dan, Jen, Paul and Lora’s sister Mary. We went at low tide so that the water was warm and shallow and Dan brought nets and fishing poles to try to catch some critters. I couldn’t get to the beach so I sat at the sandbar and had a beer and watched the band while you all played and hung out. I was really glad that you got a chance to get to know your cousins like that. I have always been close with the Stewarts and I am glad that you guys had a chance to get to know their next generation.
We had a pretty cool experience at the ferry on the ride home. Not only did Frankie get many of the truck drivers honk their horns, we saw something that had a little bit of significance. At the end of last year, a drunk driver toppled the fountain at the bottom of Main Street. It’s not the first time it has happened, but it needed to be repaired. As we were waiting to board the ferry, a truck drove off the ferry with the repaired fountain loaded in its bed. We also discovered that there was a statue dedicated to Mr. Rogers in front of the Dreamland Theater. Of course I made you stop and take a picture!
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Yankees vs. Tigers
One of Frankie’s birthday gifts was tickets for the Yankee game today. The Yankees beat the tigers and he and John and I went with Yia Yia. We got there early so we got a chance to go to monument Park and the Yankee museum. It was Star Wars day at the stadium. The boys conned their grandmother into buying them batting gloves as well. Frankie also got the Juan Soto jersey he had been asking for for his birthday.
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First Game At Yankee Stadium
For his birthday, John received tickets for the family to go to our first game at Yankee Stadium together. As a trial run, we took the Long Island Railroad from Ronkonkoma to Grand Central, and then the 4 train uptown to the stadium. Overall, I thought it went pretty well. I think it is something that we can do again. Mom came along this time in case of problems, but things went pretty smoothly except for me getting us lost a couple of times in Grand Central. Having to take elevators to get up and down to the platforms does make things much more complicated and makes things take longer. But that’s part of the deal.
Prior to the game, the Yankees held a ceremony in honor of the recently retired John Sterling, the announcer of Yankee games on the radio for 36 years. John was the soundtrack of the late ’90s glory years for me. However, in the last year or so his significance has grown for me. You see about 10 or 12 years ago, when you kids were born, I lost track of following baseball. However, 2 years ago I broke my neck in a fall and became a quadriplegic. Finding things to settle my mind and manage my anxiety has been a challenge in that time. Last year I started putting the game on again at night as I was getting put into bed for the evening. It really turned out to be quite comforting to listen to John and Suzyn again. I fall asleep and end up getting woken up when WFAN’s abrasive hosts’ voices come on. John and Frankie are 7 and 10 and last season they saw me getting back into it and caught the fever themselves. So much so that a month or two ago, I got tickets for John for his birthday. It’s his first game at the stadium and my first in a wheelchair. The tickets are for this Saturday, April 20th. As sad as I am that I won’t be able to listen to John call the games anymore, I’m gratified that we were there to send him off.
Unfortunately, the game didn’t turn out as we would have hoped. The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Yankees 2-0 in extra innings. I think the boys really appreciated and enjoyed the experience of seeing a game in a setting like that. We’ll have to make plans to go to a few more games, and this time hopefully they will win!
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Lora Stewart, Birthday Party Planning and New Little League Teams
This week we lost a cousin. Lora Southworth Stewart, 1953-2024
On the brighter side, we planned John’s 10th birthday party. It will be a bowling party at Coram Country Lanes with friends from school. We will of course have the multiple home birthday parties featuring Fudgie the Whale.
Little League
This season, John’s team will be The Yankees and Frankie will be on The Braves. This will be for their regular league teams, which is in addition to Frankie’s travel team, the North Shore Giants.
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Lora Southworth Stewart, 1953-2024
Today, we lost one of my favorite people in the whole world, my cousin, Lora. Lora’s husband, Paul, is my mother’s first cousin, and every summer when I would go to Nantucket, it would always be a high priority to meet up and have dinner and catch up with Paul and Lora. When I lived there during summers in college, I would babysit their kids, my cousins Perry, Dan, and Diana. I’m gratified to say that we have kept in touch and maintained a close relationship. It’s one that is very meaningful to me and makes the loss of Lora sting all the more. For me, Nantucket will never be the same. Still a slice of heaven, as Dan would say, but a little more empty for me.
The upright Baldwin piano in our house was the one that Lora took lessons on in North Andover. When they sold that house and moved to Nantucket full-time about 7 years ago or so, they gave us that piano. When I went to pick it up, I had help from Paul, of course, but also from our cousin, Nat Stevens. Afterward, we went out for lunch together, and it’s a memory that I will always cherish. They are two of my favorite people. Nat, in addition to being another one of my mother’s first cousins, was her favorite cousin growing up. They used to play together all the time.
Here are some photos that Diana posted on Facebook.
