The Bellaire Buzz - February 2022

Levi and Rachel Strauss

A Stan-the-Man Update Saying “I Do” Again A Whirlwind of Weddings

Love in a Heartbeat

Love Times Two Dog-Friendly Date Spots

by Deborah Lynn Blumberg

Chef’s Corner: Jason Gould When an Artist’s Headache Was a Stroke Travel: Escape to Paradise

Houston, TX

Buzz Baby: Sleep Training

Permit No. 2047 PAID US Postage PRSRT STD

Un-Romantic Romance

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 3

EDITOR’S NOTE In February, we always tell love stories.

Reading about weddings makes me reminisce about my own, which almost did not happen.

My fiancé locked his keys in his trunk and missed his flight to our wedding location, Carmel. This was before cell phones and the internet, so the missed calls about full flights sent everyone into a panic. In today’s Covid era, so many families have been put through the emotional rollercoaster of having to reschedule weddings and milestone celebrations. In this issue, you’ll meet newlyweds who had to roll with the punches, plus longtime couples who said “I do” and “I do again” to keep the love alive.

And you won’t forget the young parents for whom hearts have meaning way beyond Valentine’s Day. As for our wedding, Michael was walking out of the airport to drive the eight hours instead when the agent yelled, “Wait, here is a message from your soon-to-be wife! She booked you on a flight through Sacramento and San Jose!” So, 33 years later, I’m happy to say, the wayward fiancé did make it. 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 Design Manager Staff Writers

Contributing Writer Account Managers

Joni Hoffman Michael Hoffman Cheryl Laird Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld John Duboise Tracy L. Barnett Sharon Albert Brier Cindy Burnett Andria Frankfort Angie Frederickson Todd Freed Cindy Gabriel Cathy Gordon Michelle Groogan Dai Huynh Annie Blaylock McQueen Jennifer Oakley Pooja Salhotra Cheryl Ursin Karen Vine Fuller Andrea Blitzer Leslie Little Jo Rogers

On our cover: Valentine’s Day is a momentous holiday for Bellaire couple Levi and Rachel Strauss.

Cover photo by Dylan Aguilar 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 © 2022 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 FEBRUARY 2022 4

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713.764.9850 • mlivingston@gmail.com • www.har.com/mikelivingston BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 5

MAILBAG

Your letters, thoughts, opinions Shazam! What a story and photos We can't thank The Buzz enough for your kind article about my family's land speed racing exploits that appeared in your December 2021 issue [Shazam! Land Speed Champ: Daughter and dad race to records]. The article

by John Harris was extremely well written, and my daughter Caitlin and I really enjoyed our several interviews and many emails back and forth with John. He successfully captured most of our experiences on the Bonneville Salt Flats raceway the past eight years. The photographs by Eric Forsythe (plus others) were excellent and also very appreciated.

Shortly after the article appeared, our block had a party in which many new neighbors attended. We could see Shazam from the lawn of our hosts.

Many people commented on the article, and there were lots of questions about our racing quest that were prompted by the great article. John wrote great opening lines: “The Gray family has a special gift this Christmas that won’t sit under their tree. They received it last August and it's in the record books.” It turns out The Buzz article was yet another special gift that did arrive in December, and a framed cover of the Bellaire edition was indeed under our tree!

We also have to thank our friend, Sarah Flournoy, for submitting our story idea to The Buzz, and the Buzz for assigning such an excellent reporter and photographer to make our story come to life on your pages.

Gary and Caitlin Gray

Enjoyed 20th-anniversary issue Congratulations, Joni [Hoffman], Michael [Hoffman], and The Buzz team. I enjoyed reading the 20th-anniversary issue [January 2022] so much.

Thank you for bringing communities together and sharing peoples’ stories in such an uplifting way.

Rhonda Graff

Twenty years of magazine memories Congratulations on 20 years of The Buzz! I have enjoyed it all along, as well as Ginsberg participation, to include the camper [Happy Campers at Any Age, by Angie Frederickson, March 2010] and prank [Punk’d by Pranksters, by Dave Schafer, April 2011] stories, and of course, Sonny as your first Neighborhood Tails pet.

Larry Ginsberg

Remembering friends So enjoyed the Tanglewood walkers story [Walking the Boulevard, by Michelle Groogan, January 2006]. Thank you. It reminded me so much of our group of six that walked together for over 30 years, ending up with one, me, after people passed away, and moved.

In addition to the physical and mental health benefits, we celebrated weddings of children, visited each other’s gardens, parades, supported one another when ill, bonded over our spirituality, and more.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 6

Each of us looked forward to our morning walks – two loops in summer, four in winter. Yes, we also had a T-shirt for our group.

[In addition] you have tickled my memories with the article on Lillian Illig [The Constant Gardeners, by Michelle Groogan, April 2006], the second uplifting article on her over the years. Her Swiss heritage showed in her beautiful immaculately kept garden. It was a delight to walk with her periodically over the years, share plants and talk on all sorts of themes. She always had a smile from the first moment I met her to the last time I saw her near her passing.

Sometimes if I was with our group of our Tanglewood walkers and we met her on the Boulevard, we would all slow down to chat and walk with her. I was fortunate to also meet and get to know her loyal son who would walk with her on Sundays or weekends. Lillian was always a ray of sunshine!

Thank you.

Virginia Mampre Editor’s note: In honor of The Buzz Magazines' 20th anniversary, we selected a past article to feature online every day in January, including the 2006 articles Virginia referenced here. See thebuzzmagazines.com for links to both stories and more.

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: • Are passionate about creative upcycling.

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If this sounds like you or someone you know, please contact us at info@thebuzzmagazines.com or 713.668.4157, ext 12.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 7

NEIGHBORS

by Cindy Gabriel, staff writer

Eureka Moment A big Stan-the-Man update

S

tan had decided to try a corn dog stand in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, when Cindy spotted a sign next door. “It’s a sign,” she thought. Not the sign that said Judge Roy Bean’s Old Time Photos. The one on the same door that said, “Legal Marriages Performed Here.”

While Stan was tending to his stomach, Cindy slipped off to see about getting the I Do off the To Do list. Is that romantic or what? She had managed to coerce a ring out of Stan a couple of months earlier. “You’re engaged,” everyone said. “When are you getting married?”

A small and simple wedding is not as small and simple as it sounds. Every idea meant someone would be left out. You can swat away these questions for only so long. Then, the “Eureka” moment! Just leave everyone out.

Eureka Springs was town No. 2 on a threetown Arkansas fall-foliage tour planned by Stan – first Bentonville, then Eureka Springs, and finally Hot Springs. Stan’s sisters call him the leaf chaser.

He loves fall and sets out yearly to catch it in all its glory, somewhere. He calls two statements the story of his life – “You should have come last week” or “You should have come this time next week.”

This trip started out looking a little early, but the fall leaves seemed to multiply as the trip went on.

Eureka Springs is a bit like a younger sister to New Orleans, with Victorian-era shops wrapped precariously down a wooded cliff, along narrow streets built for horse and buggy.

Talk about steep hills! Uphill pointed your car skyward like a space capsule about to launch.

Downhill tumbled you forward like a marionette suspended by seat belts, sending Cindy (the driver of the moment) into a faceplant on the steering wheel.

Now, she was just happy to have two feet on the ground while approaching a woman with long gray hair down to her elbows at the counter inside Judge Roy Bean’s wedding factory.

For a mere $80, this woman, an ordained minister, could have them married by the next day. All they needed was a marriage license, which could be conveniently acquired in the courthouse across the street, with driver's licenses and $60 cash.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 8

GETTING I DO OFF THE TO DO LIST Cindy finally nabs Stan-the-Man.

The next day was Saturday, Nov. 6. The courthouse would be open until noon. Dressed for afternoon leaf-chasing, they decided to make it their first morning stop.

Cindy and Stan were about ready to head to the courthouse when Cindy realized she had been drive-sharing all the way to Arkansas without a driver's license. “Oh well,” she said. “Looks like we won’t be getting married.”

Stan‘s recovery at that news was remarkable.

“No problem, let’s go eat.” He had already identified a brunch spot up one of those steep hills.

But then, as the couple began their calf-crunching climb, Cindy thought, “I think I have a picture of my license on my iPhone.” Eureka!

There it was!

Cindy instantly turned around and started heading downhill. Stan broke out in a flop sweat and slowly followed on the downhill trek. It takes a lot to ask Stan to skip a meal.

A woman in jeans and a T-shirt working the courthouse marriage-license window took a brief glance at Cindy’s driver’s license image on her phone, shrugged, and said, “Only here could you get away with that.”

Marriage license in hand, Cindy and Stan

headed back across the street to Judge Roy Bean’s place.

Cindy did not want to see her 66-year-old-self dressed like a hooker in a saloon with a noose around Cowboy Stan’s neck, so they saved the $200 photo/costume fee. A simple backroom marriage in their own jeans and sneakers, surrounded by fake shrubbery, was just $80.

The woman with the long gray hair made some appropriate-sounding remarks, inviting Stan to say a few words that he had written on the back of a business card. “The love you take is equal to the love you make.”

This struck Cindy as rather unoriginal. She teared up anyway. She then launched into a bit of an unplanned ramble, being a little too confident in her own ability to be spontaneously articulate.

Later, while compiling this account, she texted Stan to ask him if he remembered anything she said. His reply: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

Of course, Cindy didn’t say that, but it reminded her why she married Stan. It fit in with her own personal motto: “Go with what makes the corners of your mouth turn up.”

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 9

NEIGHBORS

by Karen Vine Fuller, contributing writer

Lifelong Valentines Saying “I do” – and “I do” These Buzz-neighborhood sweethearts all said, “I do,” to each other. But not just once. To keep the love alive, they renewed their vows – some, multiple times.

O

n their 20th anniversary, Bradley Sinor told his wife, Sherry, he was taking her out for a special surprise.

“We ended up at a department store, with a huge walk-in dressing area lined with white dresses and shoes,” Sherry said. “I was speechless.

Bradley handed me a glass of bubbles and a card that asked if I would marry him again. I said, ‘Yes! Of course!’ Then he left. The sales lady appeared and said, ‘Let's find you a dress!’"

The surprises continued, with the couple flying to Napa and staying at a villa. The next day Sherry got ready upstairs with a hair and makeup glam squad. Bradley waited at the bottom of the steps. And unbeknown to Sherry, there was also a minister and photographer there.

“I think a vow renewal can be grand or small, but it's the message that matters,” Sherry said.

“We are thrown curveballs throughout life.

Renewing your vows brings it back to the beginning, to the two of you, and says, ‘I'd do this again with you.’”

F

or their 10th anniversary in 2004, John and Suzanne Shelby “Viva, Viva, Las Vegas-ed” to renew their wedding vows with an Elvis-impersonator minister at the Little White Chapel on the strip. Joining in the ceremony were both sets of parents, Vic and Cherry Corman and Carolyn and Herman Shelby, who were both celebrating their 40th anniversaries, “Elvis serenaded us with Love Me Tender and Blue Suede Shoes,” said Suzanne. “We had the giggles the whole time.”

M

ichael and Melinda Wilhelm love renewing their wedding vows. Unique ceremonies over the years have included a private vow exchange at the Waterwall by the Houston Galleria, a Hawaiian ceremony on Kalapaki Beach, and a group renewal on an Italian cruise.

“It was a beautiful ceremony with about 20 other couples,” Melinda said. “Everything was BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 10

STILL VOWING AND WOWING Top: Sherry and Bradley Sinor celebrated their 20th-anniversary vows in Napa Valley. Bottom: Whether with Elvis in Vegas or on dinner dates around Houston, Suzanne and John Shelby have kept smiling since 1994.

in Italian, but the priest spoke English and translated at the most important times.”

One of the lovebirds’ unique vow renewals happened in the fall of 2020. With sand between their toes and the Gulf of Mexico as

their backdrop, Michael and Melinda and 19 other giddy couples renewed their vows on Surfside Beach.

“Everyone was excited to be outside after being cooped up with (continued on page 12)

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 11

D. George Taylor

D. George Taylor

ALWAYS FUN TO BE WITH THE ONE Clockwise, from top left: Melinda and Michael Wilhelm were a giggling bride and groom during their Surfside Beach group vow renewal with friends. With 19 other couples, Alma and Tim Connor wore all white and joined in. Polly and Lance Looper dressed up in their finest orange accessories (including french fry glasses) to renew their vows at Whataburger on Feb. 14, 2020. Their son, Trace, and their neighbors, Melissa and Andy Krenz, joined the fast-food fun, part of a Valentine's Day contest. (continued from page 10) Covid

since March,” Melinda said. “Before we knew it, our vow renewal turned into a White Party, with everyone wearing white. We invited all the couples to participate. I think over 20 couples ended up renewing their vows."

Alma and Tim Connor were thrilled to be there. “The beachfront celebration was lovely, and the minister’s blessing made it extra special,” said Alma. “Whether you’ve been married a few years – or many years – renewing your vows is a reminder that, just like the ocean we stood in front of, our years together will ebb and flow like the tide and weather any storm that may come through.”

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 12

This past fall, Melinda and Michael renewed something else close to their hearts – their love for the Houston Astros. The couple attended all six World Series games in Houston and Atlanta.

They were dressed so crazy and yelled so loudly that Fox Sports Net featured them numerous times on the national broadcast. Melinda was quite the star after Houston won Game 5 to stay in the series.

P

olly and Lance Looper met on Match.com in 2005 and started dating long distance, as Polly lived near Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Lance was in Houston. They married in 2010, and Polly moved to Texas.

The Loopers hoped to do something fun for their 10-year anniversary, but they hadn’t made any plans. Polly entered a Whataburger Valentine’s Day vow-renewal contest. As hamburger fate would have it, her entry was randomly picked.

“Our family tends to do things big, and this was no different,” Polly shared. “It was fun finding orange accessories and having our son, Trace, with us. We had an absolute blast! Although [it was] a fun, cheeky way to renew, we were also renewed in our faith and our marriage. No doubt that has helped us endure and stay focused on what is important – our family.”

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 13

NEIGHBORS

by Pooja Salhotra, staff writer

Dog-Friendly Date Spots Where you can bring a pup – or two

Dining Leeland House 2119 Leeland St.; Wed.-Sun., 8 a.m-2 p.m.

This café just east of downtown is a great spot for a weekend brunch date. With a covered patio, fresh coffee, and fruity cocktails, you can’t go wrong. (Pro tip: Order the Crème Brulee French Toast.) I brought Pearl on a Sunday brunch date, and she made friends with a nearby BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 14

Michael Hoffman

I

’m no relationship expert, but I can offer one piece of wisdom from my years of online dating: Dogs make it better. Here are a few reasons I’ve taken to bringing my pup, Pearl, along with me on dates – and why you might consider bringing your pooch to your next date night, too.

My No. 1 reason is safety. You can never be too cautious when meeting someone new, and when Pearl is around, nobody can try anything on me. Pearl, 4 and medium-sized, is a protective shield, with an attentive eye and a growl if needed. Even my parents are calmer knowing Pearl is by my side.

Second, dogs are discerning and intuitive creatures who are skilled at perceiving potential threats and sniffing out bad vibes. And if you don’t feel ready to introduce your potential partner to human friends, your dog might be the next best thing, or better. I also like to scope out how my date feels about meeting my dog. If they are not excited, then I know I’m wasting my time.

Your dog can also get you out of a sub-par date. Let’s say your date is a dud. If you have your dog with you, your escape is easy. It’s time for Pearl to be fed is my go-to excuse.

Finally, a date can be more fun with your dog.

If your date is a dog owner, why not make it a double date?

You may think it would be a challenge to find enough dog-friendly date spots here in Houston, but there are plenty of places: restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and parks. Here are some of my favorites, as well as places I am excited to check out. (Of course, always check with your date before bringing your dog along to make sure they’re not afraid or allergic. And unless you’re in a designated dog run, keep your dog on a leash and be mindful of other people.)

POOJA PLUS PEARL Buzz writer Pooja Salhotra has found her pup Pearl to be the perfect wingwoman. Here, the duo are pictured at Hermann Park, which features plenty of dog-friendly spaces and trails.

dog, Toro. The waitstaff was friendly, offering Pearl a bowl of water and lots of love.

Barnaby’s Café Locations in River Oaks, the Heights, Midtown, Downtown, Museum District, Montrose, and Memorial; hours vary This laid-back American café is a fun spot to take a date and your dog, whether it’s lunch, dinner, or brunch.

Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino 3215 Westheimer Road; Tues.-Sat., 4-9 p.m.

Located in River Oaks, this friendly, neighborhood Italian restaurant and wine spot knows how to treat your dog. They’ll offer a treat plus a bowl of water while you sip on wine, and they even donate the proceeds from

their seasonal dessert to support the Rescued Pets Movement, which helps find homes for abandoned dogs and cats.

Tacos A Go Go Locations in The Heights, Oak Forest, Downtown tunnels, and Cinco Ranch; hours vary This funky and affordable Tex-Mex spot is known for its street tacos and laid-back atmosphere. There’s not much more I need in life than queso and dogs, so I’ll be at their dog-friendly patio soon (with or without a date).

Izakaya 318 Gray St.; Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.; Fri., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-11 p.m.; Sat., noon-11 p.m.; Sun., noon-10 p.m.

This Japanese restaurant from the Azuma

Photo courtesy of Houston Arboretum

TRAILS AND TAILS On the western edge of Memorial Park sits the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, a 155-acre nature sanctuary with trails, a bird sanctuary, and exhibits. The trails are free and dog-friendly – perfect for a date, or a double date.

Group opened in Midtown in 2015 and quickly became my favorite ramen spot in Houston. Sit on the dog-friendly patio and order some Szechuan dumplings and tonkotsu ramen.

Drinking Kirby Ice House Locations in Upper Kirby and Memorial; Mon.Fri., 2 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-2 a.m.

I love the sprawling, one-acre backyard area at the Upper Kirby bar. There are even lounge chairs and ceiling fans outside to keep you and your pup cool and comfy.

Barkley’s 2300 Louisiana St.; Mon.-Wed., 11 a.m.-midnight; Thurs.-Sat., 11 a.m.-2 a.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-midnight Dogs take center stage at this Midtown patio bar and grill that features an off-leash dog park.

Happy hour is known as Yappy Hour. Need I say more?

Axelrad Beer Garden 1517 Alabama St.; Mon.-Thurs., 2 p.m.-midnight; Fri.-Sat., noon-2 a.m.; Sun., noon-midnight Axelrad is a low-key beer garden hangout in Midtown, offering fun concerts and events year-round. It’s right by Luigi’s Pizzeria and has backyard hammocks perfect for lounging. Take your date to drink and relax while your pup enjoys the lawn, the company, and, of course, the pizza crust.

8th Wonder Brewery 2202 Dallas St., Mon.-Sat., noon-10 p.m.; Sun., noon-8 p.m.

This East End brewery offers a ton of beer options and has an expansive back area called “WonderWorld” that’s dog-friendly. Since this is walking distance from Minute Maid Park, it’s

a great pre-game spot the next time Minute Maid has its annual Dog Day. Saint Arnold Brewing Company 2000 Lyons Ave.; Sun.-Wed., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Thurs., 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

The oldest craft brewery in Texas, Saint Arnold also features a beer garden and full-menu restaurant. Bring Fido to hang in the sun as you throw back a cold one and enjoy expansive views of the skyline from just north of downtown. With a giant outdoor screen, this is also an ideal spot to watch the Astros.

Caffeinating Coral Sword 1318 Telephone Road, #2; Mon.-Sun., 8 a.m.11 p.m.

Coral Sword is a neighborhood coffee and board games café in the Eastwood neighborhood. They host weekly Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons events, perfect for gamers. During the pandemic, the parking lot was transformed into a dog-friendly patio.

Siphon Coffee 701 W Alabama St.; Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat., 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun., 8 a.m.-7 p.m.

The namesake siphon brew is perfect for sharing, along with a pastry or breakfast tacos. This Montrose coffee shop also has a solid iced coffee and a cute patio that welcomes dogs.

Antidote Coffee 729 Studewood St.; daily, 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m.

This quirky spot in the Heights offers both coffee and beer/wine, so it’s ideal if you and your date can’t decide whether you need a stimulant or a depressant. Their patio is pet friendly and filled with brightly colored tables and chairs.

The only downside is limited nearby parking.

Parks and trails Discovery Green 1500 McKinney St.; daily, 6 a.m.-11 p.m.

There’s always something going on in this sprawling, urban park in the heart of downtown, whether it’s a new art exhibit, a festival, or a concert. There’s two dog runs onsite where you can let your four-legged friend off the leash. And as The Grove restaurant has a first-floor patio deck that is entirely dog-friendly, you can spend a whole day here with your date and your dog.

Market Square Park 301 Milam St.; daily, 6 a.m.-11 p.m This urban space sits in a single square block of downtown, near The Alley Theatre and Jones Hall. The park has two dog runs with water features and canine drinking fountains. In the summer months, the park offers monthly movies on the lawn. With Niko Niko’s food truck located onsite, this is a perfect dinner and movie date night where your dog is welcome.

Houston Arboretum & Nature Center 4501 Woodway Dr.; daily, 7 a.m.-6 p.m.

With more than five miles of nature trails, this is a fun date spot for the outdoorsy folks.

The Arboretum sits within Memorial Park, Houston’s largest park, so you can even branch out to other areas, such as the new Eastern Glades or the 3-mile Seymour Lieberman Trail.

Hermann Park 6001 Fannin St.; daily, 6 a.m.-11 p.m.

Hermann Park is a beautiful 445-acre urban park with plenty of dog-friendly spaces, including the hilltop Miller Outdoor Theatre, which offers free performances and films, plus the McGovern Centennial Gardens.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 15

Tania Rafalski

NEIGHBORS

by Deborah Lynn Blumberg, staff writer

Love In a Heartbeat “Hearts are kind of our thing”

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 16

Tania Rafalski

T

he pink and red hearts plastered on store windows, chocolate boxes, and greeting cards around Valentine’s Day each year have a special meaning for Levi and Rachel Strauss.

Hearts are a tangible reminder of the couple’s unique cross-country love story, engagement, marriage on Valentine’s Day, and the life-saving surgery that fixed their son Leo’s heart when he was just 23 days old. Leo’s Hebrew name also means “heart.”

“We love hearts, and we love our love story,” says Rachel. “Hearts are kind of our thing.”

Levi and Rachel’s story begins nine years ago when Rachel, who lived in Detroit and worked in the health-insurance industry, wanted to network with insurance brokers. She reached out to a friend in the industry who turned out to be Levi’s cousin.

“He said, I have a great contact for you, his name is Levi Strauss,” Rachel says. “I thought he was kidding,” she adds, recalling the American clothing company known for its iconic blue jeans. “I wrote his name and number down with a question mark.”

When Rachel called Levi, he was sitting in traffic on 610. He didn’t recognize the phone number, but answered because he was bored.

They hit it off immediately.

“I’d never met someone with so much energy and vigor,” Levi says. “I was intrigued.”

Rachel, a self-proclaimed “hopeless romantic,” connected with Levi on social media before they hung up. They set up another call for a few days later on the Monday before Thanksgiving. Levi included a co-worker on the call, and the conversation turned serious. Levi and Rachel hung up, not quite sure how their relationship would proceed.

Then, on Thanksgiving Day, the Houston Texans played the Detroit Lions. When the Texans won, Levi texted Rachel, “Happy Thanksgiving, I’m sorry for your loss.” Hours and some wine later, Rachel started sending him emojis. “We began getting very flirtatious,” she says, joking around with health-insurance terms.

The texting continued through the night. On the way home from his own family Thanksgiving dinner in Houston, Levi pulled to the side of the road to keep the conversation

THEY’RE ALL HEART Top: Rachel and Levi Strauss, who married on Valentine’s Day, say hearts became even more symbolic to them after their son, Leo, had open heart surgery just three weeks after birth. Bottom: Goldie, Levi, Leo, and Rachel.

going. The intense texting and calls went on for days before Rachel asked Levi, “Are we going to see each other?” He suggested the following weekend. So, two weeks after their first call, he

flew to Detroit to meet her in person.

“I remember being at the airport, and I had the biggest smile on my face,” Levi says. “I was just so excited to go meet this girl.” Adds

Dan Lippitt Photography

Dan Lippitt Photography

Sherri Innis Photography

Sherri Innis Photography

FROM THE HEART Top left: Levi proposed to Rachel in the middle of a giant heart. Their wedding date on Valentine’s Day inspired this Valentine’s-themed engagement photo. Top right: The couple married on the coldest Valentine's Day in Detroit history. Bottom left: Levi's parents, Carol and David Neider, also married on Valentine's Day. Pictured are (from left) David and Carol, Rachel and Levi, and Goldie and Leo enjoying Colorado together. Bottom right: The Strausses celebrate hearts both in February and in June, when Leo had his surgery.

Rachel, “My feeling on the drive to pick him up was similar to when you go into labor – you know your life is about to change.”

At the airport, Levi threw his suitcase in her trunk, and they kissed. They held hands as they drove to her small town to spend their first date at a quaint winter festival. Christmas lights sparkled around them as vendors sold hot chocolate and roasted nuts.

Rachel flew to Houston two weeks later.

Already, it was love. “The only way I can describe it is, I was meeting her in this life for the first time,” Levi says, “but it was the reunification of our souls from past lives. I told her I was in love with her.”

They dated long distance for nearly two years before Rachel moved to Houston. Then, in March 2014, Levi proposed. He’d recently bought a new home and laid out a path of picture frames from the front door to the still sparse living room.

Inside the frames, he placed photos of their

adventures – vacations, office parties, screenshots of their first text messages – and holidays spent with friends and family.

Levi arranged more frames in the shape of a huge heart and positioned votive candles and red roses nearby. He asked Rachel to marry him in the middle of the heart. They married the following year on the coldest Valentine’s Day in Detroit history. (For Levi’s parents, Carol and David Neider, it was a double celebration, since they, too, had married on a Valentine’s Day.) The following September, they learned Rachel was pregnant. They brainstormed baby names and satisfied Rachel’s food cravings. Then, at Rachel’s 20-week ultrasound, they learned something wasn’t right with their baby’s heart.

They broke down crying and held each other.

After more tests, they learned their baby would be born with a rare and complex heart defect that causes oxygen-poor blood to flow around the body. They bought a new comfy couch and television, took off work, binged on Netflix

together, and let themselves cry for a week.

But then, they chose to bring joy and optimism to the experience, starting with Leo’s birth. “I said, we have to put positive in to get positive out,” Levi says. They invited grandparents and friends to the delivery room at Texas Children’s Hospital and made custom T-shirts for everyone.

Leo stayed in the NICU until his eight-anda-half-hour open heart surgery three weeks later, in June 2016. “I remember the joy I felt when the doctors came out and said, ‘He’s good,’” Levi says. Afterwards, Leo, hooked up to wires and cords, spent days eating through a feeding tube.

These days, Leo runs around and plays like any other energetic 5 year old. “He has no limitations,” Levi says. “He’s a total rock star.”

Now, when February – and June – roll around, Rachel and Levi take the time to celebrate love and hearts each year alongside Leo and his younger sister, Goldie, 4, whose name means “soul” in Hebrew.

“We count our blessings,” Levi says, “every day.”

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 17

Alli Weitzel Photography

NEIGHBORS

by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

A Whirlwind of Weddings When everybody gets engaged – and Covid happens

In the beginning It was the ’80s, and Kelly and John Raley had met a couple of times on campus at the University of Oklahoma. But the meeting that “sealed the deal” was at a mutual friend’s engagement party. “We ignored everyone else in the room and closed down the party,” Kelly says. A few days later, she came home to find a note on the door of her room at her sorority house saying: This guy called and wanted you to call him back whenever you get home. “It was late, but he said to call ‘whenever.’ So I did, and I called the number and woke him up,” Kelly says. “I was so embarrassed! Then he started hemming and hawing, so finally I just asked, ‘Are you trying to ask me out on a date?’ He said yes.

“He didn’t have any money and asked me to go to the dollar movie on campus,” Kelly remembers. “He was really going to splurge, but I didn’t know that. I had heard Man from Snowy River was really good and playing at the Norman theater, so I asked if we could go to that movie instead. I didn’t know it, but he literally went through the cushions and his car looking for enough quarters to get us into the movie! To this day, we get goose bumpy when we hear the soundtrack.” That was the first of many dates.

The couple married on Sept. 22, 1984, and moved to Scotland three days later for John to earn his master’s degree in law as a Rotary BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 18

Ambassador Scholar.

Kelly put her med school classes on hold so she could accompany her new husband.

“It was a magical year,” Kelly remembers; they traveled all over Great Britain and Europe. But at the end of the year, John moved to Houston to work for Fulbright & Jaworski, and Kelly went back to Oklahoma to finish medical school. “We had been together 24-7 for a year. Living apart, I cried every night,” she says. “There were no cell phones in 1985, so calls were very expensive. On top of that, all my tests were on Mondays, which made weekend visits tough.

We couldn’t just relax and go to a movie, not that we had money for that.”

To her parents’ dismay, Kelly dropped out of med school and moved to Houston to be with her husband. She changed course and became a lawyer, going to work for Vinson & Elkins. When she and LOVE IN THE AIR Top: Kelly and John Raley are all smiles at son William's June John started having wedding. Bottom: Kaily and William Raley celebrate after their wedding in Colorado. babies, Kelly says she her husband perform in local productions at thebecame the firm’s “first mom lawyer they let aters like AD Players and Queensbury. “Acting work from home.” is not in my wheelhouse, but it connects me to Today, John is known for his pro-bono work him,” she says. with The Innocence Project, helping to prove “When we were first married, we had our ups the innocence of people wrongly incarcerated. and downs. But someone once told us the goal is, Kelly just earned her master’s degree in law from once the children have left your home, you still the University of Houston and enjoys watching Alli Weitzel Photography

O

ne family. Five months. Three weddings.

One more way the pandemic saw our plans for 2020 and raised them with 2021.

Kelly and John Raley, both lawyers, watched with excitement as their three children were engaged to their future spouses within months of one another, in 2019 and the beginning of 2020.

Wedding dates were set: Kate Raley, Kelly and John’s eldest, was to marry Sean McIlroy, from Tulsa, in May 2020. The youngest Raley, Wesley, would marry Houstonian Kasey French in January 2021. And William Raley would marry Louisiana native Kaily Bourg in June 2021.

It was a happy whirlwind of weddings, spread over the course of 13 months. Nobody expected another whirlwind – the pandemic – to supersede their plans.

Brett Heidebrecht Photography

M. Wang Photography

WEDDING FRENZY Left: Kasey and Wesley Raley married in Houston in January 2021. Right: After postponing their May 2020 wedding because of the pandemic, Kate and Sean McIlroy married in Nashville a year later.

want to have your marriage. You’re going to focus on them, but never forget to focus on each other.

That’s always been in the back of my mind.”

The Raleys celebrated their 37th anniversary in 2021.

Fast-forward

By January 2020, all three Raley children were engaged to be married. Then came March, and the reality of the pandemic began to set in.

Hopeful that the state of the world would improve, Kate and Sean mailed invitations to their May 2020 wedding. They were expecting 400 people to celebrate with them on a hilltop south of Nashville. But as the date neared, Kate and Sean and their families realized the gathering would be impossible to pull off. They postponed the wedding a year, until May 2021.

“It was heartbreaking,” Kate says. “At that point, we had been engaged for 13 months and were ready to celebrate. But ultimately, like all Covid couples, we knew postponing was the right call.”

Kasey, who was engaged to marry Kelly and John’s son Wesley in January, watched as her future sister-in-law and others began canceling plans. But she and Wes held out hope to marry on the palindrome day of 1-23-21. (See the full story of their wedding, “Love Times Two,” in this issue.)

As they waited and watched, their own wedding showers had to be canceled. But during

what Wes and Kasey thought would be an outdoor family dinner at the Raleys’ home that fall, they were surprised when friends began driving by and honking, picking up appetizers and water bottles as they wished the couple well.

Because they loved the date, and for many other reasons, including that they wanted to support the local businesses affected by so many event cancellations, Kasey and Wes went ahead with their January 2021 wedding. It was smaller than they had originally planned, and the weekend included Covid-testing – which led to a delayed bridemaids’ luncheon. “Sadly enough, the testing was successful,” Kasey says. Just before the lunch was to begin, one of the bridesmaids, asymptomatic, tested positive for Covid.

They held off the luncheon so that she could test again. Still positive.

“Then we all cried,” Kelly remembers. “She ended up leaving and getting sick days later.

That would have been our super-spreader. We also lost one groomsman who got sick in the week before the wedding.”

In the end, Kasey and Wes married on 1-2321. Other than the two wedding party casualties, everyone stayed healthy.

Four months later, May 15, 2021, Kate and Sean were finally able to enjoy their own postponed wedding, at sunset outside Nashville.

“When our big day finally arrived,” Kate says, “it was more than worth the wait.”

Jim Jackson, the retired Chapelwood United Methodist Church pastor who had baptized Kate, and Sean’s confirmation priest from Tulsa officiated. Their wedding guest book was illustrated with some 100 hand-painted watercolor scenes based on photos the couple had taken on their travels around the world. Kate’s goingaway dress was designed by Houstonian David Peck, who also designed Kasey’s wedding dress.

Sean’s groom’s cake was a golf bag with the West Point logo, his alma mater. And John, father of the bride, announced dinner by playing “Highland Cathedral” on the bagpipes.

That left Kaily and Will. They would wed June 19, 2021, which originally had put five months between their wedding and Kasey and Wesley’s and 13 months between theirs and Kate and Sean’s. But with Kate and Sean’s date change, the family wound up celebrating two weddings within a month of each other.

Like Kate and Sean’s, Kaily and Will’s wedding reflected their personalities. Outdoors at sunset, they married in Colorado overlooking some of the mountains they had summited together. Again, John, this time father of the groom, played the bagpipes to announce dinner, this time “Amazing Grace.” The couple’s favorite bluegrass band, Wood Belly, played, and Kaily and Will surprised everyone with a choreographed dance, punctuated by Kaily doing cartwheels and a backflip. (continued on page 20) BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 19

Brett Heidebrecht Photography

Brett Heidebrecht Photography

LOTS TO CELEBRATE Top left: The three Raley siblings – (from left) Wesley, Kate, and Will – gather at Kate Raley McIlroy's wedding. Top right: The same year Kelly and John Raley celebrated 37 years of marriage, they saw all three of their children marry. Bottom: In 2021, the Raley family grew by three. Pictured at Kate Raley McIlroy's May wedding are (from left) Wesley and Kasey, John and Kelly, Kate and Sean, and Kaily and William.

Will had proposed to Kaily on a snowy Himalayan mountaintop in Nepal while they were backpacking around the world. In a nod to that trip, his groom’s cake was a globe highlighting all the countries the couple had visited together. The newlyweds left their wedding on an LED-lit 1967 tandem bicycle Will had rehabbed.

(continued from page 19)

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 20

Looking back How did it feel to be parents of the January groom, the May bride, and the June groom? “Are you asking about the pandemic, the energy, or the money?” Kelly laughs. “The stressors everyone faced planning, canceling, re-planning, and executing pandemic showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, weddings, and honeymoons test-

ed us. But in the end, every bit of anxiety and stress melted away at the joyful celebrations.”

Kelly says the past year has also given her and John opportunities to reflect and to advise. “It’s not all rosy and not all good times,” she says. “But look at us, we’ve been married 37 years. You have to keep looking at the significance beyond the wedding and keep focused on the goal.”

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 21

Dylan Aguilar

NEIGHBORS

by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

Love Times Two Two generations of love stories

K

athy and Kerry French’s love story has come full circle. The couple, she a regional pharmaceuticals sales manager and he a commercial mortgage banker, married in 1992 under the gazebo at The Houstonian Club, a hotel and club set on 27 wooded acres just west of 610. It was a special spot for them.

“I’ve been a member since it was built,” Kerry says. “I stood in the driveway and watched them cut the ribbon. It was a dirt road at the time, 1979.”

The Frenches decided to get married a second time in 2016, this time in a sacramental ceremony at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, nearby on Sage.

“We’ve been longtime members of the church and felt like a sacramental marriage in the Roman Catholic church would enrich us both,” Kathy says. “I’m Catholic, and he is Southern Baptist. Kerry did that to honor me and my religion.”

Then she quips, “We’ve been married twice, and we think it’s gonna stick this time.”

Last January, on the palindrome date of 1-2321, Kathy and Kerry’s only daughter, Kasey, wed her longtime beau, Wes Raley, in the same church – which is also the church where Kasey was baptized – and celebrated in the same gazebo.

(That is, the same gazebo, just a few feet across the lawn: “The original was underneath the big oak tree. But when the oak tree got so large, they had to move it stick by stick,” Kathy says.)

Even as their love stories converged in the same place, Kathy and Kerry and Kasey and Wes took different paths getting there.

K

erry and Kathy met when Kerry was serving on the board of directors of the American Lung Association. “Kathy came in to talk to us about smoking cessation,” Kerry says. “She was working at GlaxoSmithKline [pharmaceutical company] at the time. We met and exchanged cards. I called her a couple of weeks later, and she said, ‘If you hadn’t called me, I was going to call you.’ It was one of those things.”

“Our first date was at Café Express in the old Saks pavilion,” Kathy says. “We ate outside and kept talking over each other. We had a lot to share that first date. Then I remember very BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 22

THE FIRST LOVE Kerry and Kathy French married in 1992 under the gazebo at The Houstonian, setting the stage for their daughter to follow suit almost 30 years later.

clearly – this never happens to me, but I had a dry mouth. He walked me to my car and kissed me. I never stopped thinking about him since that first kiss.”

“I didn’t know she had a dry mouth!” Kerry laughs.

“We dated for a couple of years,” Kathy says.

“I was on the road all the time with work. So when we had a chance to date on the weekends, we did.

“It was very exciting. You think about those people who just smile when they talk about who they’re dating? That was us. It was a storybook romance.”

One of the couple’s weekend dates found them on the Kemah Boardwalk. “I looked at Kerry and asked him if he ever thought about getting married again,” Kathy says. (Kerry had been married before.) “He said, ‘What do you think we’re doing?’ I was like bing!”

It was a July Fourth weekend when Kerry final-

ly proposed. “We went to Lake Tahoe,” Kathy remembers. “It was this gorgeous morning, a little cool, and we took our coffees and went for a walk on the lake. We sat together looking out at this beautiful lake, and I remember he said, ‘This is beautiful, and so are you.’ Then he got down on one knee, there in the sand, and asked me to marry him. I spilled my coffee, started crying, and told him I would marry him.”

They were engaged for 18 months. Kerry had a son, Walker, and he wanted to be sure his son and family were comfortable with Kathy and their impending marriage. “Kerry really wanted to make sure we took the time to get this right,” Kathy says.

“We knew the end game, and we were in it for the long haul.”

D

aughter Kasey and her now-husband Wes started earlier in their lives. “We had always lived about 10 or 12 minutes away from

M. Wang Photography

SECOND TIME AROUND The French family, with many of the same family members in attendance, recreated a photo from Kathy and Kerry's wedding (bottom) at Kasey and Wes' wedding (top) in the gazebo at The Houstonian. Top photo, from left: Nora Rose Wilkins, Andrew Wilkins, Beth Ryan, Marie Godell Martin, Kathy Godell French, Kasey French Raley, Wesley Raley, Kerry French, Christopher Godell, Jim Ryan. Bottom photo, from left: Andrew Wilkins, Vickie Wilkins, Beth Ryan, Marie Godell Martin, Christine Godell, Kathy Godell French, Kerry French, Chester Godell, Christopher Godell, Jim Ryan.

each other, our whole lives,” Kasey says. “We had the same pediatrician, same family dentist.

There’s probably a picture of us together somewhere when we were 12 – we just don’t know it.

“I was never going to marry a Houston boy,” she says. “I was going to live somewhere else and find someone there and move there.”

But right before graduating high school, Kasey and Wes met, for real, through a mutual friend. “A lot of my friends from middle school ran in the same circles as his friends from high school because Houston is a big city, but really it’s a small town,” Kasey says.

“It was one of those things. We were slowly

falling in love with each other, not realizing it until our friends and family were like, ‘Are you dating?’ It just cosmically aligned. I went to UT and he to A&M.” “Whoop,” Kathy, an Aggie, interjects.

“We thought we’d just give long-distance a try,” Kasey remembers. (continued on page 24) BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 23

M. Wang Photography

M. Wang Photography

HAND IN HAND Kasey French and Wes Raley's wedding was just what they wanted, despite the pandemic. (continued from page 23) “The

drive was long enough between Austin and College Station that we had our own lives, but close enough that we could still have a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip and drive to see each other. And here we are, seven and a half years later, married.”

Kasey wasn’t a girl who dreamed about her future wedding. “I never imagined a dress or a cake, and when it came time to start planning, I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t have any vision in my head.’”

But Kathy saw things differently. “When we [started talking] about Kasey and her dream wedding, which she didn’t realize she had,” Kathy says, “we immediately thought about the Houstonian.”

Kasey and Wes were engaged on Jan. 18, 2020, two months before the pandemic hit. “My mom knew Wes and I were going to get married, so she had the church where I was baptized, all the things, she had them ready on speed dial. So by the 23rd, we had already secured the date: 1-2321. It’s a great date, and a year was a great time to plan a wedding.” Then came the pandemic.

“My future sister-in-law, Wes’ sister, was supposed to get married that May. I saw her slowly cancel her bachelorette party, postpone her wedding, and I was like, ‘Oh no.’ At this point, I just wanted to get a dress made and shipped before the pandemic closed it all down. And of course, we all thought that was going to last two weeks.”

In addition to the church and the location, Kasey wanted every part of her wedding to have meaning. “I was like, ‘Let’s bring it back to basics.’ My wedding band and engagement ring BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 24

are my paternal grandmother’s. I went to a local designer for my dress, a friend of my sister-in-law [Ginny French, married to Walker] for flowers.”

David Peck designed Kasey’s dress; Freedom Flowers did the flowers.

“A big thing was also the gazebo. There is this beautiful picture of my mom and dad in front of it [at their own wedding]. It’s filled with love and family. I wanted to recreate the picture, knowing almost all the same family members would be there.”

Still, the pandemic persisted. “We watched,” Kasey says. “People were really nervous to have weddings in July, but by October, I saw people starting again. At Christmas, numbers were going up. But we had also seen so many cancellations, so many small businesses suffering, so many parts of Houston suffering, which was an additional layer to all of this. So I thought even if I had 10 people show up, let’s just support these groups however we can because Houston is very important to me.”

The wedding went on as planned, only Covid testing was part of the weekend. “Sadly enough, the testing was successful,” Kasey says. “We had to send a bridesmaid home who was asymptomatic, but very sick two days later.

“Everyone had the time of their lives. Except for the bridesmaid.”

those moments where I thought yes, there is a higher being listening to me and telling me this was right,” Kasey says.

What’s next for Kathy and Kerry, now that their only daughter has married and moved to Chicago, where she is a digital marketing manager and her husband is a supply chain data analyst for PepsiCo? “We remodeled the kitchen and didn’t get divorced,” Kathy says. “Does that count?”

Seriously, Kerry says, “We’ve seen a lot of change in our neighborhood [Tanglewood]. But we have a beautiful ranch home, and we love our home, the home we built for our kids.”

That includes Walker and Ginny, and their daughters Grace and Sarah. “They must love it too because they keep coming home, only now they bring Tate, a little bitty Anatolian shepherd who’s about 100 pounds.”

Kathy says her daughter’s wedding was not only reminiscent of her own but also a testament to what love actually is. “The love story is not just the two people or the relationship,” she says.

“It’s about where the two people are. We love Houston, we love the Houstonian, we love our church.”

How lucky to have incorporated all those loves – and more – into two special weddings.

A

Editor's note: See “A Whirlwind of Weddings” in this issue for the story of Kasey's new family-bymarriage, the Raleys. Her groom, Wes, was one of three siblings to get married within five months, thanks to pandemic rescheduling.

year later, with the world still dealing with Covid and prices increasing, Kasey is thankful to have taken the chance.

“We ended up having 123 guests spread out in the ballroom, on 1-23-21. That was one of

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 25

NEIGHBORS

by Cheryl Ursin, staff writer

Flying Colors When an artist’s headache was a stroke

I

think we all wonder occasionally, as we live through our ordinary days, how we’d respond in a crisis and how we would do if (or should I say when?) we are faced with a life-shattering hardship.

Will we rise to the occasion, or will we sink into despair?

Karen Landrigan knows.

Karen, who just turned 60 this fall, has had a happy and fulfilling life: married to her husband, Andrew Adams, for more than 40 years, two grown and happily launched children, Dan and Heather, two grandchildren, Edward, 4, and Lyra, 1, a satisfying career doing graphic design for large corporations, lots of friends, lots of interests. She swam daily, sang in multiple choirs, made beautiful sterling-silver jewelry.

“I’ve always had a lot of energy,” Karen says.

“My husband just shakes his head.”

But one day in 2012, when she was 50 years old, right after returning on a 28-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur where Andrew was working, Karen developed a headache that wouldn’t go away and, in fact, kept getting worse.

After a week, she went to see her family doctor, who put her on antibiotics. A week after that, when the headache still hadn’t gone away, her doctor sent her to an emergency room to get a CT scan. “The bad news of this story is the CT scan missed the clot, which was still at that point tiny,” Karen says. “They sent me home with pain meds.”

But a neighbor who had suffered an aneurysm (a bulge in an artery) years before encouraged her not to ignore the still-worsening headache.

“It was like a crescendo, just getting worse and worse and worse,” remembers Karen. Ever energetic, though, she continued to swim daily and even hosted a party for 40 the day she called her doctor again. Then, after her morning swim a few days later, she went in to see him. He consulted a neurologist and sent her back to the emergency room for another CT scan. Karen stopped on the way at a Subway (“Because I knew there’d be no food in the ER,” she says), and texted a friend to let her know where she was going.

The friend, Patty Valadka, met Karen at the BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 26

hospital. It was a good thing she did.

Patty is a nurse, and her husband, Alex, is a neurosurgeon.

Patty insisted on further testing. The second CT scan showed a blood clot, now the size of a golf ball, in Karen’s brain. She was having a stroke, which is when a blood vessel in the brain is either blocked or it ruptures, interrupting the flow of blood and oxygen, causing brain cells to die. Karen ended up in the neuro-ICU, unable to speak, to understand what others were saying, to read, or to write.

STILL. LIFE. Karen Landrigan fought back from the effects of a stroke. Top: Karen in her Except for the studio. Bottom: Karen with her husband, Andrew Adams. persistent and Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a man named severe headache, Karen didn’t have any warning Dennis Mandeville, who had had a headache for signs of stroke, such as drooping on one side of 12 days, was listening. Mandeville went directly her face, weakness on one side of her body, or to a local hospital, where he was diagnosed with slurred speech. She wasn’t confused, she wasn’t temporal arteritis, an inflammation of blood vesdizzy, her vision was fine. She also didn’t look sels in the brain that can lead to a stroke. The sick, this fit woman who had just swum 4,000 doctors told him that if he hadn’t come in, he meters (about 2½ miles) that very morning probably would have suddenly and permanently “This is important, nobody talks about it, but lost his sight. a persistent, severe headache can be the sign of After her own stroke and after 15 days in a stroke,” says Karen. She makes a point of talkintensive care, Karen was released. ing about this whenever she is interviewed, as “And then the misery really began,” she she often is these days for her art. Karen, who remembers. was born and raised in Canada but now lives in Bellaire, spoke of it in 2016 when she was interaren still had that inability to use and viewed by a radio station in her childhood understand language, which is called aphahometown of St. John’s in Newfoundland. sia. She had other glitches to contend with as According to a later story by the Canadian

K

TAKING ACTION Two paintings in Karen’s series, “I Have Something to Say.” Left: “Standing.” Top right: “Swimming.” Bottom right: “Vivid” is the first painting in Karen’s new series, “Still. Life.”

well. She couldn’t remember things, like whether she had eaten dinner. She had some physical problems, including numbness, spasticity, and “drop foot,” which is when the front part of your foot suddenly doesn’t lift up the way it’s supposed to when you’re walking. “I would just fall,” she says.

For 18 months, her recovery and her rehabilitation “ate my life,” Karen says. “I had to relearn to speak, I had to find every word, and I was just very unwell, really sick. It was terrible.”

The headache? She still has it nine years later and probably always will, though it was much worse for the first two years after her stroke because there was still swelling within her brain.

She had nearly died and remains at an increased risk of having another stroke. “It was a near-death experience,” she says. “Your life’s wrecked, there’s no getting out of that, it’s never going to be the same. It’s devastating. There was a lot of crying, a lot of anger with the universe.”

On top of all that, the clock was ticking.

The first year and a half after a stroke are considered crucial. That’s when a person is most likely to recover their affected abilities, if it’s possible at all.

Every day, Karen would get up at 6 a.m., sit down at her dining-room table, and do all the homework her speech-language pathologist, Dr. Marina-Elvira Papangelou, had given her, and then some. Monday through Friday, she went to daily speech-therapy sessions. Her oldest brother, Jim, would call her every day, and using materials Dr. Papangelou had sent to him, he would work with her. She’d continue working on her therapy exercises till 11 every night.

She began swimming with her club, Houston Cougar Masters, again 10 days after leaving the hospital. It’s strange what abilities a stroke victim retains. Karen, a lifelong competitive swimmer, could swim – though at first, a worried friend, Taryn Walker, swam near her. Karen

could also drive. Stroke victims with aphasia are given cards to present to police officers if they are ever pulled over so the officer knows they have aphasia and are not drunk.

That aspect of aphasia was humiliating, Karen says. Though the victim of aphasia is still “in there,” aware and thinking, when they try to communicate, people often assume they are drunk or otherwise impaired.

Karen’s swimming coach, Greg Orphanides, would think of language exercises for her to do while she swam her laps. “He used to say, ‘Okay, swim three 100s, and each time you come back, you have to tell me five words that start with the letter G,’” she remembers.

She continued singing with her choirs, Houston Masterworks Choir, Rice Chorale, and World Voices Houston. (She has recently also started singing with a choir called Resound.)

“One of the most difficult moments,” Karen remembers, “was when my (continued on page 28) BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 27

INVICTUS In the aftermath of her stroke, Karen’s childhood band director told her she reminded him of the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” Karen also wrote in an artist note for her newest painting and her largest to date, “There will always be beauty in the world ... We need our fragile flowers to replenish themselves. We need our beauty.” Top painting: “Beauty.” Bottom painting: “Persevering.” (continued from page 27) choir friends came over

one day, and the music director of World Voices Houston sat down at the piano and asked, ‘Want to see if you can still sing?’”

“I was like, ‘But what if I can’t?’” she says.

She still could, and the mental rigors of singing – following the director’s instructions, knowing where you were going to start in a piece BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 28

each time during rehearsal – proved to be very good for her rehabilitation.

But getting her language back was a long, painstaking process. When Girl Scout cookie season started, Karen was determined to buy some when girls came to her door. “I had been a Brownie,” she says. “There was no way I was not going to buy some.” But she had to slowly

practice each step of the exchange.

The way she saw it, Karen says, “There were two choices: to not open that door and never speak to people again or to work really hard at it.”

W

hile Karen had gone to art school and had always been creative, making sterling-silver jewelry and sketching for fun, she had not painted

PAUSE In her artist note for this painting called "Pause," Karen wrote, "My intermission was unexpected ... I can remain still or put my face back in the water and swim on.

That is the only real choice we ever make."

for years, even though people had encouraged her to. But after the stroke, she says, “I started painting because I was really in a bad, dark place.”

Her neuropsychologist, Dr. Cullen Gibbs, told her something she has never forgotten. “It’s a very good, simple idea, which I quite like,” Karen explains. “If you’ve got all these negative thoughts in your head, try to fill your head with something else.”

Her first painting was of her dog, Hugo Bounce.

“And I thought, ‘Well, that was kind of fun,’” she says.

Meanwhile, she had been drawing a swimmer in her sketchbook for years. Now, she sketched that swimmer and “dropped the horizon,” meaning she changed the viewer’s perspective. That swimmer, she saw now, could look like she was about to fly.

“Oh, that’s worth painting, I thought,” says Karen. She went out and bought the biggest

canvas she could fit into her car.

The resulting painting was “Soaring.” It’s of a female figure, swimming, her arm raised midstroke. She is surrounded by water, which is reflecting light.

“She could be flying, she could be dying,” Karen says. She continues, “Sometimes you just have to put your head down and push through the misery. If you just stay still, you will drown.

The water, life, will continue, whether you like it or not.”

“Soaring” became the first painting in a series Karen calls, “I Have Something to Say.” All of the paintings in the series are of a solitary swimmer and have titles like “Living,” “Rising,” “Persevering,” “Flying,” “Emerging,” and “Standing.” The paintings have won awards, and some of the original paintings, as well as limited-edition prints of them, have been sold all over the world.

A juror, or art-show judge, who awarded

Karen’s painting “Swimming” the top prize in an international competition, said, “Karen’s work is … honestly steeped in the stuff of life: hard, gorgeous, challenging, invigorating, and unifying.”

These days, you would never guess what this trim, stylish, articulate, cheerful woman has been through, but Karen says she still works around the lingering effects of the stroke. She might ask people to write things down for her so she’ll remember. Sometimes, she has her husband write an email for her because it’s quicker.

And she still has that headache.

But in her artist statement for the “I Have Something to Say” series, she wrote, “This is what my art as well as my existence is about – whether to fly or die. I choose to fly.”

She’s at work on a new series of paintings, this one called “Still. Life.”

You can see more of Karen’s work at these sites: karenlandrigan.com, landriganart.com, landrigan.redbubble.com, and society6.com/landrigan.

Their lives after stroke Other survivors of stroke have told their stories, in books and in films. Among them: Aphasia: The Movie: Karen’s friends from swimming found this movie and watched it to learn more about what she was going through. It’s the true story of an actor named Carl McIntyre, who, like Karen, had a stroke and had to relearn how to speak.

Still Sophie: An award-winning short (7-minute) documentary about Sophie Salveson, a young singer and actress who suffered a stroke at the age of 19, and her battle with aphasia and paralysis.

Both a book and a movie (directed by Julian Schnabel), The

Diving Bell and The Butterfly, is the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a stroke at the age of 44 that left him “locked in,” unable to move or speak. He dictated his book one letter at a time using the only movement he was capable of, blinking his left eye.

In 2011, 34-year-old Lotje Sodderland, a documentary-film producer living in London, suffered a stroke. After she woke, she started recording videos of herself with her phone because she otherwise couldn’t remember. She used this footage as the basis for My Beautiful Broken Brain, her 2014 documentary about her first year after her stroke, currently available on Netflix.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 29

KIDS

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by Annie Blaylock McQueen, staff writer

Buzz Baby

Sleep training Adri Richey Photography

Buzz Baby is a column about life with babies.

Writer Annie McQueen is a mother of four children under the age of 7.

S

leep training is teaching a baby to fall asleep without assistance from a parent. There are many different techniques and many opinions on the topic (not everybody is a fan) – it is always a good idea to consult with your child’s pediatrician. Parents who opt to sleep train often begin at around four months of age.

A few Buzz parents weighed in on what has worked to improve their baby’s sleep – or lack thereof.

Amanda Briscoe, a part-time case worker for an adoption agency, and husband Blake Briscoe, a chemical engineer, said using a sleep-training technique changed their lives as new parents.

The couple’s daughter, Olivia, now 2, was crying as an infant up to three hours a day, morning and evening. “People told us she was colicky, and it was normal, but as I was doing my own research, I found out 96 percent of babies that cry this way are not actually colicky but overtired,” said Amanda.

Amanda says, at that point, she and Blake were overly tired, out of ideas, and needing a change. She turned to three mom friends and polled them on what they were doing. All were using the sleep-training method called TakingCaraBabies, an online platform that offers classes and resources for a sleep-training method that follows a baby’s developmental needs.

The online course was two hours; it teaches how to calm a fussy baby and read the baby’s cues. Within a few days, Amanda says, Olivia started sleeping in four-hour stretches and crying less. “I loved that it was not just leave your baby to cry it out,” said Amanda. “It was a gentle approach to sleep with a newborn that allowed for flexibility and still a lot of snuggles.”

Amanda and Blake stayed the course and gradually started enjoying more sleep in their household. Amanda urges parents in no-sleep mode to reach out to other parents for advice. “See what they are doing. It was not instinct for me. I had to ask for help and take a course to learn what my baby needed, and this is okay,” she said.

Another parent who opted to sleep train, using BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 30

NIGHT NIGHT Amanda Briscoe tried a sleep-training course with her baby Olivia (pictured).

a different technique, was Liz Bosmans. Liz grew concerned when her firstborn child, Eden, now 4, was not sleeping well as an infant. Liz says Eden also started to fall behind on her baby milestones like holding her head up and pushing herself up.

Liz became worried it was due to lack of good sleep.

“She was a difficult newborn,” said Liz. “A lot of people would say she had colic, so I had to change my diet, as I was breastfeeding, which helped. But what really changed everything was sleep training.”

When Eden was almost four months old, Liz started to sleep train her using the cry-it-out technique called “extinction.” Extinction involves putting a baby in their crib fully awake and allowing the baby to fuss or cry until he or she falls asleep – all without help or intervention from a parent.

On the first night, Liz says, she kept their bedtime routine the same. “I put her down in the crib. I had a set allotment of time to give her to fall asleep before we came in the room, which was one hour for us,” says Liz. “The first night it took her about 25 minutes to fall asleep. She only woke once in the night for a feed and went right back down.”

Eden slowly learned to fall back asleep more quickly as they worked on the training. Liz says there were times when schedules needed adjust-

ments, such as when Eden was teething or sick.

“Things didn’t always work out, and her schedule got thrown off, but she was a champion sleeper all through toddlerhood, and she still sleeps pretty well,” says Liz. Not everyone is for sleep training. Some experts say prolonged levels of stress for a baby are unhealthy – for example, when the baby is crying and in need. Followers of “attachment parenting” encourage sleeping in the same room or bed as the baby and responding quickly to needs, including at night. Others note that parents do not always follow sleep-training techniques as they are supposed to, setting the baby and parent up for failure.

There are different approaches, but Katy Adams, a mom of four and a baby/toddler sleep consultant with Live Love Sleep, says babies need their sleep. “It takes a few nights to begin establishing new behaviors. Babies and young children learn these new sleep skills very quickly. Telling people to accept their baby’s or toddler's sleep issues as a part of the parenting experience is preventing them from addressing the problem. That is a serious concern for everybody in the family, and not because they’re selfish and enjoy sleeping late. It’s because they, and even more so, their kids, need adequate sleep.”

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 31

ARTS

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by Cindy Burnett, staff writer

Buzz Reads

Five picks for February

Buzz Reads is a column about books by reviewer Cindy Burnett. Each month, Cindy recommends five recently or soon-to-be released titles.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys – This historical thriller is set during the time period leading up to Romania’s 1989 revolution and the ousting of its charismatic but brutal leader, Nicolae Ceausescu. Insulated and living in constant fear, Romanians must survive under the oppressive regime that governs their country.

There is little food, the electricity is randomly turned off and on, no outside media is allowed, and everyone worries about who they can trust and who they cannot; even family members are suspect. Sepetys vividly depicts life there during this time period, a period many will be unfamiliar with, and how one man managed to fool the world for far too long. I have not stopped thinking about this book since I finished it, and it will definitely be one of my top reads of the year; it is truly stunning.

The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull – Grand Duchess Olga Romanov was the oldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, and this historical fiction novel, The Last Grand Duchess, tells her lesser-known story. Brought up at the glittering Alexander Palace, Olga and her sisters are sheltered from the world around them. When war breaks out, the sisters work as nurses tending to Russian officers, but tensions in Russia begin to build as a revolution threatens to topple three centuries of Romanov rule. The Last Grand Duchess delves into the buildup to the Romanovs’ demise, the numerous factors that contributed, and what life was like for them as their world closed in around them, while breathing life into the family, particularly the children who were punished for the behavior of their outof-touch parents. I learned so much as I read this gripping account of the buildup to the Romanovs’ execution; this book is a must read for anyone interested in history.

One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner – This second installment in Gardner’s new series starring cold-case solver Frankie Elkin is a pageturner from the beginning. Recovering alcoholic Elkin seeks out cases around the country that BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 32

have been abandoned by officials and works to help to solve them. In One Step Too Far, Elkin turns her attention to the disappearance of Tim O’Day five years earlier while on a camping trip with friends in a remote area of a national forest in Wyoming.

She joins the fifthanniversary search party and heads out into the rugged wild, quickly realizing that almost everyone in the search party is hiding something. Gardner’s choice of setting makes this book and creates an almost constant feeling of dread as Elkin works to understand what happened to Tim O’Day and why. This book WHAT TO READ This month's books include two edge-of-your seat thrillers, a historical thriller set in Romania, a fun vacation read, and a must-read historical kept me on the edge of fiction title centered around the Romanovs’ oldest daughter, Olga. my seat the entire time I was reading it.

However, her mother and aunties are forever The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley – This obsessed with her love life and why she is not atmospheric thriller takes place in a creepy, married yet, a topic they raise at every family once-elegant apartment building in Paris where gathering. Yinka is a likable, funny heroine, and secrets lie just below the surface. As the book readers will root for her as she tries to bridge the opens, Jess escapes a bad situation in England gap between two cultures and find her own way and flees to Paris to stay with her half-brother amid familial pressure. I particularly enjoyed the Ben, but when she arrives, Ben is gone. glimpse into the British Nigerian community: Bewildered by his absence since they had texted their customs, food, and culture. Yinka, Where Is the day before, she approaches the other resiYour Huzband? is a light, engaging read with an dents to inquire about Ben but quickly realizes entertaining cast of characters and a maverick that no one wants her there, nor do any of them protagonist, the perfect choice for a vacation. want to talk about her brother. Foley combines clever twists and turns, a fantastic setting, and a Editor’s note: Southside Place resident Cindy satisfying ending to create a thriller that you will Burnett also writes our weekly Page Turners column not want to miss. at thebuzzmagazines.com. She hosts the Thoughts Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie from a Page Podcast, is co-creator of the Houston Damilola Blackburn – Yinka is a Britishliterary event series Conversations from the Page, Nigerian woman who was educated at Oxford runs the Instagram account @thoughtsfromapage, and who enjoys the life she is currently living. and regularly speaks to groups about books.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 33

TRAVEL

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by Tracy L. Barnett, staff writer

Travel Buzz

A winter escape to paradise

I

t had been a long year and a half for Supriya and Jay Sadare, as it was for so many.

Supriya, a software engineer, and Jay, a global production line manager, had been working at home since the beginning of the pandemic.

And while it was lovely to spend more time with the kids – 10-year-old Vivaan and 3-year-old Myra – it was tough to get the work done.

When they could, just to relieve the stress, they’d do a little Texas family getaway to somewhere drivable – San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Rockport – but flying was out of the question. It was strange for them because international travel had been such a part of their lives – both were born and raised in India, and also Jay traveled a lot for his job until relatively recently. But like most people, they bunkered down and stayed in.

“The kids were really anxious; ‘Mommy, can we go to the beach?’” Supriya recalled. “We want to have some peace and relaxation, but we also wanted to have some adventures, so we were looking for a place with a mix of both.”

By the time winter break rolled around, they were more than ready to break out and see a different landscape. And it needed to have a beach.

They thought about Asia, Europe, and Mexico, but one destination stood out – for its proximity, convenience, comfort, and, most of all, safety protocols. That was the Bahamas.

“What we found out was that they opened the country in July 2021, but after a spike, they closed the country down again in September,” said Supriya. “They decided to do a better job, and when they opened back up, they did.”

The Bahamas’ efforts were rewarded when the CDC lowered its travel advisory from a Level 3 to a Level 2 before the holidays (and, as it turned out, back up again after – for the latest, see travel.state.gov). The virus was still making the rounds on the island, however, and travelers were urged to exercise caution.

The Sadares did so – to the extent of packing the extras that might be needed if one or more of them were to become infected, in which case they’d have to quarantine on the island. They bought travel insurance that would cover that and were careful to get open tickets in case their dates needed to change.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 34

TOGETHERNESS The Sadare family takes a moment to strike a pose at Paradise Island Beach, Nassau, Bahamas. From left: little Myra in the arms of her father, Jay; Vivaan; and Supriya Sadare.

“We packed with the mindset that we might get stuck,” said Supriya. “We basically prepared for having Covid: We took medicines, extra masks, extra books; we both took our laptops so we could continue working, and watch the beautiful view from our room.”

They ended up choosing the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in Nassau. Travel day dawned cold and cloudy, and they bundled up before heading for IAH, five suitcases and two kids in tow, for the three-hour flight to Nassau.

“The kids were super excited and happy. They couldn’t wait,” said Supriya. They arrived in the Bahamas around 1 p.m. and quickly ditched their jackets in the bright sunny climate.

They were surprised at the long lines to get through immigration, but they were greeted by local Bahamian musicians in straw hats and flowing traditional island clothing. Travelers would stop to dance with the musicians and

have their pictures taken with them.

The time passed quickly, and soon they were on their way to their hotel with a chatty cab driver, who oriented them with an introduction to Bahamian politics, society, and culture and a peek at the prime minister’s office. The year 2020 was tough for local people, he told them, with 6,000 laid off during that time from their work in tourism. After a year of scraping by, people were happy that tourism was back.

Finally, crossing the bridge to Paradise Island, Atlantis came into view: a stunning castle-like entrance, behind which lay an entire five-tower complex built around Aquaventure, a 154-acre theme park and waterscape, which includes fresh and saltwater lagoons, pools, marine habitats, water slides, and more than 70 river rides.

With a full week ahead of them for adventures, they had plenty to choose from. Supriya and Vivaan, the family’s adrenaline junkies,

ADVENTURING TOGETHER Clockwise, from left: Vivaan in his scuba gear; Myra, with a big seashell, searches for more on Cabbage Beach; the family at the Straw Market in Nassau.

headed off the first day on a jet ski while Jay stayed back at the pool with Myra.

The pair booked their tour, got in line, and waited. Finally a friendly staff member gave them a nod. Supriya climbed aboard, with Vivaan behind her.

“Now, boss lady, you remember, this is just a motorbike of the sea. You turn with your handle and raise or let go of the gas, that’s all.” Supriya nodded and beamed – and they were on their way.

Supriya took her time getting the hang of navigating the waves. But Viv was urging her on from the back: “Mom, you can hit the gas a little more, you know.”

That was her cue, and soon they were flying over the waves far from shore. The exhilaration stays with Supriya still as she recalls the experience, and likewise, as she talks about the extreme water slides in the water park – the Jungle Slide, Serpent Slide, and the scariest one of all, The Abyss.

The next day she and Vivaan went for scuba lessons. Viv took to it like a fish to water, but Supriya ended up a bit overwhelmed by the complexity of it all and triggered by claustrophobia.

“I panicked a couple of times while replacing my regulator in the pool session, gulped in a huge mouthful of water, and shot straight to the surface, feeling like I could cough up a lung,” wrote Supriya in a detailed account of their trip.

Given the time limitations, she ended up choosing a simpler option: She signed the two up for a Snuba tour – a hybrid between snorkeling and scuba diving in which the diver submerges up to 20 feet with a face mask connected by a hose to an air supply at the surface.

Breathing underwater below the crystalline waves while observing the marine life in their own natural habitat was thrilling.

The next day the water was rough, but the sky was calm and clear, so they tried their hand at parasailing – the closest either of them has ever been to flying.

“At about 600 feet in the air, it was 10 minutes of merely heaven,” wrote Supriya. “The beach, water, sky, people, landmarks, trees – words are not enough to describe the amazing view we saw at every angle.”

Meanwhile, Jay and Myra were having their own kind of fun. Unfortunately, the rough waters made it unsafe to take a little one aboard the boat, so they stayed back and enjoyed Nassau’s white sand beach and turquoise waters.

Myra loved running along the beach, splashing in the shallow water, making sandcastles, and collecting shells.

“When a few brazen seagulls started getting too close, Myra waved at them, told them ‘Byebye, seagull,’” wrote Supriya. “When that did not

work, it escalated: ‘Bad seagull, Go timeout.’”

Sea, sun, sky, and adventures in nature were the biggest focus of the trip. But the family also made time to soak up the local culture with a trip to Nassau’s downtown Straw Market, turning the chore of going into town for the required Covid tests into an unforgettable foray into Bahamian life.

The plaiting, braiding, and weaving of straw was once used for fish traps and utilitarian baskets throughout the islands. Since the 1940s with the arrival of the tourism industry, the craft has blossomed into an art form, woven into a wide variety of hats, bags, mats, and other accessories. Along with other traditional items such as dolls, conch shell jewelry, and wood carvings, the Straw Market provides a venue for local artisans.

It was tough to choose from so many beautiful options – especially since, as they learned too late, the market vendors did not accept credit cards, only cash.

In the end, Supriya bought a healing necklace handcrafted from Bahamian beach stones; Myra chose two brightly colored Bahamian dresses.

Vivaan wanted a handcrafted lionfish and scorpion, with his name carved on the items. And together they chose a traditional wooden sculpture of a Bahama mama and papa, like the ones they had seen around the island. (continued on page 36) BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 35

SEA AND SKY Parasail boat seen from Blue Lagoon Island; Myra and Jay watch the crystalline waves roll in at Nassau Beach. (continued from page 35) They dined at an authentic

lunch spot called Fish Fry, where they were able to sample dishes prepared from the firm white flesh of the local shellfish known as conch (pronounced “conk”), the national food of the Bahamas.

Surprisingly, the kids loved it, and conch fritters became a new favorite; conch with pineapple on pizza and the traditional “switcha” (Bahamian lemonade) were other culinary highlights.

All too soon it was time to make their way home – fortunately, without having to worry about Covid quarantine, as they had all tested negative. They heard about a family who had tested positive at the resort, though, so they left their extra bag of Texas comfort food with the concierge to gift to them.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 36

The memories will stay with them always. So will the lessons learned. One was their enjoyment of the local people, with their gentle and gracious ways. Another was the chance to test their skills and learn new ones.

Supriya enjoyed watching the way Vivaan picked up on the historical and social context. He asked questions every chance he got, such as with the cab driver, who mentioned the relatively recent independence from the British in 1973. Vivaan made the connection with the 150 years of British rule in India and made some quick calculations. “So they were 350 years in the Bahamas and 150 years in India,” he mused.

“That’s a question he would have only asked

if he was traveling,” noted Supriya. But beyond the facts, there was the lived experience of being there.

“Travel teaches a lot of things that school doesn’t teach,” Supriya reflected. “It’s not how you look or what you do, but who you are inside as a person.”

Travel restrictions are changing frequently because of the Covid pandemic. Check travel.state.gov for updates.

Editor’s note: Buzz travel columnist Tracy L. Barnett is a Lowell Thomas travel journalism award winner and longtime travel and environmental writer. Email her at info@thebuzzmagazines.com to share your own travel tales.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 37

DINING

C

Jason Gould

ommon Bond on Montrose immediately struck a chord with Houstonians when it opened in 2014. Noted chef Roy Shvartzapel designed the European pastry-andbread program, and the stylish bakery and café garnered accolades from "favorite Houston bakery" to "best place to meet for coffee." Common Bond's success inspired others to open their own bakeries.

Two years later, co-owners Brad Sanders and his mom Kathy sold Common Bond to restaurateur Johnny Carrabba and business partner George Joseph. Then, in 2018, Joseph bought out Carrabba and jump-started a rapid expansion (despite the pandemic) that included hiring 30-year veteran chef Jason Gould.

Gould oversees the savory menus for the new 5,000-square-foot flagship Common Bond Brasserie & Bakery downtown, four Common Bond Bistro & Bakery locations, and six Common Bond On-The-Go locations. Here, the 48-year-old Australian discusses the challenges of developing a separate identity for each of the three Common Bond concepts while striving for consistency and maintaining a well-established brand. Plus, in honor of the month of love, the father of two shares his winning recipe for rack of lamb – a go-to Valentine’s Day dish.

Fellow chefs have described you as talented, analytical, and reliable. You started cooking at age 15, flipping burgers at McDonald's in your hometown of Melbourne. You worked your way up to a Michelin restaurant in London and a five-star French showcase in Austria. However, most Houstonians got a close-up look at your food when you opened the chef-driven Gravitas with Kraftsmen Baking owner-chef Scott Tycer. Afterward, you spent eight years at Cyclone Anaya's until the owners sold the iconic Tex-Mex franchise. How did going from fine dining to casual prepare you for your current role as executive savory chef?

Cyclone Anaya's had multiple locations, and I learned how to have a consistent product for all our guests, whether in the Heights or downtown. I realized that not all kitchens are designed the same, so when I conceptualized a dish, I had to ask, “Can we execute this in all locations?”

Now I do the same for Common Bond.

Common Bond Brasserie & Bakery opened in BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 38

September on the street level of the Understory food hall in the Bank of America Tower (800 Capitol). It has a pearly white modern bakery that serves coffee and breakfast. In contrast, the adjacent brasserie – stylishly designed with rich wood, brass, and leather, and pink lighting – offers counter service at lunchtime, along with many Common Bond staples, including French onion soup, coq au vin, and steak frites. But when the clock strikes 4 p.m. for dinner, the brasserie is transformed into a full-service restaurant with more elevated fare, such as a seafood tower and CHEF Jason Gould pens the savory menus for three variations of Common Bond, known for its classic croissant. Here, the chef created an apple-smoked bacon-and-egg croissant sous vide filet sandwich for the fast-service Common Bond On The Go. mignon. What other The-Go will open at The Ion, a 266,000-squarerecommendations do you have for a first visit? foot building in Rice University's 16-acre, mixedCommon Bond Brasserie & Bakery allowed use innovation district in Midtown. Typically, big me to be more creative. We had fun coming up chains can grow at this pace, but independent and with the smoked duck rillettes with apricot privately owned operations like yours rarely do. Can chutney and toasted rye bread, or you can start you think of another Houston independent growing with the citrus poached lobster. at this rate?

Since the start of last year, a new Common Bond No, not off the top of my head. Building a location seems to debut every few months, specifirestaurant from scratch usually takes nine cally the quick-service Common Bond On-The-Go, months to a year, but Common Bond On-Thewith Spring Branch-Memorial, Garden Oaks, and Go’s are scaled-down versions of Common Bond Heights locations. These even have drive-throughs.

Bistro & Bakery, and with this smaller footprint, On the other hand, in December, you launched the it takes only three to four months to open, so River Oaks and Midtown Park locations sans the there is a lot of potential for On-The-Go. drive-through. This month, a Common Bond OnAndrew Hemingway

Chef’s Corner

Courtesy of Common Bond

by Dai Huynh, staff writer

Andrew Hemingway

Andrew Hemingway

TWO IN ONE Common Bond Brasserie & Bakery has a full dinner menu that includes oven-roasted lamb with Moroccan spiced carrots, while next door, at the bakery, diners can grab breakfast, lunch, and coffee.

A December 2021 study by accounting firm Deloitte showed that 61 percent of diners now order delivery or takeout at least once a week.

Compare this to two years ago, when only 18 percent did, or even a year ago – during the pandemic shutdown – when 29 percent ordered to-go. So it appears that Common Bond On-The-Go has positioned itself to capture some of this market.

Tell us more about it.

The menu was a more challenging process because you have a minute and a half, three minutes max, to get the food to the guest. Usually, it

takes about 10–12 minutes … but nothing is worse than sitting in the drive-through, three cars behind, and it takes five minutes for the guy at the front of the line to get his order. On-TheGo has a limited menu, with breakfast croissant sandwiches, salads, and bowls. At lunch, we do cold sandwiches, and of course, we always have our most popular pastries and desserts.

In 2009, you finally tied the knot with Rebekah, a breast cancer research program project director at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Do you recall what you cooked for her in those early days to win her over?

One of her favorites is rack of lamb. Either that or seared scallops, but I'm sure it was roasted lamb with spaetzle. Naturally, I prefer lamb from Australia. Do you know where you can get excellent lamb? Costco. They have (alreadyfrenched) Australian lamb. I always frenched the bone to remove the extra fat.

Editor’s note: Buzz dining columnist Dai Huynh is a James Beard food-journalism award winner and longtime Houston-based restaurant writer. This Q&A was condensed and edited.

Roasted Lamb With Chimichurri Sauce Executive savory chef Jason Gould serves roast rack of lamb with Moroccan spiced carrots, farro pilaf, and mint chimichurri at Common Bond Brasserie & Bakery. Cooking lamb is easy, Gould says. All you have to do is trim the excess fat and roast at high heat.

Really good lamb needs no more than salt and pepper.

1 (14-18 ounces) rack of lamb, about eight bones Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 smashed garlic cloves 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary 2 ounces butter For chimichurri: 2 limes 4 quarts water ½ cup plus ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 1 ounce fresh mint 2 ounces parsley 1 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 Tablespoon chopped garlic 4 ounces red onion ¼ cup red wine vinegar 2 red jalapeños Remove the lamb from the refrigerator and allow it to reach room

temperature before seasoning with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, or, if possible, 500 degrees.

Strip most surface fat from the lamb, or ask your butcher to do so.

Next, cut between the ribs, almost down to the meaty eye. Remove excess fat from the bones.

Heat a large cast-iron pan over high heat on the stove and sear all sides until deep golden brown. Lay the lamb on the bones and transfer the cast-iron pan with the lamb to the oven. Roast for about 12 minutes.

While the lamb is roasting, zest and juice the lime. Set zest and juice aside.

Pour 4 quarts of water and ½ cup of kosher salt into a pot. Bring to a boil to blanch the mint, then immediately transfer to ice water.

Wring excess water out of the mint and roughly chop it up.

Transfer mint to a food processor, along with lime zest and juice.

Add parsley, olive oil, garlic, red onion, red wine vinegar, jalapeños, and ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt. Process until you get a chunky, even puree. Set chimichurri aside.

Remove the lamb from the oven and add garlic, rosemary, and butter to the cast-iron pan. Spoon the melted rosemary- and garlic-infused hot butter over the lamb and allow the lamb to cool for five minutes.

Serve, separating the ribs, if desired, by cutting down straight through them. Divide the lamb and chimichurri onto two large plates. Serve immediately and Happy Valentine’s! Makes two servings.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 39

SPORTS

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by Todd Freed, staff writer

SportzBuzz T

he Memorial Mustangs girls’ basketball team started off the new year ranked in the state’s top 10 for the first time in school history.

“It’s a pretty neat deal in that it’s never happened before, but at the same time we have to continue to prove that this is where we belong,” said Mustangs head coach Jyusef Larry. “The success we’ve had stems from the hard work these girls have invested in themselves and the dedication to the program over the last several seasons. It’s certainly our best team in my 12 seasons here at Memorial.”

The Mustangs’ offense is ignited by junior point guard Riley McCloskey, who has already surpassed the 1,000-point plateau for her varsity career. “Most great teams have a great point guard, and we have that with Riley,” said Larry.

“Not only can she score, but she makes everything happen for us.”

The Mustangs’ leading scorer is sophomore Nicki Polochek, who averages 15 points a game, while another top scorer is junior Abigail Tomaski. “Abigail does a great job of scoring and also facilitating for us,” said Larry. In addition, senior Giana Vlahakos leads the team in rebounds and has hauled in over 500 rebounds for her career. “Everybody on this team can score,” added Larry. “We also have Mary Fielder and Kendall Lyons, who are an outstanding 39 percent three-point shooters. It’s just a cumulative effect of everyone being able to do something to help us be successful on the basketball court.”

I

t is the start of a new era for the perennial powerhouse Bellaire Cardinals girls’ soccer team under first-year head coach Kelli Tomlinson.

Tomlinson replaces longtime Cardinals head coach Alan Thompson, who guided the team to the last eight consecutive district championships.

Thompson has since moved on to a position in school administration.

“Coach Thompson built this program and leaves an incredible legacy,” said Tomlinson.

“It’s a privilege to step in the position and try and build on his success. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to putting these girls in the best position to succeed.”

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 40

CHASING ANOTHER Under first-year head coach Kelli Tomlinson, the Bellaire Cardinals are in pursuit of a ninth consecutive district championship this season. Here, the Cardinals hold up their championship trophy after winning last year’s district title.

The Cardinals have several building blocks with the return of a number of key starters, including district offensive player of the year Anneliese Switzer. “Anneliese is a junior who is already off to a dominating start. She’s going to be a real force for us this season,” said Tomlinson.

On defense, the Cardinals bring back district defensive player of the year Hadley Wormser.

“Hadley and Grace Ritchie are our center backs.

They’re constantly communicating and play really well together,” said Tomlinson.

In addition, the Cardinals’ outstanding junior class includes standout midfielder Brenda Castro. “Brenda is what I’d call a very spicy type of player,” said Tomlinson. “She makes things happen and isn’t afraid to be aggressive and cause chaos for other teams. Overall, we have an extremely competitive group of girls. They want the best for the team and are constantly working to reach their potential.”

S

t. John’s Mavericks senior field hockey player Sloan Davidson has been honored as a first-team All-American. The prestigious award was bestowed on only 16 players in the country by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA).

Davidson is also the only first-team All-

American selection from Texas, and she was named to the 2021 High School Western USA All-Region Team. “It’s a huge honor for Sloan and also our field hockey program here at St. John’s,” said Mavericks field hockey coach Rebecca Elliott. “It shows that we take our hockey seriously, work hard, play great hockey, and have very talented athletes not only at St. John’s but in all of Texas.”

In a sensational senior season, Davidson, who will play collegiately at the University of Virginia, scored 45 goals with 19 assists. “That’s really incredible,” said Elliott. “It amounts to what some entire teams score all season, and we’re talking about just one player. Sloan’s skills are really beautiful. She just does amazing things on the field, and it’s just fun to watch Sloan play. In addition, she works tirelessly with amazing dedication and intensity. It’s a truly welldeserved honor. I can’t wait to see her play at the next level.”

Editor’s note: Todd Freed is the host and executive producer of H-Town High School Sports, which airs Monday through Thursday on AT&T SportsNet SW. To submit high school sports news for possible inclusion in SportzBuzz, please email todd@thebuzzmagazines.com.

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BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 41

SPORTS

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by Angie Frederickson, staff writer

SportzBuzz Jr. W

elcome to SportzBuzz Jr., a column spotlighting neighborhood athletes in elementary and middle school.

Future cheerleaders Friends from Horn Elementary School (top photo) participated in the Bellaire High School cheer clinic. The annual clinic is a fundraiser for the BHS cheer program and introduces young students to the sport of cheerleading. Participants were divided into grade-level groups and learned a spirit dance, cheer, and some introductory stunting. After learning new skills and taking some breaks to play Duck, Duck, Goose and Freeze Frame, the aspiring cheerleaders performed for their parents at the end of the event. The spirited girls are (top row, from left) Hazel Grace Dagley, Daisy McPherson, Vivi Varner, Hudson McPhail, (bottom row, from left) Evie Hirvensalo, Adalyn Kim, Joselle McPherson, Ava Grace Varner, and Blake McAdams.

From Chelsea FC to Westbury Westbury Soccer Club players Nico Rimer (middle photo, left) and Benjamin Rimer (right), along with coach Santiago Nacinovich, felt like they met royalty when the Chelsea Football Club (FC) arrived with their championship trophy. Chelsea FC, the reigning champions of the European Champions League (the biggest prize for soccer in Europe), visited Westbury and facilitated a training session for the players and coaches. Chelsea FC was on a multi-city U.S. tour to show off their new trophy to supporters and included a stop in Houston to visit and recognize Westbury as the oldest grassroots soccer club in the city. Chelsea FC coaches worked with a select group of Westbury players, focusing on individual skills and small-sided games, and provided a Q&A session for the Westbury coaches to offer pointers and recommendations for future play. Posing for photos with the giant trophy was a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity, and it was a day that Westbury will never forget.

Relaxed, fun softball Ari Staller and Lexi Cohen (bottom photo, from left) enjoyed their first season playing fall ball with the West University Softball Association (WUSA). The Condit Elementary School third graders are experienced spring-season softball players and decided to expand their experience. Coached

by Mike Kruger, Reid Wade, Amiri Hutchison, and Girish Gidwani, the 8U Eclipse team joined girls from several different elementary schools who don’t normally play together. WUSA fall ball is more relaxed than the traditional spring season, and the players do not have to go through a tryout process or keep score during the fun games. The end-of-season tournament was a great way to wrap up the season. In addition to playing games, the Eclipse girls loved their time in the dugout, cheering and rooting on their teammates.

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. 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.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 42

Two generations.

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BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 43

KIDS

Michael Rozman/Warner Bros

ROCKIN’ IT Francisco Cardenas, a sixth grader at Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School, is a talented musician and was invited to play guitar on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

by Francisco Cardenas, age 11

Buzz Kidz

Playing guitar on the Ellen show

I

was born in Venezuela, and I emigrated from my country to the United States in 2017.

Since then, many good things have happened. It has not been easy, but I have had very nice experiences.

I started to play guitar when I was 4. My dad was the person who inspired me to play guitar.

He used to teach me basic things on the instrument, but then I started taking private lessons with other teachers. In 2020, through a post I made on my Instagram, the Gibson brand offered me the opportunity to be in the G3 (Gibson Generation Group), which is a group where young talented kids are partnered with this awesome brand. Then, one of the producers of the Ellen show contacted me after seeing me in a post on Gibson’s Instagram account.

After a week, the producer told us that Warner Bros. Studios had approved me to go to Los Angeles. My dad and I flew from Houston to LA. When I got to the studio, they had a dressing room for me with my name. I felt like a rock star!

I met the production team at the studio, and they were amazing! They made me feel like I was part of their team. When it was time for me to get on the stage and play guitar, I got really nervous, but when I started playing, I started to enjoy and live in the moment. In the interview I felt really calm and comfortable. Ellen is just amazing, and she made everything easier.

This interview was an experience that I will never forget, thanks to God and the music. They both brought me amazing and incredible expe-

riences. For now, I will keep working with the same dedication and passion to achieve my goals with music. So each one of you can do the same thing with anything that you guys find passion for. Keep rocking.

MORE ONLINE See this story at thebuzzmagazines.com to view the video clip of Francisco on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where Francisco performs and describes what it’s like to play at gigs.

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.

32 BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 44

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 FEBRUARY 2022 45

PETS

Neighborhood Tails Lola, age 6, Labrador/Great Pyrenees, Willow St. Hi. My name’s Lola. I’m a Labrador and Great Pyrenees mix.

My family’s had me for three years, and though they’ve noticed I lack intelligence, I make up for it by being cute! A lot of the first three years of my life were spent in a shelter, and after being adopted and returned multiple times, I found my home. I’m perfectly nice to humans, you see, but I can’t live with other pets. That’s one reason why I like being the only animal in the house.

When I’m not barking at the wind, I like to sleep and chew on my toys.

I also love food. I don’t know many tricks, but I am entertaining. I do things that keep visitors laughing for ages. I may be “derpy,” as my family says, but I’m very nice. If you ever see me on my daily walk, don’t be shy. I’d love to greet you!

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.

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Digital assets and probate Uncle David, the client explained, taught math and computer science and knew better than to bank online. He was old school and received monthly statements and annual tax forms by mail. When he became disabled, his niece in another state had access to nothing. In a series of moves as illegal as audacious, she guessed his Yahoo email password and set up online access to all his bank, investment, and retirement accounts. It was easy: Every custodian assumed David would go online eventually and had made him provide challenge questions. They were so simple that anyone who knew the family history could guess the answers. So much for security.

Savvy consumers will use complex passwords and multiple authentication factors. It’s easier to launch an ICBM than to hack their accounts. And once they die or become disabled, no one can guess their credentials or enable online access. This creates the opposite problem: Their assets and information are lost or at least hidden, sometimes forever.

Once upon a time, the custodian would not communicate with family without litigation. Planning ahead didn’t help either because privacy laws also blocked the agent under a power of attorney and the executor named in the will.

Since Sept. 1, 2017, the Texas Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act permits the disclosure of digital assets to a fiduciary, including agents, executors and administrators, trustees, and guardians. The Act also allows for termination of accounts. Thoughtful wills, trusts, and powers of attorney now have a paragraph addressing digital assets that gives the fiduciary broad authority to access and use digital information.

The Act looks good on paper, but doesn’t expand the terms of service of the original user agreements, which often terminate or limit accounts on death, a commitment to the user that’s honored dead or alive. In practice this means family is still locked out. The Acts’ procedures are complicated enough to need an attorney and unfamiliar enough to providers that litigation still follows.

Legacy contacts are a welcome innovation many providers offer, including Facebook (Memorialization Settings), Apple (Legacy Contact), and Google (Inactive Account Manager). You don’t need a will or power of attorney now, and family doesn’t need a lawyer later. Update your account settings to designate someone to manage the account when you can’t. In Apple’s case the legacy contact has no access until they provide a pre-assigned key and a death certificate. This informal procedure doesn’t work for disability, just death. On approval the legacy contact receives a link to create a new password and can access your data.

We write wills and go to probate court. 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

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 47

NEIGHBORS

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by Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld, staff writer

Buzz About Town NEHS at Horn Horn Elementary School recently held its first National Elementary Honors Society (NEHS) ceremony. Horn is one of five Houston elementary schools to join the National Elementary Honor Society. Teacher sponsors Laura Anderson and Michael Hunt, along with officers Kiran Bansal (president), Colton Rich (vice president), Callie Hodges (historian), Olivia Zager (secretary), and Sanvi Pandit (reporter) led the NEHS class induction.

Students invited to join held grade averages of at least 90 percent with excellent marks in conduct and are expected to give back to the community, school, and peers throughout the year.

A few events hosted by NEHS have included assisting at the Bellaire Nature Discovery Center’s Fall Festival and a pajama drive for Casa de Esperanza. This month, the students will volunteer at the Houston Food Bank and, in the spring, they will collect pet food for Animeals. Pictured are NEHS members (front row, from left) Annabelle Chen, Colton Rich, Sanvi Pandit, Kiran Bansal, Callie Hodges, Olivia Zager, Daniel Herrejón Treviño; (second row) Farhana Alapat, Sophia Alcaraz, Brooks

Cannon, Victoria Arias, Lily Chan, Rishabh Bathala, Hazel Grace Dagley, Sejal Donepudi, Millie Feldman, Lily Gidwani, Simon Golenternek; (third row) Naina Mehra, Aditya Lavi, Preston Kyle, Calvin Dai, Hayden Kwong, Amber Ketterer, Julianna Herlong, Reese Johnson, Lucas Jiang, Lancy Huang, Laila Hassan, Reethi Kavaipatti; (fourth row) Vanessa Flores (principal), Jacob Lin, Athan Ng, Hector Mutuma, Liat Rappaport, Arianna Quiroz, Ethan Phillips, Samantha Perkins, Vivaan Sadare, Dev Thosani, Veda Pamula, Maxwell Wu, Saanvi Nigam, Camila Remond, Zara Olubunmi; (fifth row) Laura Anderson, Gabriel Monroy, McKenna Motes, Jacob Tzeng, Preston Tsai, Anna Scott, Ava Grace Varner, Madeleine Wu, Jeremiah Thomas, James Tran, and Michael Hunt.

Christmas proposal Sarah Garde and Ben Little don’t remember where or how they met, exactly, but it was during their middle school years. They remember running around the neighborhood and going to JMH grocery store with friends. The two remained friends throughout high school –

Sarah went to St. Agnes Academy and Ben to St. Pius X High School – and started dating in college. Their schools were about an hour away from each other, but they visited as frequently as they could. Sarah went to Texas State and Ben played baseball for Southwestern; Sarah cheered him on at most of his baseball games.

After six years of dating, Ben proposed on Christmas Day next to their Christmas tree. It was a special, intimate moment for the two of them. Afterward, they went to the home of Sarah’s parents, Tim and Jill Garde, for their family’s annual Christmas dinner, where they celebrated with extended family members. The next morning, they hosted a brunch to celebrate with Ben’s family members, including Leslie and Dave Little.

ReelAbilities

10th annual ReelAbilities

The 10th annual, citywide ReelAbilities Houston Film and Arts Festival will take place Feb. 15-24, with a pre-festival art opening on Feb. 6. Chairs are Eve Lapin and Marcy Margolis, and co-chairs are Diana Codispoti and Michael McCulloch.

Annually produced by the (continued on page 50) BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 48

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(continued from page 48) JFS Alexander Institute

for Inclusion in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, ReelAbilities Houston uses the arts as a way to educate, celebrate, and change perceptions about individuals with disabilities. The 2022 festival will feature award-winning films, the ReelPeople: UP Abilities speakers event, ReelMusic Concert, and ReelArt, featuring the work of Celebration Company artists and featured artist Sevy Marie, plus educational programs in schools and workplaces around Houston. All events are free.

Pictured are (from left) Marcy, Diana, Michael, and Eve. See reelabilitieshouston.org.

Adam Nyholt

Popped the question

Lindsey Vela, reflected on the first half of the school year and looked toward the spring semester. Pictured (from left) are Renee Konstanzer, Lauren Blackburn, Andrea Freeman, Lindsay Colvin, Melissa Bayne, Lindsey Vela, Tricia Onufer, Melissa Law, Dawn Pennington, Lisa Lim, Judy Cheng, Peggy Chang, Roxzan Zager, and Anu Hiremagular. Not pictured are Dawn Johnson and Keith Desrosiers.

Ringing in 2022

Houston radio station MIX 96.5 at the time, was still searching for “the one.” Coworker Sarah Pepper, also a DJ, had been working out in the building gym when she spotted a good-looking guy she thought could be a good match for Lauren. Turns out he had a serious girlfriend, but he said he’d be willing to set up his single brother, Gabriel Sauceda, on a date with her. Lauren and Gabriel’s first date was at B&B Butchers, and the two have been inseparable ever since. It was love at first sight. This New Year’s Eve, champagne was poured to ring in 2022 – and to celebrate as Gabriel proposed to Lauren, surrounded by their families and dogs. “Gabriel and I couldn’t be happier to plan the next chapter of our lives, and finally get rid of that meme once and for all,” Lauren wrote, with a smiley emoji.

Community QB Megan Rosenthal thought she was attending a family member’s milestone birthday at Westwood Golf Club when Phil Copulsky surprised her by getting down on one knee and proposing. Candles, rose petals, and a violinist from the Houston Symphony all helped set a romantic backdrop. Afterward, the couple celebrated at an engagement party with friends and family, including parents Darrell and Caren Rosenthal and Steven Copulsky and Marie Zehngebot and siblings Brittany Rosenthal, Harrison Rosenthal, and Rachel Copulsky. The couple live in Dallas and met at Chabad there in 2019.

They were dating for three months before the pandemic began. Phil, who’s from New York City, ended up quarantining with Megan’s family for three months in Houston, and the rest is history. Megan and Phil plan to marry in early 2023.

Pin Oak parents celebrate Pin Oak Middle School’s PTO Board celebrated the holiday season and start of winter break with a gathering at the home of PTO board president Tricia Onufer. The board, plus principal BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 50

Remember the meme that went viral back in 2015 featuring four local sisters, three smiling and showing off their engagement rings, and one (ring-less) sister pouring the champagne? The funny, relatable photo quickly made its way around the Internet and still resurfaces every now and then. (To jog your memory, see this story at thebuzzmagazines.com, where you can view the photo.) The Finkelstein family had a lot to celebrate that year – twins Melanie (Lipp) and Melissa (Gutman) were both engaged, and Amy Finkelstein Mincberg had just welcomed a baby. Fast forward to 2017. Lauren, a DJ for

Loretta and David Elledge (pictured) were honored with a 2021 Texans BHP Community Quarterback finalist award for helping the Christian Community Service Center (CCSC) alleviate the effects of poverty in Houston. The BHP Community Quarterback awards, developed through a partnership between United Way of Greater Houston, the Houston Texans, and BHP, recognize “individuals who have shown true volunteer lead- (continued on page 52)

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Sonya Sellers

(continued from page 50) ership in their communi-

ties and have gone above and beyond in their volunteer roles,” according to the United Way. Nine Community Quarterback Award finalists each received $5,000 gifts in their name to their respective organizations. The honors were presented during a pre-game ceremony at the Dec. 5 Texans game. For more than 20 years, the Elledges have volunteered in various roles within CCSC. See ccschouston.org for volunteer opportunities.

Girl Scout Gold Award

donated 30 refrigerator tables to the Ronald McDonald House Houston and installed three charging stations. Alexis is passionate about helping families with medical needs and wanted to give back to RMH, as she and her family stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in Austin in 2016. A Girl Scout of 13 years, she has earned her Silver and Bronze Awards for other projects benefitting the community.

Alexis plans to attend Texas A&M next year and major in neuroscience or nursing.

STE on the Strand Alexis Bartley (pictured), a senior at St. Agnes Academy, used her Gold Award project to give back to Ronald McDonald House Houston. She led educational seminars for the volunteers and staff and developed an online step-by-step video on how to create a refrigerator table (a small table used to hold mini-refrigerators that store medications, water, and more). In total, she

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 52

As part of a long-standing tradition, Saint Thomas’ Episcopal School’s pipe bands performed at Dickens on the Strand. The annual Christmas festival, on the Strand in Galveston, brings everyone back to the 19th century with street performances, food stalls, shops selling 19th century-style items, and Victorian-era costumes. STE’s bands marched in The Queen’s Parade and Pickwick’s Lantern-light Parade in addition to two stage shows and a special per-

formance for the Tremont House. Some members of the A band were given the opportunity to go busking – they played in small groups on the street for the opportunity to earn money from spectators. For more details and see photos, see “STE’s Bagpipe Band Performs at Dickens on the Strand” by School Buzz correspondent Audrey Nguyen at thebuzzmagazines.com.

Cardinal Choir Members of the Horn Cardinal Choir performed a festive holiday concert. Choir director Lizzy Snelling worked with fourth and fifth graders after school each week. Soloists were Liat Rappaport, Nicole O'Driscoll, and Karis Lim; understudies were Reethi Kavaipatti, Eliza Moeller, and Jacob Pham. The choir put on an energetic performance with a festive mix of music.

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.

BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 53

NEIGHBORS

by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

Back Porch

Un-romantic romance

H

appy Valentine’s Day! Normally, we would be following that wish up with a love story or fun Valentine date ideas or maybe a recipe for something yummy and chocolate.

But, once again, we are not living in normal times. And sometimes it’s fun to look at the underside of things. Like, what are couples doing when it’s not Valentine’s Day? When there’s no pressure to be romantic? What are we doing on a very average, non-eventful Wednesday night?

We’ve got answers.

Somewhere on Facebook, one of our editors recently saw a game: What are you scrolling/reading/watching at this moment, right now, and what is your spouse scrolling/reading/watching? We thought it would be fun to poll Buzz readers and ask those questions, at 8 p.m. on a random Wednesday night.

If you’re looking for traditional romance, you’ll need to look for another source. But if you’re up for some good old normal-weeknight entertainment, read on.

Dr. Jenny Guss and Kevin Smith: “I am reading The Lincoln Highway. Kevin is supposed to be reading it also for one book club of two, but he is scrolling and reading about old Porsche parts. He finds this research very relaxing!” – Jenny Donna and Joe Perillo: “Joe is watching the movie Gladiator, and I am listening to the “Bad Blood” podcast on Wondery. Catching up on the Elizabeth Holmes verdict. The whole story is crazy, and the podcast is amazing!” – Donna Samantha and Gil Melman: “We are watching [the miniseries] Station Eleven on HBO, based on the amazing book of the same name.

Watching together.” – Gil Caroline and Greg Barnes: “Oh my gosh we are so boring I can’t even [tell you]. I read a lot, I love historical fiction, and Greg is either reading oil and gas journals or the Wall Street Journal.” – Caroline Nicole Longnecker and David Pesikoff: “Nicole is watching season 236 of Gray’s Anatomy, and I am watching season six of The Blacklist. But [this is] rare because we watch most things together – Fauda, A Place to Call Home, James Bond.” – David BELLAIRE BUZZ FEBRUARY 2022 54

S c a r l e t t Collings and Cam Hewell: “I was watching Dark Shadows with [my daughter], and Cam was reading All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days[: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler].”

– Scarlett Debbie and Adam Greenberg: “I’m watching Bravo, and he’s playing video poker.” – Debbie A n o n y m o u s TRUE LOVE Valentine's Day might be romantic, but everyday love is more, well, everyday.

Lawyer-Physician We are constantly emailing, texting, or sending Couple: “[He] is reading a James Patterson messages to each other to share posts or articles. novel, and I am reading all of the Bridgerton We’re clearly really nerdy!” – Debra books (but that’s a guilty secret – don’t use my Jacqueline and Michael Kenneally: “Michael name!). They are complete brain candy.” – Wife is at Spider-Man with Ryan, and I am watching Erika De La Garza and Alejandro Chaoul: This is Us and Ellen. Does that sum us up or “We are both reading some affirmation cards what?” – Jacqueline from Louise Hay.” – Alejandro Ilse and Keith Rassin: “Well, at this very Ana and Mike Schick: “I’m watching the moment we are both sitting together watching Hallmark Channel whenever I have a free Game of Thrones. We tend to find a series and moment. I am reading Isaac’s Storm and Brené watch it together. Yes, the show is old, but we Brown’s new book [Atlas of the Heart: Mapping are really enjoying it!” – Ilse Meaningful Connection and the Language of Claudia and David Oelman: “I’m reading Human Experience]. Mike is reading The Quran The New Jim Crow and he’s reading Zorba the and watching Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday!” – Ana Greek. While I prepare dinner, I watch the Debra Donaldson and Charlie Henke: “We Cooking Channel and he watches Succession, just got home from dinner, so we’re not doing, then we’ll watch a show together. We love watching, or reading anything! But generally we Yellowstone!” – Claudia watch movies and TV shows together. We just Jill and Neal Kaminsky: “Neal is watching finished the new season of Yellowstone, and Yellowstone and Succession. I’m watching Emily we’ve watched a couple of movies this last week. in Paris, Project Runway, and The Voice.” – Jill We also watch the news and a couple of news Carrie and Clay Fisher: “I was about to do a shows together routinely. When we read at the crossword puzzle, and Clay is watching a end of the evening, it’s a mix of articles on curYouTube about a mini bike.” – Carrie rent events, and usually also food or restaurants. behance.net/runamokstudios

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