Ordinary Heroes: The Lawrence Exchange Club

April 3, 2017

While stopping at a local Middle Eastern restaurant called Shadi’s in North Andover, I saw a poster advertising a charity boxing event. As someone who’s boxed on and off since college – and someone who’s lamented the sport’s gradual decline, I decided to enquire further about the event. I met the folks involved in sponsoring it and, as it turns out, they’re a group of dedicated residents of the Lawrence area who help raise money for the betterment of their community and its youth. I asked if it was all right to talk to them about their work in their community and as a result, I have the first of several articles about volunteering. It's called "ordinary heroes" and part one, starts with the Lawrence Exchange Club.

Notes from the Road: Blood Brothers

March 16, 2017

Bloodwork to Blood Brothers

Notes from the Road: Chemo Mix

March 9, 2017

Fight Songs I was, again, going through the journal that I kept while being treated for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and I found notes I had made on what songs I wanted to put on a Chemo Mix. These were songs to keep me in an “fight-like-hell” frame of mind while I endured drugs, radiation, and […]

Notes from the Road: Leukemia Journal

March 5, 2017

The Journal While undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), I kept a “leukemia journal” for a few months. I wish I had been more diligent and detailed about writing in it, but at the time, it wasn’t just ALL I was dealing with. About two weeks after my diagnosis, my younger son would die […]

Notes From the Road: Getting Sick After Nearly Dying

February 16, 2017

“Roads We’ve Traveled” won’t always be long feature stories. Starting today, we have the first of series of shorter blog posts based on what’s current – the news, seasonal events, or relevant book or music releases, and so on. The new series will be called “Notes from the Road” and today’s post is about being […]

Back to School, Part 2: Jeanne’s Story

February 2, 2017

CHELMSFORD, MA — Jeanne Marie Engels, the mother of a lifelong friend, sits in a Starbuck’s in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and explains how, many years ago, she found herself thinking about going back to school. At the age of 37, her marriage had ended. She and her four children left Germany where they had lived on […]

Back to School: Part One

January 23, 2017

LEBANON, NH – When I called David Bouthillier, my best friend from St. Michael’s College, and pitched him the interview idea, he seemed surprised. Maybe even a little amused. “I just did what I had to do at the time to raise the family and try to get by,” David said to me as we […]

Fighting My Way Back

January 19, 2017

“I’m tough, rough, ready and able To pick myself up from under this table Don’t stick no sign on me, I got no label I’m a little sick, unsure, unsound and unstable But I’m fighting my way back” —Thin Lizzy The Chelmsford Sports Club (now closed) was located in an old industrial building off the […]

Society and Trauma: Or Why I’m Doing This

January 17, 2017

One weekend…. In October of 1995, while working at a small New Hampshire daily paper, I was given my first “weekend duty.” This meant that anything that happened between Friday and Sunday night, for all of the Lakes Region, was mine to cover. I was given a pager (it was 1995, after all), a police […]

“Everything Doesn’t Happen for a Reason” Commentary on the Tim Lawrence Essay

January 16, 2017

A Tempting Thought Everything happens for a reason, some will say. God, it can be a tempting thought, can it not? Some terrible thing just comes from out of nowhere, rips you out of your current life and slams you into a new one where everything is recognizable but nothing is what it once was. […]