The Soup-to-Nuts Storyteller

Espresso. Giuseppe Viterale never starts or ends the day without a cup of it. He fires up a little gas burner, spoons in the ground coffee and puts the aluminum one-cup pot atop the steady blue flame. “This is like a religious ritual for me,” he says. As the dark-chocolate drink begins leaking out like crude oil, Giuseppe pours a little into his glass teacup and mixes it with sugar until it has the fluffy froth of mocha mousse. “This is better than any fancy coffee machine,”…

Continue Reading →

The Survivor Who Speaks Her Mind

One day Anna Kril stepped into the shower, and her life fell apart. Which, in the end, was a blessing, because her life didn’t end, it simply moved on to a new beginning. Her life, you see, was perfect. She had a loving husband and two little daughters who adored her. And then she had a lump in her left breast. It was 1993; people didn’t talk about the Big C, especially when it was breast cancer. Anna, who had turned 40, sprang into action. She had a mammogram. It didn’t detect…

Continue Reading →

The Nurse the Doctor Ordered

At the end of the corridor, there’s a wall of glass tile that looks like the sparkling waters of a stream struck by sun. It leads to a waiting room of charcoal-colored chairs and bouquets of fresh flowers arranged in vases. In this serene space stands Alma Mesquita, a tower of tranquillity. Stethoscope slung over her shoulders like a shawl, she speaks in soft, lilting tones that promise that no matter what’s wrong, she’ll make everything all right. Alma, a family nurse practitioner,…

Continue Reading →

The Jeweler Who Puts the Past Together

It’s not pretty, and that’s the beauty of it. Miwako Kimura‘s workshop, for that is what she calls it, was meant to be a bedroom. It can fit a double bed but not much more. Sun streams through its only window, illuminating the cardboard boxes that hug the walls, a giant wheel of bubble wrap suspended from the ceiling like a star and three utilitarian, hard-used desks. It is in this space — “I apologize that it’s so messy” — that Miwako comes to craft…

Continue Reading →

The Do-Gooder

It all started in Spain, and like many things in life, David Tepper didn’t plan any of it. Fate or God or the universe pushed and pulled him in different directions until he found himself sitting behind the check-out desk at Nook n’ Crannie, the second-hand shop that gives alcoholics and addicts a second chance. David, executive director of the nonprofit Betel of America that runs the shop, has never had a substance-abuse problem. But he grew up surrounded by people who thought nothing…

Continue Reading →