Month: June 2015

The smoke swells as the souvlakis sizzle. Elpida pushes her pushcart onto her corner. They sear swiftly, so Elpida Vasiliadis has to turn them promptly while she’s serving the people who stop at her pushcart. For the last quarter century, which is half of her life, Elpida The Souvlaki Lady has been stationed on 33rd Street at Ditmars Boulevard. Elpida has been The Souvlaki Lady for 25 years. When she started, her son and daughter were young, and she lived around the corner, so she could…

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The call came at 10 at night. Annie LeVasseur had been eagerly expecting it, but, still, it made her nervous. Annie grew up in the South. It meant that a baby and Annie’s new career as a doula were about to be born. Although Annie had studied photos and videos of mothers giving birth during her training, this was the first time she was going to experience it in real life. “Babies are unpredictable,” she says, explaining her anxiety. “And I like predictability.” She…

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Ann Kos cannot meet you at the front door. She lives on the middle floor of her three-family house, and she can’t go up and down the stairs any more without a chaperone. Ann was born and raised in Astoria. So she waits at the landing, leaning on her walker, which is what she got for Christmas after she took a tumble on the balcony patio. The guy from the chair-lift company is coming in a couple weeks. The hall is narrow, the chair is wide, and it may not work out. For Ann, the stairs lead…

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Does it smell like cigarette smoke? Jim Ruchalski, a pack-a-day guy, has gone to a lot of trouble to clear the stale-smoke scent out of his apartment. That’s why the candles are burning and the fans are humming on high. Jim’s a geologist for the city. “I can open a window,” he says, looking at the hookah in the corner and the empty ashtrays in the living room. Jim, who has neon blue eyes and smile lines etched into his weathered face, has been smoking since he was 13. He’s…

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