Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

There’s a padlock on the majestic wrought-iron gate that guards the dead at Lawrence Cemetery. The plot’s red-brick wall is reinforced by a ring of shiny silver chain link that’s crowned by barbed wire. Nobody can get in — and no bodies can get out — unless James M. Sheehan lets them. James is God’s gardener. He has been keeping the cemetery alive for, well, it’s going on 55 years now. Before he pulls open the gate, he stops to brush away the vines growing…

Continue Reading →

“Buon Giorno!” Fresh from Sunday mass, Joe Vitale shouts this greeting to the sky. His towering fig trees await. At this house, he has eight that form a green canopy over his postage stamp of a front yard. Below them, sheltering in their shade, are a half dozen cuttings he’s rooting. In the back, he has four fine trees. At his other house, around the corner, he’s blessed enough to have two. And now he wants to give me one. Joe with his fig trees. “I love the fig trees,”…

Continue Reading →

The freight elevator in the century-old factory building is in use. But the stairs are free, so Bernard Klevickas, clutching a paper coffee cup, begins the trek to the fifth floor at the top. As he climbs the tired cement steps, the acid scent of industrial chemicals follows him. “It’s messy,” he says as he opens the door. “I tried to clean it up, but…” Messy is a pretty lame description for the way his 900-square-foot art studio looks, but that’s OK. Bernard…

Continue Reading →

The sun is shouting hot as Kaman Fong dons the straw hat she’s kept folded in her pocket. Kaman is one of 120 people who have plots behind the black-thumb chain-link fence at Two Coves Community Garden. It’s only 10:30, yet she’s been tending her fruits, vegetables and herbs since the first light of day. This season, she planted strawberries, sweet yams, mint, corn, spinach, tomatoes, lettuce and a couple of sunflowers. She puts the hose down, and satisfied that her garden is growing…

Continue Reading →

Mike Barrett opens the closet door and brings out a loose white jacket and a hat with a veil. When he zips himself into this outfit, he looks like an astronaut. He’s not going into outer space. He’s only going onto the roof of his house. He climbs the closet’s metal ladder then, using a rope, hauls up a large bucket that’s the color of a construction cone. It’s filled with equipment. He sets it down by the hatch door. Toward the center of the roof, there’s a…

Continue Reading →