Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

Life doesn’t always take a straight and narrow path; it often chooses a circular route, so let’s start in the middle of the story and see where we end up. Anne-Margaret Redding, cup of herbal tea in hand, curls up on the sofa. So intense is her smile that no sunglasses can block its warm, welcoming rays. She’s talking about intuition, that in-the-gut feeling that has been her guiding light. Passionate and persistent, Anne-Margaret, owner of The Giving Tree Yoga Studio, is life’s…

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“I want to die in this house.” That’s what Michael Halberian, owner of the storied Steinway Mansion, declared late on Christmas Eve. Three days later, the house that brought Michael life took him back into its arms for eternity. Michael, who turned 83 in November, was a consummate storyteller. He had a million of them, and he loved to enthrall his listeners with every detail. He didn’t like to talk about himself so much as he did about the mansion, where he lived most of…

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Underneath the grape arbor on the back patio, Garo Apanian opens his candy-apple-red laptop. “Let me show you the apartment where I was born,” he says. “It’s a beautiful building.” As he taps into Google Maps, Nike, his 9-year-old cat, leaves her chair and pads across the glass-top table to look over his shoulder. The image that appears is of a six-story, nine-family building in Beirut, Lebanon. “My family lived on the first floor,” he says. “My brother…

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When Irina Kom parts the exotic pink and gold silk curtain to reveal her living room-cum-bedroom-cum-dance studio, the incense refreshes the senses like a walk in a spring shower. In the corner, there’s an open suitcase filled with glittering costumes spilling out of its sides. Its image is captured in the trio of floor-to-ceiling mirrors that are the backdrop for a small Buddhist shrine showcasing a photo of Irina’s grandmother who passed with the new year. Prominently displayed on the…

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Lemme tell ya somethin’: Agatino “Tony” Manganaro, who came to New York from Sicily with a pregnant wife and only $25 in his pocket, didn’t get where he is by resting. He worked — his brawn and his brains. A thin, wiry man who wears a thick gold chain around his neck, Tony, who technically retired two years ago, doesn’t like to sit around; he has enough energy to power a battalion of battery bunnies. “Lemme tell ya somethin’,” he says. “I…

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