Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

The Tamale Lady. That’s what everyone calls the weary young-old woman who pushes her shopping cart to the middle of the block and sets up on the sidewalk, selling breakfast for $1 and $2. The Tamale Lady at her Astoria Boulevard station. She does have a name. It may or may not be Idalia Garcia. It’s not important. But her story is. Idalia has been The Tamale Lady for three of the nine years she has called America her home. Her family was poorer than poor, and she had a pretty hard life…

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People stop and stare and hold their babbling babies up to the wrought-iron railing. It’s not every day you see a koi pond on Ditmars Boulevard. Or a garden that looks as though it outgrew . Yes, there are koi in the pond. The haute design continues inside, where the books in the way-too-cool-for-Astoria living room are artfully arranged by color (red, blue, purple and white), and the deep hue of the Gerbera daisy in the vase on the side table matches the burnt-orange curtains in the dining…

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Jack Chiello is a low-key guy. He’s also a man of few words. Getting him to talk about himself is like trying to pry a pearl from an oyster with a plastic toothpick. Jack’s the owner of Astoria Bakery. Now, singing, that’s another matter. He could croon until the moon turns blue. But this is not something he volunteers. He’ll only open up if you ask him about his CD. The one that he’s selling at Astoria Bakery, his mom-and-pop pastry shop. The tiny two-counter store…

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At the mention of ice cream, a smile beams like a rising sun on Dolma Yangchen‘s solidly serious face. Dolma came to New York from Tibet seven years ago. In Tibet, where she comes from, people don’t eat much of the cold, creamy treat. The food is spicy, not sugary. When she was a little girl, she had the good fortune to taste it a couple of times, and its sweetness lingered in her vanilla life. Dolma, the production manager for Fal Foods, which makes DF Mavens non-dairy ice cream, Brazilia…

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There’s music playing when Marc Gross opens the door. Cara Samantha, his wife, is sitting on the sofa. She’s not singing, merely speaking softly, but her sultry voice relegates the famous one on the CD to deep background. Marc is a lawyer with Condon & Forsyth. Cara, a singer/songwriter, and Marc, a litigating lawyer, are recently wed. Circumstances forced them apart geographically for three years — an eternity for true lovers — and this is the first apartment that marries…

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