Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

The door opens and Roscoe, a kitten who looks like a black and white cookie, sticks his head out and watches Tiffany Schleigh pad down the hallway. Roscoe’s a rescue. Curiosity overcomes caution, and he springs after her only to be scooped up into her arms, which is where he wanted to be all along. It’s not surprising that Roscoe is a rescue; Tiffany, whose new-penny copper curls coil down her back, spends her free time helping others. She produces big-time events featuring child actors…

Continue Reading →

She followed her heart. Manuela Rana never had dreams of the American dream, but when she found the man of her dreams, she didn’t hesitate to cross the Atlantic to be with him. Love led Manuela here. This was not an impulsive move. Manuela had known Enrico de Trizio since they were teenagers growing up in Molfetta, Italy. He and his brother, Giancarlo, had moved to the Big Apple to pursue musical careers, and in that respect, they were hitting all the right notes. She didn’t pay him…

Continue Reading →

It’s a windy day, and the four flags of Casa Galicia are flapping like a flock of geese flying south for the winter. The stately wedding-cake white building on 31st Avenue, wedged between a burger joint and a supermarket crowned by barbed wire, looks like a foreign embassy. Casa Galicia is a commanding presence on 31st Avenue. Inside the private club, where old-timers from the old country play cards and dominoes on square marble-topped tables, President Marcos Roel is standing in the bar watching…

Continue Reading →

Not everybody who gets a second chance wants it or takes it. Paco Soto was pretty much set in his ways when the opportunity was thrust upon him, but he didn’t hesitate to move into the driver’s seat and speed into the fast lane. Paco is the founder of Lion Transportation. That’s what saved him. For nearly a quarter century, he had been a sales manager for a Manhattan car and limo service. He thought he had it all — an interesting career, a wonderful wife, a studious son and…

Continue Reading →

Rain. That’s what pelted Marco Pereira’s boyhood brain, drop by drop by drop time after time, until it finally sank in. Marco’s theory turns everything upside down. “It was pouring so hard that I couldn’t go outside our house,” says Marco, who grew up in Santos, Brazil, Pelé’s playing field. “The only thing I could do was watch the rippling waves rising in the mini lakes. They had a hypnotic effect. I didn’t know it at the time, but the waves…

Continue Reading →