Looking out at Monterey Bay from Santa Cruz early one morning last year, a pair of silhouetted trees against water, distant mountains and mist immediately reminded Frish Brandt of Japan, which she had visited several years before. Rousing herself from reverie, she padded into the kitchen, opened her laptop to check email, and was surprised ...
Invite Klara Lux somewhere, and she’ll always show up early – except on the rare occasion when she texts: “I need 15 minutes for run to FedEx to send out a brain. Sorry, dry ice doesn’t forgive, LOL!” Lux, 68, is a professionally licensed embalmer and owner of a clinical autopsy service providing tissue recovery ...
Contact her at naomimarcus@sfseniorbeat.com The patient stormed out of the doctor’s office and headed straight for the reception desk, banging on the plexiglass partition that separates patients from receptionists in this busy Mission District primary care practice. Kattia Balestier, the lead front desk worker, looked up calmly at the 60ish, red-faced, glowering man. “You were ...
When 17-year-old Jose Heriberto Garcia came courting the young girl who’d become his wife, his future mother-in-law was so outraged that she ran him off her property – waving her pistol and shooting at his feet. “I beat it out of there, oh si, senor,” Garcia recalled. “I came back the next day to state ...
Writing checks to pay the family bills doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. For most of us, it’s a monthly chore to which we don’t give much thought. For Virginia Cheng, that routine task is a symbol of recovery from a crippling auto accident and a measure of her willingness to lend a hand to ...
The family’s money was tight, but Kathy Looper, then a teenager, headed to Union Square and a shopping trip to I. Magnin. She had three home-made dresses and was wearing the best one. “I thought I looked rich,” she said. When she got to the ritzy store, a man standing by the entrance stopped her ...
