Right after graduating from high school, my father enlisted in the Army. He had no idea they would be sending him to the other end of the world, a place where there were six months of darkness and six months of midnight sun. Teddy Flowers — an 18-year-old Philly boy with an obsession for scrapple […]

He was the loveliest of men, everyone’s notion of the ideal grandfather, father or beloved uncle, and people always said of his appearance that this kindly generous and elegant man “could have been Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.’s twin brother.” His name was Mr. Bracher, and no one ever called him anything else. Gentle and soft-spoken, he’d […]