"This so-called news article is so one-sided and vindictive it's absolutely disgusting," decried valued reader grskeeter, who took umbrage at a column suggesting that when her effort to get the county mayor initiative on the ballot faltered recently, local lawyer Mary Ann Stiles might well have enjoyed a well-deserved stiff Boodles martini - or two. ...more

August 17, 2008

SEBRING — Beverly Bostick makes her living taking care of the severely handicapped among other kids at her Avon Park foster home, but it's still hectic for her when one of her own children qualify for the extra help. Her son Troy, 25, has had multiple kidney failures, cerebral palsy, autism and chronic pneumonia. He goes around with a bladder bag attached to his right leg that holds his urine. His mom also had to install a special air filter for their air conditioning for him. He can walk, but he communicates only through screams, moans and gestures. ...more

June 30, 2008

Isabella Ecker-Amaral puts a surgical cap and mask on Molly the puppet, takes her pulse and listens to her heartbeat with a stethoscope. But the 6-year-old is doing more than playing doctor - she's getting comfortable with hospital procedures in advance of her surgery to alleviate any fears she may have. ...more

June 14, 2008

Dying," a friend told me a while back, when I said that several elderly relatives were deteriorating and I didn't think they would last, "can take a very long time." ...more

June 1, 2008

My dog had serious kidney disease, and rather than have him suffer long periods of not eating, we decided to put him to sleep. ...more

May 18, 2008

The picture of the smiling little girl on the flier was more than Laura Bolan could take. ...more

February 23, 2008

"The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Raising Children for Fun & Profit," by Jill Conner Browne (Simon & Schuster, $22.95) ...more

February 17, 2008

An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration recommended Thursday the approval of a new method for sterilizing women that would give them another option to tubal ligation. ...more

December 14, 2007