Happy for Cuba

By TOMIE V. PARKS
Special to the Taylor Press

Losing a loved one is never easy. It's even harder when you can't say goodbye.
In her case, it was the law that prevented Maria Newman of Taylor from giving her dying grandmother in Cuba a proper farewell.
“The only thing worse was watching how that affected my mother,” Newman said. “She was distraught.”
With the trade embargo, travel restrictions and uneasy relations between Cuba and the United States, Newman's Ohio-based mother couldn't offer emotional support to her immediate family members in Cuba or attend her mother's funeral.
“It was out of the question,” Newman said. “It wasn't legal to travel there at the time, and she was told by the U.S. State Department that if she were to travel to through a third-party country, she wouldn't be allowed to re-enter America.”
She had to stay to protect her U.S. Citizenship and her livelihood, no matter the guilt and sadness she felt.
“That blockade (between Cuba and the United States) tore our family apart,” Newman said, clearly remembering when the tension began in 1959. “Our annual visits to the family stopped abruptly. Gifts stopped. It all stopped.”
At that time, Newman lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her parents and three siblings.
“My parents were proud, naturalized citizens of the United States,” she said. “And I was the first of four children born in America.”
All of her extended family lived in Cuba, so the ability to stay connected was of the utmost importance.
It still is. That's why she cried tears of joy when President Obama announced his intent to normalize relations with Cuba last December.

Disney magic alive on high school stage

By TOMIE PARKS
Special to the Hutto News

Full of color and sparkle, the set of “Beauty and the Beast” transported the audience to a world of adventure and mystique.
People of all ages seemed entranced by Hutto High School's production of the familiar tale.
Several young girls wore princess dresses and sang along with the cast and some of the grandparents who were there in support of family members wept during the grand finale.
“It's a great turnout of family and friends,” said Linda Rosenbusch, director and theatre teacher at Hutto High School.
She welcomed audience members with a wave or hand shake before the 2 p.m. matinee performance started on Jan. 31.
The show went without incident or noticeable flaw.
“It's going smoothly,” said Shanon Markham of Hutto at intermission.
She was there with seven relatives to watch her daughter on stage ― chorus member Rebecca Lockhart.
“We are impressed,” Markham said. “From the costumes to the set, it's obvious a lot of work went into it.”
Jeffrey Smith, the play's technical director, laughed when asked about the show's quality of light and sound.
“Oh, it's been perfect,” Smith said, joking. His remarks prompted a fit of giggles in the sound booth.
“But the good thing,” Smith said regaining his composure, “is that if the audience doesn't notice anything wrong, then it's all great.”
The matinee performances of the play's run at Hutto High School were special.
“Some select students from our elementary schools were able to help out on stage,” Rosenbusch said. Students from Cottonwood Creek and Veterans Hill Elementary Schools participated in the Jan. 31 matinee performance. They portrayed the plates in the musical number “Be Our Guest,” and their artwork was on display in the lobby at intermission.
Students were selected by music teachers based on grades and participation.

Making his mark: Engraver uses art to find purpose in life

By TOMIE V. PARKS
Special to the Hutto News

His engraving is more than a hobby. It's a therapy that has helped him heal.
“I had two heart attacks and two strokes in 2010,” said Jerrell Crider of Hutto. “That forced me to retire, so it's been my art that has kept me sharp, kept me active.”
His speech is clear, with perfect enunciation, but it's deliberate, so he sounds like an English language teacher, pausing for several seconds between each word.
“Rest and taking it slow helped me recover too,” Crider said. “And I had to work with a speech therapist, but she quit seeing me because she said I spoke better than she did.”
The 67-year-old man laughed at the memory.
“Let me explain my work,” Crider said as he got up from the couch and led the way to his workshop. “I draw, yes, and I do graphic design on the computer but that's not my art. My art is the print.”
He takes a drawn image and transfers it to an etching plate made of copper, stone, wood or aluminum with the use of a lithography pen and some acid. Once the image is engraved, he takes the plate to his printing press in the garage.
“Ink is applied and then the magic happens,” Crider said. “More or less ink here or there can create drastically different moods to the scene.
He referred to his print series titled “The Alamo Heroes & The Victor.” Some pieces incorporated the use of color, making the heroes seem triumphant and proud. Others used only shades of black, making the image appear somber but significant.
Paul Holden of Buda owns one of those prints.
“I bought it a while back when it was on display at one of the art centers in town,” Holden said. “He's got such a unique, cool style. It's all historic and accurate, and I've never seen anything like it before. In one image you get the scene and the key players in a piece of history.”

Hunting dog retires after winning spree

By TOMIE V. PARKS
Special to the Taylor Press

Reed is the dog's name, but everyone calls him Hard Nock.

"Poor guy's earned it," said Ryan Grace of Taylor, the dog's owner. "He's had his rear ACL's go out and he suffered through a territorial attack by another dog, but he still managed to win at nationals despite being one of the oldest dogs there."
Grace smiled proudly as he talked about his black Lab's recent accomplishments.
Reed competed in the American Kennel Club's Master Nationals this October in Corning, California. And he won, having successfully completed six series of tests over two weeks.
"It's his third consecutive year to qualify at nationals, which earned him a spot in the Master Nationals Hall of Fame," Grace said. "What a way to go out."
Reed, at the age of 8, is officially retired.
"Nothing for him now except living the good life," Grace said. "Hunting with the family, relaxing on the couch and, of course, serving as a stud."
The Lab has already sired his first litter. He partnered with Daisy, a female Lab owned by Toby Locke of Taylor, in July and Flash was a result of that union. He's the pup Grace hopes will follow in Reed's footsteps err, paw prints.
"He'll be off to basic training in January once he reaches the age of 6 months," Grace said.
For now Flash and Reed are spending the holidays at home with Grace, his wife and children.
They eat, and they play, Grace said. Because when it comes down to it, they're our family dogs, they just have some pretty impressive skills.

Partyin' with the Stars

By TOMIE V. PARKS
Special to the Hutto News

She got to party with the stars in Hollywood.
“I got to see Selena Gomez and Bella Thorne, and then I got to meet her,” said Jade Nash, an eighth-grader at Hutto Middle School, excitedly referring to Ally Hernandez, one of the singers in the all-girl group Fifth Harmony.
“She's my favorite,” Nash said. “I love her voice and her smile.”
The girl's grandmother, Leslie Alexander of Oxford, Conn., laughed while her granddaughter was talking.
“She knows everything about Ally and Fifth Harmony,” Alexander said. “She's been following them since X-Factor.”
Nash had just returned home to Hutto on Saturday, Nov. 15, after a five-day roadtrip to California, and she and her grandmother were telling Nash's mom, Soo-Jin, about their adventure.
It had just been two days since they walked the red carpet at the Mondrian hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
She and her grandmother were guests at Latina Magazine's “30 Under 30” awards ceremony.
“And Jade had a backstage pass to visit with Fifth Harmony in their hotel room before everything started,” Alexander said.
In the midst of all the handshaking and picture shaking, Nash said she had the opportunity to sing in front of everyone.
“It was Camila (one of the Fifth Harmony girls) who said, 'Why don't you sing me something?' So I did 'Miss Movin' On,' which is one of their songs,” Nash said. “She said I was actually good, not what she was expecting.”
The singer described Nash's impromptu performance in a note she wrote to Nash in an autograph book.
“Never lose that voice,” writes Camila Cabello. “I'm looking forward to hearing you sing for the world.”
It was high praise for Nash because that's her dream.
“I want to be a performer like Camila and Ally,” Nash said.

Twin nightmare: Pregnancy and disease

By Tomie Parks 
TTTS mom

I can’t hug my children.
I never could. They died the day they were born.
Life since then – Jan. 8 – has been a mission to try and understand the disease that robbed me of my boys, Tanner and Hunter.
That disease is called Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, and this is a story of how terrible it is.

The beginning
Last spring I lived the life of a new bride.

March of Dimes necklace.

I had a house to furnish, a husband to cook for and new family members to meet. There wasn’t a moment to spare until summer came.
That’s when Rusty and I found what it meant to be newlyweds. We had no need for plans. All we craved was each other’s company, and that made the most dreaded of chores, like cleaning the toilet or washing the dishes, seem more like a vacation. Life was full of Hallmark card bliss.
We discovered at the end of September that I was pregnant.
Lots of adjectives can describe our reaction: Thrilled, scared, tired, worried, surprised, nervous, and overwhelmed.
In short, we were the typical first-time parents, trying to make sense of everything we heard from doctors and saw on ultrasounds.
October brought on a surge of hormones that made me cranky, but it also afforded me the opportunity to see my baby’s heart beat – and on Oct. 25, I learned there were two babies inside my belly.
“How did you make two?” my bewildered husband asked me, as he sat staring at the ultrasound.
I didn’t have an answer then, and I don’t have one now.
Neither of us had any family history of twins, nor do I know of any special diet or vitamin that makes embryos split. It just happened, and for a while, I was the mother of twins.

Couple celebrates first anniversary

By TOMIE PARKS
Deemable Staff Writer

WIMBERLEY, Texas – I ain’t never run across a man, woman or dog who’s seen all of Texas. The state is that big, even if you call it home.
So it wasn’t that much of a surprise when I stumbled across a never-before-seen Lone Star city. It was Wimberley, a holiday haven for everyone from nostalgic lovers and amateur artists to athletes and motorcycle gangs.With rocks for climbing and gourmet wines for tasting, Wimberley was not what I’d call a two-light town. It deserved some proper attention, so I suggested to my husband that we spend our first anniversary weekend there.
It didn’t take much convincing for him to agree, as his buddy from work happened to own a cabin there – a cabin we could stay at for free. Enough said, the trip was on.