‘Music is so powerful, so healing’
David Belew didn’t let the coronavirus stop him from communicating with his wife of 67 years.
Even though she was in a Hamilton retirement village where she has lived for five years and he wasn’t allowed to visit, Belew called her every night and played several songs for her.
As his weathered fingers floated across the keys, if only for 20 minutes or so, the years slipped away and the Belews forgot about the coronavirus.
“Music is so powerful, so healing,” he said. “It transforms your problems, everything. It connects.”
‘Banner day for Middletown’
In February, 31 years after Hope House Mission opened on South Main Street in Middletown, the men’s homeless facility celebrated its new $11.4 million building at 1001 Grove St.
The new facility, which replaced the 150-year-old former U.S. Hotel on Main Street, includes a 50-bed emergency shelter for men and 30 one-bedroom apartments for the chronically homeless, said Tim Williams, executive director of operations at Hope House Mission.
Abilities First gifted the Grove Street property to Hope House Mission in 2014. That donation proved to be the “cornerstone” for Hope House moving to a new location, Messer said.
The facility includes administrative offices, additional counseling and case management offices, meeting spaces, a chapel, a recreation room, a dining room with a commercial kitchen, a private intake office and a health counseling room for nurses and visiting doctors
‘It’s important to help others’
A second-grader at Madison Elementary School took the $75 she received for her 8th birthday and bought presents for a bunch of strangers.
Lilyann Robinson purchased about 200 hats, gloves and scarves for residents of Hope House this fall.
“It’s important to help others,” she said.
This wasn’t the first time Lilyann performed community service. She has spent weekends picking up trash at Madison Twp. Park and since she noticed an enormous amount of discarded cigarette butts, she’s going to advocate for more trash cans.
When her two older brothers, Landen, a seventh-grader, and Holden, a sixth-grader, as part of the Boy Scouts, placed flags on the graves of veterans for Memorial Day, Lilyann tagged along.
‘Excited about all the offerings, at Spooky Nook Champion Mill’
The Spooky Nook Sports Champion Mill indoor sports complex in Hamilton is expected to be a boon for local retail stores and restaurants while also creating opportunities within the project.
While construction continues on the 1.2 million-square-foot facility, the focus has shifted to further development across the site, including restaurant or retail users, according to founder and owner Sam Beiler.
Spooky Nook, which is expected to be the largest indoor sports complex in North America, will offer about 60,000 square feet of retail space, a little more than half the size of a typical big-name grocery store. That amount of space will allow the facility to include four or five restaurants and a food court component of smaller outfits, plus four or five retail options, Beiler said.
“People come and they stay for a couple of days. And there’s not usually a lot of time between the games, so whatever’s in this very local area is what will benefit the most,” he said.
‘He knows he’s very lucky’
Family and friends of Paul Lolli, Middletown’s fire chief who received a liver transplant at University of Cincinnati Medical Center, surprised him in early August with a drive-by celebration.
“He had no idea,” said his sister, Ginger Bruggeman. “He was just so excited. He kept saying, ‘Wow!’”
Denise Keegan, who organized the drive-by welcome home party along with Bruggeman, played “It’s a wonderful life,” one of Lolli’s favorite songs over a loud speaker in her vehicle.
Lolli, 59, received his liver from a 23-year-old donor on July 25.
“He knows he’s very lucky,” his sister said.
‘It sucks the soul out of you’
The Hamilton community rallied around a Crawford Woods Elementary School third-grader battling stage 4 brain cancer several times this year.
Naomi Short’s family asked people to send her birthday cards for her 9th birthday on May 4.
Naomi also was surprised one morning at Hamilton Fire Station 26 last winter. When she removed her blindfold and saw a horse decorated from head to tail as a unicorn standing in the bay, she screamed with excitement.
“This is a real unicorn,” Naomi said.
When the horse moved, Naomi stepped back, then was assured the horse was just excited.
“That’s because she loves me,” she said.
Naomi said she always wanted to ride a unicorn, what she called “a bucket list” item. She said unicorns are her favorite because they are “magical, colorful and fart rainbows.”
‘Peaceful one that is a great cause’
While protests throughout the county turned violent in the wake of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, being killed May 25 while in police custody in Minneapolis, several area protests were peaceful.
During those protests, people carried “Black Lives Matter” signs, chanted George Floyd’s name, and marched, but there were few reports of violence compared to some protests in larger cities, according to local police departments.
There were protests, many led by and heavily attended by young, White residents, in Hamilton, Middletown, West Chester and Oxford.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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