2023 January Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate

With the turn of the calendar page comes a thankfulness for what has been and a hopefulness for what’s to come. Whether

bought or sold with us last year, or you’re thinking about one of the two this year, we’re here to help guide you through every step with patience and experience.

A

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EDITORIAL

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief: Jehadu Abshiro jabshiro@advocatemag.com

SENIOR EDITOR: Renee Umsted rumsted@advocatemag.com

Editors: Alyssa High ahigh@advocatemag.com

Emma Ruby eruby@advocatemag.com

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Intern: Andrea Hancock

Contributors: George Mason, Patti Vinson, Carol Toler, Sam Gillespie, Lucy Erspamer, Matthew Ruffner, Eric Folkerth, Betsy Swetenburg

Contributing photographers: Kathy Tran, Emil Lippe, Corrie Aune, Yuvie Styles, Shelby Tauber, Azul Sordo, Johnathan Johnson, Sylvia Elzafon

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Advocate (c) 2023 is published monthly in print and daily online by Advocate Media - Dallas Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation based in Dallas and first published in 1991. Contents of this print magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements and sponsorships printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The Publisher reserves the right to accept or reject ay editorial, advertising or sponsorship material in print or online. Opinions set forth in Advocate publications are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the Publisher’s viewpoint. More than 180,000 people read Advocate publications in print each month; Advocate online publications receive more than 4 million pageviews monthly. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate print and online publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one print copy per reader. For information about supporting our non-profit mission of providing local news to neighborhood readers, please call 214-560-4212 or email rwamre@advocatemag.com.

ABOUT THE COVER

The Istation building is one of two golden towers near Northwest Highway and Central Expressway. Photography by Jessica Turner.

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NEIL BROUSSARD

Neil Broussard left a life of sports marketing to serve the real estate needs of Lakewood. How? A chance lunch with Tom Rhodes turned into a change in careers nearly 20 years ago. Now Neil represents everything from M-Street Tudors to historical Swiss Avenue to Lakewood new construction as a member of The Rhodes Group, one of Compass’ top producing groups. His sports management experience comes in handy on the fields of his own active kids—students at St. Thomas Aquinas. But the BBA business acumen he puts to good use every day, serving his clients with the best combination of honest insights and shrewd negotiation skills. Tom made Neil an “honorary Rhodes” years ago, but Lakewood made him Top Realtor and trusted friend.

Thinking of selling or just can’t decide? Give Neil a call.

Neil Broussard

The Rhodes Group at Compass 214-334-3317 neil@therhodesgroup.com

to actively monitor

to ensure they are

to change assignments, classrooms, and assist with other duties throughout the campus including cafeteria duty, monitoring buses etc. Ability to make rational and quick decisions. Performs all other tasks and duties as assigned by campus principal or designee. Substitute employees are required to be consistently available to cover teacher absences at various campuses; a minimum of five (5) days per month within a school year to remain active in the substitute pool. Completion of the seven-hour, mandatory virtual Dallas ISD Substitute Teacher Orientation and Professional Development upon hire. Attend Dallas ISD Continuing Education Substitute Training hosted throughout the school year.

Story by ANDREA HANCOCK

It was home to hundreds of freedmen in the aftermath of the Civil War. It survived Central Expressway carving straight through its heart. It has hosted some iconic American musicians, including blues singer Bessie Smith and grunge band Nirvana. And now, the people of Deep Ellum are celebrating its 150th anniversary.

Local organizations and businesses have helped to plan the year of festivities. The idea came from Todd Hedrick, who owns and is the head stylist at Salon Gossip, a salon on Elm Street. Hedrick approached the Deep Ellum Foundation a few years ago about the milestone, and the DEF and its partner organizations have been planning how to get the most out of the anniversary ever since.

“We thought, ‘We really need to harness this and take the opportunity to share the story (of the neighborhood),’” says Stephanie Hudiburg, the executive director of the DEF.

The celebration begins with a black-tie reception at the Kimpton Pittman Hotel on Jan. 19. The hotel is named after architect William Sidney Pittman, who designed the building the hotel is located in. Originally known as the Knights of Pythias Building, the building was the first commercial structure in Dallas designed by an African American person.

Several anniversary events are intended to honor the Black people who have shaped Deep Ellum. There will be a panel for Black History Month, and the DEF will partner with the Dallas Black Chamber to bring in Black entrepreneurs who are still influencing Deep Ellum.

In March, Hudiburg anticipates that Deep Ellum will be named to the National Register of Historic Places. The DEF, Preservation Dallas and the Texas Historical Commission have spent years surveying the district to prove its historical significance, providing statistics about the age and stories of buildings.

Deep Ellum’s 150th anniversary

Deep Ellum was a stomping ground for artists now remembered as blues legends. T-BONE WALKER, whom Rolling Stone named as the 67th greatest-ever guitar player, started in Deep Ellum before moving to California and pioneering the West Coast Blues sound. CHUCK BERRY later named Walker as one of his biggest influences. HUDDIE “LEAD BELLY” LEDBETTER is another musician whose influence stretched beyond the nightclubs he played in Deep Ellum; his songs have been covered by ABBA, FRANK SINATRA, TOM PETTY and NIRVANA.

Speaking of Nirvana, remember the infamous night when a security guard punched KURT COBAIN? During a concert at Trees to promote Nirvana’s album Nevermind, Cobain crowd surfed. When the crowd returned him to the stage, a security guard tried to push him away from the stage again. Cobain hit the guard with his guitar and clambered onto the stage, and in retaliation, the security guard socked Cobain in the jaw.

That concert was during Deep Ellum’s musical renaissance during the late 20th century, when artists like ERYKAH BADU and OLD 97’S played venues there on their way to national fame. Every year for her birthday, Badu plays a set at the Bomb Factory.

In 2015, when LEON BRIDGES’ debut album Coming Home was generating Grammy buzz, you could still find him busking on Elm Street. And he played at the Bomb Factory in 2021 with Houston-based trio Khruangbin.

Deep Ellum will be part of an inaugural cross-Dallas Juneteenth parade, which travels through the Dallas Arts District and Fair Park.

No celebration of Deep Ellum would be complete without music. The district was one of the country’s bastions of blues by the early 1900s, and then it welcomed the advent of jazz. In the late 1900s, artists such as Erykah Badu and Radiohead headlined Deep Ellum venues, rejuvenating the district. To mark that history, the inaugural, three-day Deep Ellum Music Festival will occur in October, featuring several genres of music.

“Music has really been the founding heart of what Deep Ellum has been about,” Hudiburg says. “To have a music festival every year to celebrate that, and to bring in different artists, both longtime artists and fresh artists, is a gift that will keep on giving.”

Deep Ellum’s most famous music will be available on demand at the Deep Ellum Community Cultural Center, expected to open this spring. A permanent exhibit called “The Other Side of Dallas” will tell the story of the district, and visitors can hear the artists who put Deep Ellum on the map.

The festivities will end with a storytelling summit in December. Local publisher Deep Vellum will partner with the Dallas Public Library to create the Deep Ellum Archive to feature historians’ written accounts of Deep Ellum and also allow residents to record their own oral histories.

The events are intended to improve the district’s future and honor its past.

“I like to joke that Deep Ellum is the oldest new cultural district in the state,” Hudiburg says. “It’s called the Soul of Dallas, and there’s a reason for that. It is the No. 1 entertainment district in the entire region, but it’s first and foremost truly a community.”

Alex Marler 214.883.1149 alex.marler@compass.com

Amy Malooley 214.773.5570 amy.malooley@compass.com

CHRISTMAS CREATOR

Tommy Bourgeois helped make East Dallas a winter wonderland

Story by RENEE UMSTED Photography by SYLVIA ELZAFON

SITUATED

PERFECTLY BEHIND

THE PEWS , the three Christmas displays at St. Matthew’s Cathedral seem to have been made for the place..

But appearances deceive.

Junius Heights resident Tommy Bourgeois started the first display, or crèche, in the 1980s, though it wasn’t placed in the historical church on Ross Avenue until years later. Despite their age, Bourgeois hasn’t quite drawn a line under the holiday displays.

“You can always add,” he says.

Bourgeois, originally from New Orleans, came to Dallas for graduate school. He earned a master’s degree in scenery and costume design from Southern Methodist University, back when it was still known as a “league school,” Bourgeois says.

As a graduate, Bourgeois was invited to the league review in New York City. Rather than the novice designers and actors schlepping around the city to find jobs, professional directors, designers and producers went to them.

The review proved fruitful for Bourgeois, who took an offer to work alongside Italian opera designer Beni Montresor, an occupation he held for years. When Montresor moved back to Italy, Bourgeois dabbled in fashion, becoming assistant to the head pattern maker in a sample room for Joseph Abboud.

Though Bourgeois enjoyed the job and was asked to stay at the fashion house to learn even more, his heart was in the performing arts. He left New York, moved permanently to Dallas and occasionally returned to the Big Apple whenever Montresor was in town.

Over the decades, Bourgeois has created displays, sets and costumes for institutions including the Austin Ballet, the Trammell Crow Center and for over 30 years, the Dallas Opera.

“Just about any opera that we do, we build; I put the stuff in their hands, on the stage,” he says. “There’s 30-something years of that in the warehouse — lots of furniture, lots of glasses, lots of plates, lots of stuff.”

One of his most recognizable creations, though, is the 12 Days of Christmas at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden.

After the success of Dale Chihuly’s glass art display in 2012, arboretum leadership began searching for other potential outdoor exhibits. One board member had the idea of a Victorian 12 days of Christmas exhibit inside the DeGolyer House.

But Bourgeois had a better idea, says Mary Brinegar, the longtime arboretum president and CEO who announced her retirement in October. The exhibit, Bourgeois suggested, should be incorporated into gazebos, with each of the 12 days inspiring each gazebo.

“The idea was to make it as beautiful in the day as it was at night,” Brinegar says.

Having been the associate general director of the Dallas Opera, Brinegar says she knew she could trust in Bourgeois’ work.

Not to mention, his crèche, along with one made by the late Peter Hall, a former costume designer for the Dallas Opera, had previously been on display at the DeGolyer House.

Building the 12 Days of Christmas exhibit took two years. Dallas Stage Scenery helped construct the life-size figures and gazebos.

In part to justify the cost of the exhibit, Brinegar says, her initial idea was to display the gazebos for five years. Nine years later, the exhibit remains.

“We’ve kept it up longer than that because people keep saying, ‘Don’t you dare take it down; this is a tradition for us,’” Brinegar says.

Tommy Bourgeois is known in Junius Heights for his annual Christmas Eve party.

Bourgeois says the project was different from making the Christmas displays now in St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the church he attends. Several people had to believe in his vision for the 12 displays at the arboretum. But when Bourgeois was building the crèche, it was all up to him.

“I ask me what I want,” he says. “And me tells me what they don’t like or do like.”

Though Bourgeois started his first crèche during the Reagan administration, the tradition of creating these nativity displays dates back hundreds of years and was popular in Roman Catholic churches. While building the displays, Bourgeois drew inspiration from his Catholic upbringing and the Christmas tree at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York — an 18th century Neapolitan nativity display placed around the tree, which is decorated with silk-robed angels.

Building the crèches is the closest Bourgeois has ever come to designing a window display, the job he wanted as a kid. He’d go to work at the opera, get home late in the evening, work for several hours on the project and then sleep.

The first crèche shows the classic nativity scene — Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherds with their animals, angels soaring overhead. Bourgeois purchased the animals but made or repurposed almost everything else.

To create each figurine, Bourgeois starts with a wire frame and wooden pieces for shoulders and hips. That’s all wrapped with fabric. The visible parts of the body — hands, feet, chests, heads — are sculpted from clay before Bourgeois bakes them in his home oven.

Then he can work on his favorite part, designing and stitching their clothing. The robes of the flying angels appear to be billowing in the wind, defying gravity rather than hanging lifelessly.

He painted the night sky in the background. Lights illuminate the scene, and pieces of cardboard were cut and painted to make columns, forming an ornate frame around the exterior.

This crèche was originally made for his own home, but it grew too large, so it ended up being displayed in public.

After the first crèche, Bourgeois made one depicting the angels’ annunciation to the shepherds. It has been on display at St. Matthew’s Cathedral for a few years. And debuting this year is a depiction of the Epiphany, the biblical story when wise men called magi saw and honored Jesus.

Bourgeois already has plans to add attendants to the newest crèche for next Christmas.

“These guys can’t be doing this all by themselves,” he says. “And hopefully I can find another camel.”

Tommy Bourgeois’ latest crèche shows the scene of the Epiphany.

Kate Walters 214.293.0506 kate.walters@compass.com

Jessie Lewis 918.607.9416 jessie.lewis@compass.com

Thomas Bellinger 972.989.6127 thomas.bellinger@compass.com

Ariah Riggle 330.600.1172 ariah.riggle@compass.com

Barbara Samples 214.232.3315 barbara.samples@compass.com

Connect with us @katewaltersgroup

smooth sailing

White Rock Lake is home to two boat clubs

Story by RENEE UMSTED | Photography by JESSICA TURNER

jeanne Tunks has always loved the water. But as a kid in Scott, a small town west of Lafayette, Louisiana, she couldn’t participate in watersports except at camp. During college, she became a water safety instructor for the Red Cross.

She taught people living with blindness, cerebral palsy and other conditions how to swim. Wanting to be a more effective teacher, she enrolled at a training school operated by the Red Cross in Mobile, Alabama.

A limited number of participants meant the students in Tunks’ program and those in the sailing program were merged into one class. She was learning how to sail.

“It was that first time on Mobile Bay, just not knowing what the heck it was going to be,” Tunks says. “But just really, there’s something about when you can capture the wind just right, and it pulls you along. And you’re just part of the elements of nature.”

Tunks and her husband, Tom, who used to sail on Lake Michigan, have been sailing at White Rock Lake for decades.

In addition to two rowing clubs, a handful of historical buildings and yet-to-be-unearthed artifacts from Dallas’ Davy Jones’ locker, White Rock Lake Park is home to two sailing clubs.

Corinthian Sailing Club and White Rock Boat Club differ in key ways. But at their essence, they host hundreds of people with a shared interest in being on the water.

Even the history of the clubs is intertwined. Corinthian was officially incorporated in 1939 by Tom Nash, Frank Parker and Wilfred Bruce. The story goes that a few people who had been sailing from a public pier on the northwest side of the lake were searching for deeper water. So they built a pier and eight slips where the

north entrance of the club is today, along E. Lawther Drive.

By 1942, Corinthian had 22 members, and the primary boats used by members were snipes.

White Rock Boat Club started about two decades later. Three Corinthian members — brothers Phil and Pete Oetking and Henry Pittman — spearheaded the creation of the club in 1961, after their old club was having problems tracking davit ownership and the price of davits was increasing. The Oetkings had developed a catamaran called the Hellcat and needed a place to sell them. With help from Pittman, who financed construction, White Rock Boat Club was established to meet their needs.

Corinthian, built entirely over the water, has 183 boat slips and 70 board boat pads. All 380 member households sail; those who race and those who don’t each comprise about half of the total membership.

“There’s a boat for everyone,” says Renee Comen, the club’s commodore, whose term ends January 2023. “We have a guy that’s 90 years old that comes out and sails. We took our kids out when they were toddlers.”

Comen, who’s originally from New Mexico, started sailing at White Rock Lake in 1986.

“This guy said, ‘Hey, you want to come sail with me?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ I ended up marrying him,” she says.

Corinthian has several fleets, including Flying Scots, Snipes, Corinthians, RS Aeros and Lasers, plus 420s and Optimists for kids. In addition, they have members who participate in parasailing competitions. They share a butterfly fleet with White Rock Boat Club, which has more than 20 types of sailboats.

While 100% of the members at Corinthian have to sail, only

70% of the members at White Rock Boat Club face that requirement. The rest can have canoes, kayaks, paddle boards or rowboats.

The club, which has about half the membership of Corinthian, sponsors a Sea Scouts troop. Part of the Boy Scouts of America, the scouts have access to White Rock’s boats and facilities, and in return, they help with projects, such as building new picnic tables for the club house dock.

Members in both organizations don’t have to own boats, and all of them pay fees, which help cover maintenance and other costs incurred by the clubs. At White Rock, members can offset the costs by participating in work days or performing acts of service for the club.

Corinthian and White Rock, both all-volunteer organizations, are similar in their stewardship of the lake. They help pull logs and debris out of the water, and they participate in For the Love of the Lake’s monthly shoreline cleanups.

Both also face the challenges of dredging, or lack

White Rock Boat Club, founded in 1961, sits at the north side of the lake near Boy Scout Hill.

TR

of it, freezes and flooding. Water levels have risen as high as the windows at Corinthian’s club house. When water recedes, White Rock has had to remove snakes from the club house.

From March until November, Corinthian hosts races four times per week. A few of the members travel across the nation to compete, and the club has even hosted a remote-controlled sailboat race.

White Rock is less competitive. There are some members who don’t own boats anymore but just come by to hang out. One man comes every Monday night with a group of people to play Rummikub on the dock. Others come to watch the sunset.

“I have a sailboat here, a canoe and two kayaks,” Tunks says. “OK, why do I need all these boats? Well, because if you like boats, you need them.”

for drum sake

Story by SIMON PRUITT | Photography by EMIL LIPPE

18, 2019, Deep Ellum drummer Chad Lovell suffered a fall in his home that left him in a coma ever since. The Dallas music community has been quick to rally around him and his family, organizing fundraisers and raising awareness for his critical condition.

Many of the individuals spearheading support for the Lovell family were the same folks on Deep Ellum’s cutting-edge punk rock scene in the 1990s, a scene that Lovell helped develop.

Among those is guitarist Mike Graff, who played with Lovell in Course Of Empire, an iconic Dallas rock band that pushed the boundaries of live music into borderline performance art by involving audience members in playing with the band.

When it comes to a Chad Lovell project, the only way to do that is through the drums.

“We started gathering up all these old oil drums and sticks,” Graff says. “And started writing music around the idea of passing the drums from the stage into the crowd and turning over control of the show to the audience.”

The bold concept took off like wildfire, quickly changing Course Of Empire from a fun rock band into a mustsee.

“We were able to embody this very democratic notion of involving the audience, dissolving the line between performer and audience,” Graff says.

Course Of Empire kept drumming until the gimmick got too big to continue.

“As the crowds grew, eventually there were so many people in the room that the

drums couldn’t fit between people, and people started throwing them around like beach balls,” Graff says.

Still, the band continued playing together until 1998 before splitting to pursue other projects. Lovell transitioned to become a prolific sound engineer and producer in Dallas until his untimely accident in 2019.

On Nov. 11, 2022, the Toadies headlined a sold-out benefit show to raise money for the Lovell family at House of Blues Dallas. The show featured a charity auction with autographed instruments from local musicians and a surprise vinyl reissue of Course of Empire’s 1994 album, Initiation

Filling out the bill, classic Dallas band Doosu came together for a rare reunion with Graff on guitar.

Also in attendance was fellow Dallas drummer Jeff Ryan, who has played with St. Vincent and Daniel Johnston. Ryan was among the many figures in the Deep Ellum rock movement in the ’90s, along with Lovell and Graff.

“It was just a very amazing communal vibe for the Toadies’ show, everyone from all different facets of the music industry coming together to help raise money for Chad in one way or another,” Ryan says. “Seeing folks that I’ve been friends with for close to 30 years coming together was really

special; it was a great night.”

Searching for ways to keep Lovell’s artistic spirit alive, Graff dug deep into the archives.

“I went back and found Chad’s first recording with the band and pressed it on vinyl,” he says. “It’s a way to give people something to hold in their hands that represents Chad.”

The album Fields Of Discipline is a mastered compilation from early Course Of Empire recordings in 1989. All material featured on the record was previously unheard.

“The idea that Chad represents as a drummer, of handing the drums to the audience,” Graff says. “That’s really his artistic legacy.”

Jeff Ryan and Tami Thomson, the Toadies manager who helped organize the benefit auction, stand in front of a mural in Deep Ellum.

GARDEN OF EATIN’

HANCOCK

Story by ANDREA

Leila Bakery and Cafe

Founder Kelly Ball likes to joke that she began baking when her life fell apart, but not all quarterlife crises result in something as wonderful as Ball’s food. Leila Bakery and Cafe began as Naturally Curly Cook, a food blog where Ball chronicled her foray into baking and cooking. Then, she began selling her food at farmers markets, and eventually she started producing wholesale treats for coffee shops and bakeries. In 2020, Naturally Curly Cook moved into a spot on Oram Street and became the bakery and cafe we know today. The name “Leila” comes from Ball’s husband’s aunt, who lives in Serbia and inspired Ball through her warmth and kindness — and her insistence on cooking every meal for Ball and her husband when they visit.

The spot is known for its quiche, kolaches, muffins and pies, and true to its roots, dishes incorporate ingredients from Dallas farmers markets. Baked goods are not all that Leila has to offer, however — the cafe offers a great mix of soups and salads. One of Leila’s best salads is the grain bowl, a hearty mix of kale, purple cabbage, sweet potato, candied pecans, carrots, quinoa and tahini dressing. After enjoying this salad loaded with superfoods, be sure to treat yourself with something from the bakery, too.

6041 Oram St.

Café Brazil

Café Brazil has six locations around the Metroplex, but its first location opened on Greenville Avenue. That location has since closed, but rest assured, there’s still one nearby, right off of Central Expressway. Café Brazil originally opened in 1991 as a coffee and breakfast spot, but as time went on, lunch and dinner were added.

One of the menu’s popular items is the coconut chicken salad. Café Brazil CEO Brant Wood says all team members have the opportunity to submit a new recipe idea every year. In 2006, a member of the kitchen team at the Carrollton location submitted an idea for a salad with greens, coconut chicken, oranges, dried cranberries and homemade honey mustard. Wood and a colleague happened to have a business meeting at that location on a day the cafe was offering the salad as a special.

“We both loved it, and I suggested to the

operations team that we run it as a special at other locations,” Wood says.

The salad was added to the fall and winter seasonal menus, and by the spring of 2007, its enduring popularity secured a spot on Café Brazil’s menu permanently.

“It has been a Café Brazil fan favorite ever since,” Wood says.

6420 N. Central Expressway

Hudson House

You probably wouldn’t think of seeking a salad from a restaurant known for its oyster bar, but give Hudson House a chance. Founded in 2017 in Highland Park, there are now four locations in the Metroplex, including one in our neighborhood which opened in 2020.

Hudson House was founded by Hunter Pond, who also founded East Hampton Sandwich Co.

Hudson House specializes in East Coaststyle seafood. In addition to oysters, they serve redfish, salmon, tuna and New England classics such as clam chowder and lobster rolls. Seafood makes an appearance on the salad menu, too. The Beverly includes grilled shrimp, hearts of palm, avocado, radish, crispy shallots, tomatoes and a house-made vinaigrette. Or, there’s the miso kale and tuna salad, which consists of pan-seared ahi tuna, emerald kale, dried cherries and ponzu vinaigrette.

If you’re not big on fish, try the Hudson salad, which is topped with popcorn chicken, avocado, cherry tomato, bacon, sharp cheddar and green goddess dressing.

James Douglas, the vice president of culinary for the group that owns Hudson House, East Hampton Sandwich Co. and four other restaurants, says Hudson House prioritizes using farm-to-table ingredients.

“The whole idea behind our menu is that it is something we have found pleases the crowd, and we’re keeping it small but dynamic in the ingredients,” Douglas told the Advocate in 2021.

4040 Abrams Road

Urbano Cafe

Urbano Cafe got its start in Uptown, but in 2009, founder Mitch Kauffman moved the restaurant into its current location on Fitzhugh Avenue. When Kauffman first saw the property, there were burglary bars on the windows. But the building also had a grease trap and a vent hood in the kitchen, and Kauffman knew he could make it work. Since then, Urbano has expanded into the next storefront, which previously belonged to Kauffman’s friend and grocer Tom Spicer. In addition to the restaurant itself, Urbano provides two rooms available to rent for private parties and a space called “Urban Goods,” which hosts pop-ups for local vendors.

Urbano is an Italian-American bistro, and no Italian-American bistro is complete without insalata. The restaurant’s signature salad, the Urbano salad, has been on the menu since the restaurant opened in Uptown in 2002. It’s changed a little throughout the years, but today, it consists of seasonal greens, candied walnuts, sun-dried tomatoes, herbed goat cheese and citrus vinaigrette.

“It’s mainly an appetizer salad, but we have some customers who love to put a piece of grilled salmon on it for a lighter dinner, and it’s delicious like that as well,” Kauffman says.

While a salad from Urbano is great on its own, it’s also a great excuse to try their pastas, sample something from their regularly updated wine list or take advantage of their BYOB policy.

1410 N. Fitzhugh Ave.

[* DALLAS HAS SOME OF THE BEST DOCTORS. AND THE BAD DOCTORS ARE THE EXCEPTION, NOT THE RULE. BUT THAT DOESN’T HELP WHEN YOU’RE THE PATIENT OF THE EXCEPTION.

the bad doctors

DENTISTS, HOSPITAL EXECUTIVES, SURGEONS, NURSES AND OTHER HEALTH CARE WORKERS

(IN SOME CASES, THOSE IMPERSONATING THEM) ARE DOING TIME FOR DOING HARM

Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB | Illustrations by JESSICA TURNER

In the 1870s, a bright young dentist — tall, lean, mustachioed and blonde, with a slight speech impediment and a nagging cough — opened his practice in Deep Ellum.

The lanky Georgia native Henry John Holliday had earned a doctorate of dentistry at 19 and won three awards, including best set of gold teeth, at a Dallas County fair.

But Doc, as he was known, had a dark side. Not only was he sick with a terminal illness, tuberculosis, but he also had a gambling habit. Thus, he would never become the doctor

he might have been.

Like some other promising healers in this story (most of whom had far more formal medical training and credentials than our outlaw DDS), Doc Holliday would be remembered for less noble reasons.

The law ran Doc out of town after a shootout at a Dallas saloon. He attempted several times to resume a dental practice, historians say, but his hacking concerned potential patients. He went on gaming and gunslinging until he died from his illness in Colorado in 1887.

Dallas is home to substantial

medical resources — Baylor Scott & White is the most awarded notfor-profit health system in Texas ( U.S. News & World Report ); we have the No. 1 scientific health care research institution at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center ( Nature Index ), the No. 10 overall hospital system in the nation (The Lown Institute) with Parkland Health and the country’s second largest Veterans Affairs hospital system.

But with so many doctors, clinics and hospitals, on occasion a bad actor violates his vow to do no harm.

doctors

Dr. Death

dr. Christopher Duntsch became the subject of a Peacock original series for all the wrong reasons. He’s serving a life sentence for gross malpractice that resulted in two direct fatalities and the maiming of more than 30 neurosurgery patients, as told by Laura Beil, the journalist who hosts the Dr. Death podcast, on which the eponymous show is based.

*Beil’s reporting was sensational and entertaining in a true-crime sense, but it served an important public service. It exposed a local health care system that allowed a dangerous doctor to move around to different hospitals rather than be scrutinized for his incompetence and, in some cases, willful destruction of patients’ health and lives.

It’s important to remember, Beil says, that this “pass the trash” phenomenon, where institutions transfer a destructive employee rather than deal with them, is not consigned to medicine.

Duntsch began his career at Baylor Scott & White in Plano, but after several of his surgeries ended in paralysis, permanent damage or death, as well as reports of him showing up to surgery inebriated, Baylor revoked his privileges.

“The one ‘Holy Cow’ I had, was when I learned from the (then) president of the medical board that, had [Baylor] properly notified them of what was going on … they could have suspended him on an emergency basis while they investigated,” she says. “If that

had happened, there are people who died who would have still been alive, because he would not have been able to immediately go somewhere else.”

Duntsch performed several surgeries and mangled more patients at South Hampton Community Hospital (now University General Hospital). He sliced through a man’s artery during a surgery at Methodist Hospital, and he left the sponge he used to soak the blood inside the patient when he sewed him up, causing a horrific infection. Duntsch’s reign of terror, reportedly, ended after that operation.

As recently as 2021, his patients were still dying. Jerry Summers, a primary subject of the Dr. Death podcast, and Philip Mayfield both were left paralyzed with compromised immune systems and died from infections, according to what Summers’ lawyer and Mayfield’s wife told respective local reporters.

Beil’s podcasts reveal that often hospitals do not report problematic physicians to governing boards such as the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), which is intended to flag them, because of costs associated with fighting and possibly losing wrongful termination suits.

Beil, a resident of Southern Dallas County who has continued to report on deadly docs, says her stories are not meant to reflect negatively on the profession.

“The vast majority of doctors are good and caring people who want the best for their patients,” she says. In fact, they are the heroes in the

Dr. Death cont.

Duntsch story because they filed complaints, made phone calls and testified against him.

“The thing you don’t want is to be the patient of the doctor who is the exception,” she says in one podcast episode. “We are limited in what we can find out about a doctor, but a skepticism of a doctor you don’t know is not a bad thing.”

If there’s an overriding good thing about getting this story out there, she says, it is that people will take that extra measure, to the degree that they can, to protect themselves.

In 2021, Duntsch became the first doctor to be convicted of a crime committed in the operating room during the act of surgery.

While awaiting trial, Duntsch was arrested trying to walk out of the Walmart at Northwest Highway and Skillman Street without paying for $887 worth of sunglasses, watches, ties, briefcases, cologne and a pair of pants that he put on in the dressing room, according to a Dallas police affidavit filed on April 8, 2015

The Novus Health Scam

in December 2021, two doctors and a nurse helped a local hospice agency to scam Medicare and were sentenced to a combined 23 years in prison. Their crimes put patients at risk and allowed non-doctors to distribute dangerous medicine, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

At least one of those docs, Laila Hirjee, treated patients right here in our neighborhood.

Hirjee, who promoted her White Rock Trail practice on Google (now marked “permanently closed”), was convicted along with Dr. Mark E. Gibbs of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in their role as the medical directors at Novus Health Services.

The founder of Novus, a non-doctor named Bradley Harris, testified against his former employees after his own conviction months earlier.

MEDICARE FRAUD CASES SUCH AS THE NOVUS SCAM HIGHLIGHT THE IMPORTANCE OF INVESTIGATING HEALTH CARE FRAUD, FBI DALLAS SPECIAL AGENT MATTHEW DESARNO SAYS.

HE ENCOURAGES WORKERS AND THE PUBLIC TO REPORT ANY SUSPICION OF HEALTH CARE FRAUD TO THE FBI AT TIPS.FBI. GOV, 1.800.CALL. FBI.EXCEPTION.

He and other staffers who were not licensed to practice medicine determined treatment and dispensed drugs, Harris testified. They were able to do so because Drs. Hirjee and Gibbs essentially provided a pre-signed blank prescription pad on which Harris and others ordered highly regulated substances, such as morphine, hydromorphone and fentanyl, at will and without physician oversight.

“The doctors allowed Bradley Harris — an accountant with no medical expertise — to dispense controlled substances like candy,” Meacham said following the trial. “They claimed to have had hands-on experience with hospice patients, when in fact, they’d entrusted life-or-death medical decisions to untrained businesspeople. We are satisfied to know they will spend the next decade behind bars.”

The Case of the Tainted IV Bags

in June 2022, anesthesiologist Melanie Kaspar was feeling unwell. So the 55-year-old doctor grabbed a bag of what she believed was saline IV fluid from the Lake Highlands/Preston Hollow area surgery clinic where she worked, returned to her Lakewood home, got comfortable, and began filling her veins with the contents of the bag. A few hours later, she was dead. Investigators would learn that she died from toxic effects of bupivacaine, a local anesthetic that’s fatal when improperly administered. Investigators would also find evidence of the same drug in more IV bags at the clinic and more patients suffering complications. Fortunately, those patients were in a hospital setting where they were saved from Kaspar’s fate.

Her fellow anesthesiologist, Dr. Ray Ortiz, was arrested in September, suspected of tampering with IV bags at the clinic.

Criminal allegations against Ortiz are not evidence nor proof of guilt, notes the Department of Justice in a press release. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. Meanwhile, the Texas Medical Board has suspended his license.

As documented in court, clinic personnel identified more than 10 cardiac emergencies during otherwise unremarkable surgeries between May and August 2022,

and exclusively when Ortiz was in the room.

Ortiz is charged with tampering with a consumer product and with intentionally adulterating drugs. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

This isn’t the doctor’s first time in a courtroom. He was fined $3,000 in August 2022 in relation to a November 2020 incident in which a patient he was anesthetizing required resuscitation and emergency transportation to another hospital.

Ortiz also had relinquished medical staff privileges at North Garland Surgery Center for failing to disclose to the board a prior criminal conviction and arrest “for cruelty to a non-livestock animal,” according to the Texas Medical Board. In June 2016, a Collin County jury found Ortiz guilty of cruelty to an animal, for shooting and wounding his neighbor’s dog.

The motive, the jury decided, was retaliation after the neighbor testified against Ortiz at a protective order hearing and helped one of Ortiz’s domestic violence accusers escape his home. According to documents from the State Medical Board, Ortiz was arrested in 1995 over accusations of assault causing bodily injury to his former spouse.

Dying for Curves

woman known by her clients as Wee Wee operated a clandestine med spa in East Dallas where she offered black-market butt injections.

a

In 2015, clients hoping to attain Kardashian-esque curves could ask for the “Wee Wee Booty,” and, 24 hours before their appointment, she would send them the address, 3800 East Side Ave.

The amateur plastic surgeon, Denise Rochelle Ross (Wee Wee), and her assistant, Alicia Clarke, used material that was not safe to inject into clients’ bottoms.

Wykesha Reid, 34, did not survive an injection of silicone caulk, which prosecutors said entered her veins, traveled through her heart and was trapped in her lungs. Reid died in the clinic after lying down, saying she felt unwell. Her injectors left her “to rest” overnight and discovered her dead the next day, when Clarke frantically called 911, according to court records.

In 2017, Wee Wee and her assistant, Clarke, were sentenced to prison for murder in two separate trials. They were not doctors, but were practicing medicine without a license, according to police and court documents; thus their malpractice amounted to murder.

Police documents show Wee Wee was arrested at an Oak Cliff address shortly after they issued a warrant. She was sentenced to 60 years.

She was denied parole in 2020.

It is uncertain whether Wee Wee or Clarke administered the fatal injection. Each woman refused to testify against the other.

The dangers of pursuing the perfect rump are not relegated to the black market.

In 2017, a woman from Oklahoma, Rolanda Hutton, sued several cosmetic surgeons and nurses associated with the Dallas Plastic Surgery Center after she was left paralyzed following what she said at a press conference was a “botched Brazilian Butt Lift.”

The BBL procedure involves transferring fat from other areas into the buttocks. It’s both an in-demand and dangerous surgery, reports the New York Times . “The procedure has the highest mortality rate of any cosmetic surgery, but many women are undaunted,” the paper reported in 2021. In 2020 alone, there were 40,320 buttock augmentations, per the Aesthetic Society.

It’s common practice to move patients to unlicensed post-operative hotels after procedures — in Hutton’s case, The Cloister at Park Lane — but that is dangerous, her lawyers alleged. The defendants — doctors and nurses with offices in Lake Highlands, East Dallas and University Park among them — said, officially, that her claims are without merit.

Court records reveal no settlement reached at this time.

Phillip Todd Calvin

in the early 2000s, Dr. Phillip Todd Calvin was seemingly, living the dream.

His marriage hadn’t worked out, but he, his ex-wife and two children enjoyed an amicable relationship. He owned a gorgeous home in Lakewood, a Mercedes and a single-engine plane. At his private dental practice, he called himself “The Singing Dentist” because he was a baritone in the Dallas Symphony Choir.

But this man’s secret life made Doc Holliday’s look trite.

In February 2005, Calvin and six other men were arrested and charged with planning to visit Mexico to have sex with underage boys, FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller said at a news conference.

She explained how each man paid hundreds of dollars to an undercover agent at a fake travel agency to arrange encounters with children at what they believed was a pedophilefriendly bed and breakfast.

In phone calls and emails recorded

during the FBI investigation, Calvin suggested he might have had sexual contact with one local youth during his time in Dallas. There’s no evidence or allegations he ever abused any patients or his own children.

Calvin and the other convicted predators were members of the National Man/Boy Love Association, a group that advocated openly for reducing age-of-consent.

After Calvin was picked up in California, he pleaded guilty to federal charges and spent 24 months in prison. The last time he made news, in a 2009 Arizona newspaper story about sex offenders, he was registered as a “sexually violent predator.”

After the initial shock waned, his exwife, Darlene Ellison, told her own story to a local journalist and, later, Oprah — revealing how her children’s father had kept her entirely in the dark. She wrote a book in 2009 called The Predator Next Door. She is a public speaker and activist fighting for abused children and against pedophilia and predators like her former spouse, according to a press release from her publisher.

The Pill Mill Doc

two Dallas physicians and several co-conspirators ran a medical clinic near White Rock Lake. But rather than a place of healing, it was a front for distributing dangerous and addictive drugs, said U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña following a 2014 trial in which one of the docs, Nicolas Alfonso Padron, pled guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute a controlled substance. District Judge Barbara Lynn, a longtime East Dallas resident, ordered forfeiture of Padron’s house, two cars, a boat and several bank accounts, and sentenced him to 87 months in federal prison. That’s in addition to time Padron was already serving in an unrelated health care fraud case.

Along with co-defendant Jose L. Martinez, who was convicted in an earlier trial, Padron’s cash-only Padron Wellness Clinic amounted to nothing but a “pill mill,” a front for dealing opiates and benzodiazepine pills, Saldaña said.

The other co-defendants, including

non-medical staff, were “dealers” who would recruit “patients,” often from homeless shelters, and drive them in groups to the clinic, the prosecution said at trial.

Sometimes, Dr. Padron would see two or more patients at a time in the examination room. He diagnosed the majority with lower back pain and anxiety without regard to their condition. Once Padron issued the prescriptions, the co-conspirators would drive groups of patients to Urban Independent Pharmacy on Samuell Boulevard to fill the narcotics, most of which the co-conspirators would resell on the street.

The pharmacist, Lisa Hollier, also is serving time in prison for conspiracy to unlawfully distribute a controlled substance. In all, 17 defendants were convicted related to this pill mill case. The year of this case, according to the Department of Justice, opiates were responsible for about 115 deaths per day in America.

Delicate deeds

From left: Amy Dobson, Kathy Robinson-Hays, Jennifer Shrestha and Laura Pate of Brown Mountain Art Restoration.

Brown Mountain Art Restoration repairs more than objects

Story by RENEE UMSTED Photography by JULIA CARTWRIGHT

A12-by-4 painting hangs in Rudolph’s Meat Market in Deep Ellum, which was established by a member of the Andreason family in the 1880s.

Completed by an unknown artist at least 100 years ago, the painting depicts the Charles Bridge in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. It’s where the grandparents of Richard Andreason, the current market owner, were born.

The painting, which is displayed prominently in the Elm Street shop, had been in his great-grandparents’ house and then at the Czech Center of Dallas.

But not long ago, it was in completely different shape.

Andreason reunited with childhood friend Laura Pate, who owns Brown Mountain Art Restoration, at a funeral service. He needed her help.

When Pate saw it, the painting was sitting on its side, a corner of the canvas hanging down like a curtain. It took over two months for Pate and her team to repair the stretcher bar, clean the surface and fix a few tears.

“That’s the way we are in Lakewood and East Dallas. We just support each other,” says Justine Andreason, Richard’s mother. “And that’s the first person we thought of, was Laura, when the painting needed to be hung in what we feel like is the proper place, which is our market.”

Brown Mountain Art Restoration was founded by Libby Brown. It moved from its original location near Fair Park to its current spot in 1985, and it’s now one of the oldest shops on N. Henderson Avenue.

Since Brown retired around 1999, the business has been in Pate’s capable hands. And even before then, Pate says it was basically common knowledge that she had the skills and authority to run the operation.

Pate, who attended Lakewood Elementary, J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School, had always been interested in art. Her mother was an archaeologist, and her father was a documentary film writer. It wasn’t a surprise when she graduated from the University of Texas with degrees in art history and studio art with a ceramics concentration.

She moved back to Dallas and started waiting tables at Blue Goose on Greenville while also selling her own art pieces. One day she drove past Brown Mountain, and her curiosity was immediately piqued. She went inside and asked for a job.

“I was a starving artist,” she says. “Anything with the word ‘art’ in it, I was like, ‘Hey, what’s that?’”

Pate didn’t get an offer right away, but her persistence in asking for work paid off. She started working at Brown Mountain part-time, gradually increasing her hours there while stepping away from Blue Goose.

Though she had a background in art, being a conservator came with new techniques to learn, such as replicating pieces and color-matching.

“You can be working on something in the morning, and then the light changes by the afternoon,” says Pate, who lives in Caruth Terrace. “And it’s like, OK, is that the right color,

or is this the right color?”

Artists at Brown Mountain work on a wide range of pieces and materials, such as ceramics, wood and glass, but not metal or paper. A job could be putting a broken porcelain object back together. It could be repairing a broken frame. It could be cleaning a canvas painting.

Their clients include insurance companies, designers, cities, moving companies, community organizations and private individuals. Pate helped restore cabinets at the Hall of State that were damaged when pipes burst during the freeze. She was also involved in repairing “Iggy,” a mosaic iguana by Carolann Haggard located at Grauwyler Park near Love Field Airport.

When a piece is brought to the shop, Pate and the three artists who work with her take some time to evaluate it together. They do a thorough inspection of the object before going back to the client with an estimate and options for repair. It makes sense that the process is collaborative from the get-go, as it can take all of them, each with her own specialties, to complete a project. At busy times, Brown Mountain could be juggling 15 commissions.

“We can usually make something look perfect, we can do a slightly visible repair, or we can just put the pieces back together — for maybe more sentimental pieces that may not have the value, and they don’t want to spend more than the piece is worth,” Pate says.

Brown Mountain handles both conservation and restoration.

Left: Along with Laura Pate, Amy Dobson, pictured above, worked on a restoration project of the ceiling mural at the Wilson Carriage House. Right: Laura Pate, the owner of Brown Mountain Art Restoration, says she loves putting broken pieces back together.

Conservation work is often requested for public art, and it requires making a piece look the way its creator intended. Restoration is less invasive, often the solution for museum pieces or those with historical significance.

Since the pandemic, Pate has joined the Texas Collections Emergency Resource Alliance. She provides advice to cultural institutions and members of the public when disasters strike, helping them decide how to salvage or repair damaged pieces.

Working at Brown Mountain is not just about fixing objects, though. In repairing them, Pate says she also helps fix relationships, learning from her clients the stories behind the damage, and it becomes kind of therapeutic.

“I think that’s probably my favorite thing about this place — the connection between art and history and relationships and family,” she says. “That’s kind of on this smaller scale, when we work on these little pieces. Now the bigger pieces are cool too, like sculptures and things, because I think those bring the community together.”

By PATTI VINSON

Our friendly neighborhood handyman

Can he fix it? Yes, he can

Call beloved neighborhood handyman Bill Huff, and you know your squeak, drip or flicker will soon be repaired. But what you likely don’t know is his long and winding history in East Dallas that ultimately set him on the fix-it path.

He knows this part of town well, and it was here where he developed a work ethic and learned how to fix darn near everything. Growing up in the Casa View area, he was raised by hard-working parents, a dad who toiled as a mechanic and a mom who worked as a nurse. They taught him the value of self-reliance, repairing and reusing.

“They both lived through the Depression and left to their own devices to repair or improve what needed to be fixed,” he says. “Being fairly able bodied and available, my father, my uncles, just about anyone who needed a hand doing something used the term ‘hey kid,’ and the next thing I knew I was loosening a drain plug on someone’s car engine or climbing up a ladder to cut off a hanging limb. I was taught all sorts of tasks and taught to do them correctly,” Huff says. “Fixed things were to stay fixed.”

Because he never received an allowance, Huff started his first job at the age of 9, helping the janitor at his elementary school clean restrooms and classrooms. He earned the princely sum of $3.50 per week.

But it was enough for his 9-yearold lifestyle. With a pocket full of money, Huff and friends spent every weekend on an adventure in downtown Dallas, riding the bus from his

home on Myrtice Drive to Main Street for 13 cents, catching a movie for a quarter at The Palace or The Majestic, and shopping at H.L. Green’s Five & Dime. And there might have been a few times when he and his buddies were kicked out of “every department store downtown,” apparently unwelcome guests when unaccompanied by parents.

During his years at Bishop Lynch High School, he worked long hours seven days per week at the Adams Pharmacy lunch counter, bussing tables and doing kitchen prep and fry cook duties after school and on weekends.

In between all his regular jobs, Huff was learning about auto mechanics from his father, roofing from his grandfather, plumbing from his

uncle and electrician skills from a summer job. He also picked up various home repair and remodel trades here and there — drywall, wallpapering, painting and others.

After graduating from high school — Bishop Lynch’s first graduating class, by the way — he enrolled at Stephen F. Austin State University but left after a year because it just didn’t suit him.

The Vietnam War rolled around, and Huff decided the military might be just the thing, despite his vehement opposition to the war, no doubt influenced by his reading of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance , as well as his own research from reading Newsweek , Time and other magazines at the library.

When he explained to an Air Force

Bill Huff, 73, never works on homes north of Mockingbird Lane. Photography by Jessica Turner.

recruiter that he had no interest in guns or killing, he was assured the military had other jobs for him. But it was not to be; health issues put the kibosh on his enlistment.

What followed was a series of jobs, mostly for paint companies. He also owned a pizza franchise for a while and sold musical instruments, though he laughs, “I don’t know a G note from anything.”

In 1983, Huff decided to strike out on his own in the repair and remodeling business and soon found plenty of commercial and residential work. But over time, he dropped restaurants and apartments for old-fashioned handyman jobs for homeowners.

Semi-retired for the last 10 years or so, he enjoys the luxury of being persnickety about his customers (he prefers older types, closer to his age of 73) and where he is willing to travel for his work.

“I’ve stopped going north of Mockingbird Lane,” he says, only half-jokingly. “I love the older, wiser, more interesting company.”

Huff favors the lovely old homes gracing our area, a plethora of Tudor, Craftsman, Prairie and Spanish Colonial structures.

He’s highly regarded and always busy.

“I don’t advertise nor am I seeking any new customers,” he says. “I seem to stay as busy as I want to be without doing that.”

Referrals come from suppliers, namely Lakewood Ace Hardware, as well as tradesmen and friends. He tests the waters by chatting with a potential new customer.

“A pleasant initial conversation means a lot in determining if I might work for someone,” he explains.

With the elderly especially, he’s careful to tend not only to the drippy faucet or flickering lamp but basic safety features. He makes sure his customers have smoke alarms and grab bars and looks for hazards such as rugs on slippery floors, overloaded sockets and flammable materials near water heaters and furnaces.

Over the years, he’s tackled nearly every task, from complex remodels to no-brainers.

“I’d hate to count how many times I’ve gone to check out a light not working, only to change the light bulb,” he says.

He’s also patiently dealt with, ahem, difficult types.

“One time, a buddy and I painted the outside of a house three times, one after another, because the owner didn’t like the colors she had selected,” he says.

Finding solutions is immensely gratifying to him. Naturally, he finds some jobs more rewarding than others and waxes almost poetic about them — mortising wood, fitting pipe, cutting in paint with a brush or hanging wallpaper, for example.

“Putty glazing wooden windows on a cool day when the glazing doesn’t get too warm and become too soft to tool is actually relaxing for old men like me,” he says.

His stellar work and affable manner with customers

endear him and has resulted in unexpected perks. Over the years, his customers have surprised him with tamales, new suits, concert tickets, furniture and an open invitation to use a mountain cabin.

And books, lots of books, many from SMU professors who are longtime customers.

“History is my favorite subject, and it’s good to know history professors,” he says. “I get free lectures and book recommendations while working for them.”

No slouch himself, Huff is a history professor disguised as a handyman and can deliver a lecture on Theodore Roosevelt just as easily as Plumbing 101. Get him started, and he will happily talk your ear off about his latest read.

As Huff drives around East Dallas, he frequently sees his work still holding up, even decades later.

He has met and developed good relations with licensed, fair, professional tradesmen, and he sometimes refers his customers to

ment from time to time. He’s been working since he was in elementary school; maybe it’s time to rest. But he says he worries. Who would take care of his customers? Would they be dealt with honestly?

And he says he would miss one particular thing from his customers.

“It may sound hokey,” he smiles, “but that smile on their face, that customer satisfaction.”

Bringing lifelong learning to

CC Young and The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (“OLLI”) at the University of North Texas have partnered to offer a variety of non-credit courses at The Point. If you are age 50 or better, you can:

• Learn from curated UNT faculty

• Choose from more than 350 courses (in person and online!)

• Enjoy no homework, no tests, no grades!

CC Young offers complimentary OLLI memberships for its residents, Terraces Priority Members, and Point Members. Separate memberships are available, too! Join us for lifelong learning at its finest.

For more info, call 214-251-4282 or visit olli.unt.eduForest Hills Realtor &

One of the best Advocate's for our neighborhood.

By BESTSY SWEENTBERG

Happy new year

Reflect on the past, and embrace what’s ahead

“N

ew year. New you.”

The start of a new year brings endless possibilities for businesses to pedal this message to us, promising that the simple turn of a calendar page can erase all that has been and usher in all that we imagine for ourselves, be it health, wealth, achievements, you name it. While I lov e the sentiment of grasping possibility and heading enthusiastically into the future, I don’t like the suggestion that the past should be tossed, as if it was nothing more than a box of holiday treats that have gone stale sitting on the kitchen counter. New Year’s messages reek of “Don’t look back” subtext, and that’s unfortunate because you can’t appreciate the new without looking back.

Reflecting on the past is part of what makes Christmas so poignant for Christians. Jesus’ birth did make everything new. It marked a new year. It marked a new life for everyone who had been waiting and wondering if the promise of a Messiah was true. But Jesus’ arrival did not mean that people threw out memories of the past as quickly as they could. Instead, remembering the past was part of what made the birth so powerful. They remembered the past with honesty, recognizing how grim and dark things had been for so long. They remembered the broken relationships, dashed dreams, bleak political situation and senseless violence. They remembered how desperate they were for hope. And then they remembered the promise of a light shining in the darkness and the depths of their gratitude

only grew when they recognized that the Christ child had been born into such a dark world.

The promise of newness was not a promise to override all that had been — a light beaming so bright that darkness and memories of past darkness, would cease to exist. The promise of newness was and is a promise that even in the dark, light can break through.

Instead of embracing, “new year, new you,” what if we embraced, “new year, new light”? What if we started this year with confidence that we don’t have to discard our past to receive new hope and new possibility? What if we reflected honestly on the things that make us want to abandon the past so we’re capable of recognizing newness when it comes instead of trying to manufacture a future without memory? What if we resolved to face the darkness of our lives and our world expecting to see light no matter how faint the glimmer? Light shines in the darkness. If we begin this year trusting that light will arrive to even the darkest places of our lives, then I imagine we’ll find newness that can’t be bought with a gym membership, a beauty regimen, a technological gadget or a meal plan.

New year. New light. The light shines in the darkness if only we have eyes to behold it. It’s a happy new year, indeed!

BETSY SWETENBURG is pastor of Northridge Presbyterian Church and a regular contributor to the Advocate’s Worship Column. To help support the Worship Column, email sales@advocatemag.com.

WORSHIP

BAPTIST

WILSHIRE BAPTIST CHURCH / 4316 Abrams / 214.452.3100

Open to all / Worship at 11 a.m. Sunday School at 9:45 a.m. / wilshirebc.org

LUTHERAN

FIRST UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH (ELCA) / 6202 E Mockingbird Lane

Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am / Call for class schedule. 214.821.5929 / www.dallaslutheran.org

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

LAKEWOOD FELLOWSHIP / Sundays 10:00 am / White Rock YMCA / 7112 Gaston Ave

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TH ELECTRIC Reasonable Rates. Licensed & Insured. Ted. E257 214-808-3658

WHITE ROCK ELECTRIC All Electrical Services. Lic/Insd.TECL-34002 214-850-4891

EXTERIOR CLEANING

G&G DEMOLITION Tear downs, Haul. Interior/Exterior. 214-808-8925

FENCING & DECKS

4 QUALITY FENCING • 214-507-9322 Specializing in Wood. YourWoodmaster.com

AMBASSADOR FENCE CO. Automatic Gates, Fences/Decks, Pergolas, Patio Covers, Arbors. AmbassadorFenceCo.com 214-621-3217

FENCING, ARBORS, DECKS oldgatefence.com 214-766-6422

LONESTARDECKS.COM 214-357-3975 Trex Decking & Fencing, trex.com All Wood Decks, Arbors & Patio Covers

GARAGE SERVICES

UNITED GARAGE DOORS AND GATES Res/Com. Locally Owned. 214-251-5428

GENERAL CONTACTING

A2H GENERAL CONTRACTING,LLC Remodel, Paint, Drywall/Texture, Plumbing. Electrical, Siding, Bathroom/Kitchen Remodels Tilling, Flooring, Fencing. 469-658-9163. Free Est. A2HGeneralContactingLLC@gmail.com

GLASS, WINDOWS & DOORS

LAKE HIGHLANDS GLASS & MIRROR frameless shower enclosures • store fronts replacement windows • mirrors 214-349-8160

PRO WINDOW CLEANING prompt, dependable. Matt 214-766-2183

ROCK GLASS CO Replace, repair: windows, mirrors, showers, screens. 214-837-7829

HANDYMAN SERVICES

BO HANDYMAN Specializing In Historic Home Renovations & Pro Remodels. Custom Carpentry, Doors, Kitchens, Baths & more. 214-437-9730

DANHANDY.NET Repairs Done Right For A Fair Price. References 214-991-5692

HANDY DAN The Handyman. ToDo’s Done Right. handy-dan.com 214-252-1628

HANDYMAN SPECIALIST Residential/ Commercial. Large, small jobs, repair list, renovations. Refs. 214-489-0635

HANDYMAN WANTS your Painting,Repairs, To Do Lists. Bob. 214-288-4232. Free Est. 25+yrs exp.

HOME REPAIR Doors, Trim, Glass. Int/Ext. Sheetrock, Windows, Kitchen, Bathroom 35 yrs exp. 214-875-1127

HOMETOWN HANDYMAN All phases of construction. No job too small 214-327-4606

ONE CALL WEEKEND SERVICES Contractor & Handyman. Remodels, Renovations . Paint, Plumbing, Drywall, Electrical. 469-658-9163

HOUSE PAINTING

RAMON’S INT/EXT PAINT Sheetrock, Repairs. 214-679-4513

TOP COAT 30 Yrs. Exp. Reliable. Quality Repair/Remodel. Phil @ 214-770-2863

VIP PAINTING & DRYWALL Int/Ext. Sheetrock Repair, Resurfacing Tubs, Counters, Tile Repairs. 469-774-7111

KITCHEN/BATH/TILE/GROUT

FENN CONSTRUCTION Full Service Contractor. dallastileman.com 214-343-4645

MELROSE TILE James Sr., Installer, Repairs. 40 Yrs. Exp. MelroseTile.com 214-384-6746

TK REMODELING 972-533-2872

Complete Full Service Repairs, Kitchen & Bath/Remodeling, Restoration. Name It- We Do It. dallas.tkremodelingcontractors.com

LAWNS, GARDENS & TREES

#1 WHITE ROCK TREE WIZARDS Professionals, Experts, Artists serving Dallas 15 years.Trim, Removals. Tree Health Care services. Insured. Arborwizard.com. Free Est. (972) 803-6313.

A BETTER TREE MAN Trims, Removals, Insd. 18 Yrs Exp. Roberts Tree Service. 214-808-8925 Lawns, Gardens & Trees

LAWNS, GARDENS & TREES

HOLMAN IRRIGATION

Sprinkler & Valve Repair/ Rebuild Older Systems. Lic. #1742. 214-398-8061

MAYA TREE SERVICE Tree Trim/Remove. Lawn Maintenance. Resd/ Commcl.Insd. CC’s Accptd. mayatreeservice.com 214-924-7058 214-770-2435

MONSTER TREE SERVICE DALLAS Certified Arborists, Fully Insured 469.983.1060

NEW LEAF TREE, LLC Honest, Modern, Safety Minded. 214-850-1528

PAT TORRES 214-388-1850 Lawn Service & Tree Care. 28 Yrs. Complete Landscape Renovation. New Fence Install & Brick Repair. Concrete Removal and Gutter Cleaning.

RED SUN LANDSCAPES • 214-935-9779 RedSunLandscapes.com

TAYLOR MADE IRRIGATION Repairs, service, drains. 30+ years exp. Ll 6295 469-853-2326. John

WALTON’S GARDEN CENTER Stop in for home decor, candles, house plants, succulents and more. It’s time to plan for spring. Call us for design, prep and plantings! 8652 Garland Road 214-321-2387

PEST CONTROL

NATURE KING PEST MANAGEMENT INC. Squirrels, Racoons, Skunks, Snakes, Possums, etc. Pest & Termite. Neighborhood Resident 30+ Yrs.exp. 214-827-0090 "Keeping Children & Pets in Mind"

Termite Specialist - Mosquito Mister Systems Licensed · Insured · Residential · Commercial · Organic 214-350-3595 • Abetterearth.crw@gmail.com abetterearth.com

PLUMBING

AC PLUMBING Repairs, Fixtures, Senior Discounts. Gary Campbell. 214-321-5943

ROOFING & GUTTERS BERT

SERVICES FOR YOU

ELIMINATE GUTTER CLEANING FOREVER! LeafFilter, the most advanced debris-blocking gutter protection. Schedule a FREE LeafFilter estimate today. 15% off Entire Purchase. 10% Senior & Military Discounts. Call 1-855-402-0373

FREE HIGH SPEED INTERNET if qualified. Govt. pgm for recipients of select pgms incl. Medicaid, SNAP, Housing Assistance, WIC, Veterans Pension, Survivor Benefits, Lifeline, Tribal. 15 GB internet. Android tablet free w/one-time $20 copay. Free shipping. Maxsip Telecom! 1-833-758-3892

GENERAC Prepare for power outages today with a GENERAC home standby generator $0 Down + Low Monthly Pmt. Request a free Quote. Call before the next power outage: 1-844-334 -8353

HUGHESNET Finally, super-fast internet no matter where you live.25 Mbps just $59.99/mo! Unlimited Data is Here. Stream Video. Bundle TV & Internet. Free Installation. Call 866-499 -0141

MOBILE HELP, America's premier mobile medical alert system. Whether you're home or away. For safety & peace of mind. No long term contracts! Free brochure! 1-888-489-3936

PROTECT YOUR home from pests safely and affordably. Pest, rodent, termite and mosquito control. Call for a quote o rinspection today 844-394-9278

POOLS

CERULEAN POOL SERVICES Family Owned/ Operated. Weekly maintenance, Chemicals, parts & repairs. CeruleanPro.com 214-557-6996

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

C.A.S. BOOKKEEPING SERVICES

Personal/Small Business. Payroll, Accounting, Organizing, Consult. Cindy 214-577-7450

REAL ESTATE

ESTATE HOME NEEDS TO BE SOLD?

Facing forclosure? IG Heron Homes Call Ricardo Garza @ 469-426-7839

OFFICE SUBLEASE In Bishop Arts. Cool, Quiet. 1,179 Sq ft. 4 rooms + kit / bath, parking. $2,950 + NNNs. 713.302-7722.

REMODELING

BO HANDYMAN Specializing In Historic Home Renovations & Pro Remodels. Custom Carpentry, Doors, Kitchens, Baths & more. 214-437-9730

FENN CONSTRUCTION Kitchens And Baths. Call Us For Your Remodeling Needs. 214-343-4645. dallastileman.com

O’BRIEN GROUP INC. Remodeling Dallas For Over 24 Years www.ObrienGroupInc.com 214-341-1448

RENOVATE DALLAS renovatedallas.com 214-403-7247

TK REMODELING 972-533-2872

Complete Full Service Repairs, Kitchen & Bath/Remodeling, Restoration. Name It- We Do It. dallas.tkremodelingcontractors.com

MP ARCHITECTURAL Design & Construction. mattandpaul.com 214-226-1186

URBAN PIONEER REMODEL. Total construction & Remodel. 214-682-4564 urbanpioneerconstruction.org

SERVICES FOR YOU

ATTENTION HOMEOWNERS If you have water damage and need cleanup services, call us! We'll get in & work with your insurance agency to get your home repaired and your life back to normal ASAP! 855-767-7031

BATH & SHOWER UPDATES in as little as ONE DAY! Affordable prices - No payments for 18 months! Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & Military Discounts available. Call: 855-761-1725

DENTAL INSURANCE-Physicians Mutual Insurance Company. Covers 350 procedures. Real insurance -not a discount plan. Get your free dental info kit! 1-888-623-3036 www.dental50plus.com/58 #6258

DISH TV $64.99 For 190 Channels + $14.95 High Speed Internet. Free Installation, Smart HD DVR Included, Free Voice Remote. Some restrictions apply.Promo Expires 7/21/21.1-833-872-2545

DONATE YOUR CARS TO VETERANS TODAY. Help and Support our Veterans. Fast - FREE pick up. 100% tax deductible. Call 1-800 -245-0398

SAFE STEP North America's #1 Walk-in tub. Comprehensive lifetime warranty. Top-of-the-line installation and service. Now featuring our free shower package & $1600 off - limited time! Financing available. 1-855-417-1306

THE GENERAC PWRCELL, a solar plus battery storage system. SAVE money, reduce your reliance on the grid, prepare for power outages and power your home. Full installation services

VIVINT SMART SECURITY

Professionally installed. 1 connected system for total peace of mind. Free professional installation! 4 free months of monitoring! 1-833-841-0737

TUTORING/