Minding Your Mind Archives

Devon Horse Show edition: Survivor Kirstin Day back in the saddle, What’s new in 2019, Shop the show. Plus, Cryoskin is here (!), Picket Post Pickle, Swedesford update, Trace Ardmore, Ardrossan, new Wayne co-op & more

May 23, 2019 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

On June 1, Kirstin Rabe Day will return to the show ring at Devon.

It’s been a while.

Twenty years, in fact.

With her erect carriage, her spit-shined boots and gloved fingers, Kirstin will be the picture of equestrian elegance..

But beneath her finery, emotions will be churning.

I’m here.

I’m healthy.

I’ve made it back.

When she last competed at Devon, Kirstin, now 38, was a junior at Radnor High School. She won two ribbons.

Seven months later, she had to give up riding altogether, and with it, her beloved horse.

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Standing up to hate; Great Valley shocker; Paoli contractor busted; New café & empty nester homes to Tredyffrin & LOTS of retail comings & goings

November 1, 2018 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Hearts were heavy but heads were held high across the Main Line this week.

Hate would have no home here.

From Beth Chaim in Malvern to Beth David in Gladwyne, from the Chabad Center in Devon to Chabad Main Line in Merion, from Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy to the Perelman Jewish Day School, thousands gathered – somber and shattered, yes, but resolute in their response to the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

There would be no cowering in corners.

With growing unease, Jewish friends had watched the rising tide of hate on their home turf: the toppled tombstones, the scribbled swastikas, the bomb threats. But a massacre? In their own state? In a neighborhood not so different from Narberth? If hate could kill in Squirrel Hill, it could kill anywhere, right?

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Remembering Radnor’s Heidi Diskin: a life of caring, cut short by depression. Plus, Paoli’s billboard battle, Target fever, Kindred Collective Bryn Mawr, Ardmore murder news, Retail roundup, Etcetera & more

October 11, 2018 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

On Sept. 7, three days after her sons started the new school year at Radnor Elementary, Heidi Diskin ended her life.

She was 44.

We share this with you because Heidi would want us to.

“One hundred percent, she would want her story told,” said her husband, J.D., in a phone interview. “My hope is that what happened to Heidi can be a teachable moment. As terrible as this situation is, it’s an even worse tragedy if it doesn’t help others.”

To family and close friends, Heidi’s suicide was a sucker punch – a heart-wrenching coda to 20 years of pain.

To those less close, it seemed, well, inexplicable.

Because Heidi had made mental health advocacy and suicide prevention her life’s work. She’d started a brain health foundation, she’d spoken to countless groups, she’d even hosted a cable TV show about mental health. How could Heidi Diskin – of all people – have succumbed herself?

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Generation Vape: Why Juuling’s not cool; Horse Show’s huge move; Grim find at Philly CC; Fusion upends education in Ardmore & Malvern; Plus, new Grove 1.2.1 & Avery Graham Aesthetics; White Horse Design & more

September 20, 2018 / By Lisa and Caroline / /

Summer’s over and kids are back in school – reading, writing, and, increasingly, juuling.

Some are vaping right under our noses – on school buses, in cafeterias, bathrooms and bedrooms – using slick little Juul devices that look like harmless flash drives but are anything but.

Indeed, juuling is turning unsuspecting Main Line teens into nicotine addicts – one surreptitious, sweet-flavored puff at a time.

Seems even the “smart” kids are doing it.

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Julia Rae Schlucter: glamour & grit in the gifted girl next door; Radnor’s fab new library; Sweet spots, summer beauty fixes & sunny workouts; Ivory Tree & more

July 12, 2018 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

It would be easy to write about Julia Rae, née Julia Rae Schlucter, as yet another precocious Main Line talent.

We’d tell you she was performing in regional theater at age 6.

That she was recording original songs professionally by age 15.

That she’s been a featured singer in the 6ABC Thanksgiving Day Parade for eight years.

That she skipped senior year at the Academy of Notre Dame to pursue a music career in LA. That, still a teenager, she walked the Hollywood red carpet with Brooke Shields after one of her original songs was featured in a Shields movie.

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Carol Burnett pops into Paoli; New Tin Lizard in Bryn Mawr & Locust Lane Brewing; Talking teen depression with DMAX; Carson Kressley sighting and much more

April 11, 2017 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

A TV icon touched down in Paoli this week.

Shhhhhh.

Carol Burnett paid a hush-hush visit to overjoyed folks at Daylesford Crossing senior living Monday, charming one and all.

Nope, she didn’t know a soul there.

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The kids AREN’T alright: A Prep ’12 grad’s searing story; Bluefin in Bala (!); DELSETTE’s Ardmore debut; Willows update & LOUSY lax luck

May 18, 2016 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

If life-sucking depression has a Main Line face, surely it couldn’t belong to tall, athletic, bright and charming Drew Bergman.

But more and more, the 2012 St. Joe’s Prep grad who had everything to live for – but tried twice to end it anyway – has become that face.

His demons at bay, Drew now makes the rounds of area schools, one of 11 speakers for the Rosemont-based Minding Your Mind (MYM) Foundation.

In two years, he’s told his story 250 times – to your son or daughter, perhaps.

And he’ll tell the abridged version again this Thursday at the inaugural MYM fundraiser he’s organized, “A Celebration of Life: Philadelphia.”

When Drew speaks at schools, 15 to 20 students typically line up afterward, seeking a private word with the 22-year old who just gave a public face to the anguish they’ve long felt.

Who just told them it’s OK to speak of the unmentionable.

Who gave them warning signs and coping strategies.

Who bared his soul, shared everything, so they might, too – to someone who can help.

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