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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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Filed Under: BUZZ, EAT, PLAY, SHOP, STYLE, Uncategorized Tagged With: Anthropologie, Ardmore murder, Bill Claypool, bipolar, Blue Gene Gala, Blue Octagon, Blue Octagon Too, Brigid Stasen, Bryn Mawr, Campli PHotography, Carla Zambelli, Catalyst Outdoor Advertising, CCC Sale, Center for Social Impact, Christina Carlin-Kraft, Circe, Clockworks, Community Clothes Charity, Dan Maxwell, depression, Devon Target, Devon Yard, digital billboards, DMAX Foundation, Eaves, Eaves Townhouse, Etcetera, Finneran Pavilion, flower walls, Haverford College polling place, Heidi Diskin, J.D. Diskin, Jordan PIncus, Kindred Collective, King of Prussia mall, Krissa Wichsser, Louella Boutique, Madeline Miller, Malvern Prep, Minding Your Mind, model murder, Nicol Floral Design, Nicol Segel, North Italia, Paoli billboard, Parlour, Parlour Ice Cream Ardmore, Pattye Benson, Radnor Fireworks, Radnor suicide, Revivalist Gin, Robin Halpern, Skinny Pizza Paoli, spotted lanternfly, suicide, surrey services, Target, Tredyffrin billboard, Tredyffrin Township, True Food Kitchen, Ventnor movie theater, Villanova, Wayne Target, William claypool

Heroin with a happy ending; MOMS Demand (gun) Action; Crowded schools; Bistro boomlet & weekend preview

October 5, 2017 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

What a difference a decade makes.

Hang out with the Tankels’ in their Malvern living room and you’d never know this observant Quaker family was nearly destroyed by drugs.

Teasing and cracking jokes, they clearly love being together. Like the “normal” Main Line family they weren’t – for six harrowing years.

Truly, if walls could talk, the Tankels’ home would scream: of stolen money and pilfered pills, of school expulsions and shouting matches, of multiple car crashes and surprise drug tests, of Visine and baggies, of trust faithfully extended and repeatedly betrayed. All of it fallout from Eric Tankel’s addiction to pot, to pain pills, and ultimately, to heroin.

Six of his close friends died from their addictions.

But Eric, thankfully, is very much with us.

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Filed Under: BODY & SOUL, BUZZ, EAT, PLAY, SHOP, SOUL Tagged With: Body X, Chadds Ford Winery, Cornerstone Bistro, Daylesford Abbey Art Show, Delice et Chocolat, drug addiction, drug rehab, Gateway Shopping Center, gun control, gun violence, heroin, King of Prussia wine garden, Kirkland's, Knauer Performing Arts Center, Lower Merion School District, Lumi Juice, Main Line Antiques Show, Malvern, MOMS Demand Action, Motherest, Paoli Blues Fest, Penn Wynne Elementary School, SAVVY event, school overcrowding, surrey services, Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, Uptown Speaker Series, What to Eat Now

New sexual abuse suit vs. Conestoga – most damaging of all? Plus, Tredici debuts, two Nova bars close in Bryn Mawr; Catholic ed back in Berwyn & much more

June 27, 2017 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

The Tredyffrin/Easttown School District is absorbing yet another fusillade – this one, an utterly explosive federal lawsuit that, in effect, blames Conestoga, its culture and staff for the months-long sexual abuse of a 15-year-old female student by 67-year-old TV studio aide Arthur Phillips.

Revolting.

To bolster its case, the suit details T/E’s “recent history of sex-related scandals”:

  • School aide/coach Christine Towers’ affair with a 15-year-old male student. Arrested exactly one year to the day before Phillips, Towers is in jail for her crimes.
  • The “No Gay Thursday” locker room hazing allegations that officials attributed to lax supervision.
  • The middle school sexting/cyberbullying charges.

The suit says the three scandals show a “pattern of deliberate and reckless indifference to signs of ongoing sexual harassment and sexual abuse” in the district.

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Filed Under: BODY & SOUL, BUZZ, EAT, PLAY, Uncategorized Tagged With: Ardmore, Ardmore restaurants, Arthur Phillips, Betsy Bartos, Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr Village, Catholic school, Conestoga High School, Devon, Devon Orthodontics, drug addiction, Erin's Pub, Haverford, Hummingbird yoga, Maloney's Pub, Recovery yoga, Regina Luminis Academy, RLA, sexual abuse scandal, St. Monica's, surrey services, teacher's aide scandal, Tredici, Tredyffrin-Easttown School District

SAVVY SOCIAL: LaBelle rocks Temple gala; Remembering Tricia Cuddy; Bryn Mawr Film, Surrey & Main Line Art Center galas; Kinney fashion show; Bag Bingo; Wynnewood wow home & more

May 5, 2017 / By Caroline O'Halloran / /

A record-breaking 1,100 people partied with Patti at Temple Auxiliary’s Acres of Diamond’s gala, raising $1.3 million for critical, life-saving care.

A sparkling night at the Please Touch Museum: Guests took a spin on the carousel and bid on silent auction items, then sashayed down a red carpet to dinner under a huge custom tent.

Star power: Two Main Liners! Emcee was Flyers’ anthem singer Lauren Hart, longtime pal of Lindy Snider, wife of Larry Kaiser and daughter of Flyers’ co-founder Ed Snider. Patti LaBelle sparkled in Philadelphia Eagles Kelly green. Her private concert brought down the house.

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Filed Under: Savvy Social Tagged With: autism awareness, Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, fashion, home decor, Louella, Main Line Art Center, Merion Cricket Club, surrey services, vintage cars

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