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By LISA SPEAR

Jenny Marshall of Leverett leans back in what looks like a fancy lawn chair while a woman kneeling in front of her is cradling Marshall’s feet in her hands, buffing away at her toenails, rubbing away the cracks in her heels and scrubbing her calluses....

By LISA SPEAR

There are no church bells. There is no steeple. Leticia Figueroa, 25, is wearing a white dress, but that’s the only thing that’s typical about her wedding day.She’s on the side of a busy the road, at the end of a dirt driveway, in Belchertown,...

By LISA SPEAR

When Catherine Ames, 47, of Northampton steps out of the infrared sauna, the skin on her face is glowing and clear, much different, she says, than it looked a month ago.Before she started her 30-minute sessions each week at Thelo Home & Modern...

By LISA SPEAR

Michael Kittredge, founder of the Yankee Candle Company, is seated onstage in a wheelchair in Leverett, keeping time with one hand on an electric snare drum while the band around him plays the song “No Time” by The Guess Who. His foot pumps the drum...

By LISA SPEAR

When Dusty Miller of Belchertown would pick up her cat Mary Clare, the kitty would wrap its little legs around her shoulders in a kind of hug. When Miller was sad, Bardsley, her other cat, would cuddle up to her.But two summers ago, both pets...

By LISA SPEAR

Sunlight streams in through the sliding glass doors as Lynne and Ron Dutton sit at their dining room table on a recent Saturday sipping cups of dark roast coffee, spiked with shots of liqueur. They can feel the room swaying, but it’s not because...

By LISA SPEAR

Despite the prevalence of tick-borne Lyme disease warnings in our area, avid outdoorsman Joe Larson, 74, of Pelham never worried. Ticks crawled on his arms and legs almost every day on walks in the woods behind his home – but when they bit him, he...

By LISA SPEAR

Millions of bacteria line the inside of our guts. We have more bacteria in our bodies than cells, and these little critters are working to help us break down and digest the food we eat —  without them we wouldn’t be able to survive — so it would seem...

By LISA SPEAR

The Pioneer Valley has one of the highest instances of breast cancer in the state, so it is especially important for women here to get screened, ideally in a comfortable environment. That is one major reason Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton is...

By LISA SPEAR

It’s a Monday night and Em Peyton, 59, of Putney, Vermont is in a room full of strangers in the basement of Forbes Library in Northampton where everyone is acting silly and laughing hard.Peyton curls her fingers into claws and bares her teeth as she...

By LISA SPEAR

Story, an enormous St. Bernard, lies down on Dennis Ashworth’s feet, as the 90-year old relaxes in his easy chair in his apartment in Amherst. The dog is panting hard, his long pink tongue hanging below his jaw.“He is going to drool on you and leave a...

By LISA SPEAR

Masseuse Nanci Newton of Hadley places a folded towel under Sue Monahan’s shoulder as she prepares her client for a massage.“Are you comfortable? ...Say uncle if you need to,” she says as she begins to work her hands across Monahan’s back. Newton uses...

By LISA SPEAR

Doug Adler opens his mouth as wide as he can and out booms his voice, “Ahhhhhhhhhh,” smooth and low like an a cappella baritone.He is a slender man, 68, with perfect pitch, but he isn’t in a recital hall, he is a Parkinson’s patient strengthening his...

By LISA SPEAR

Editor’s note: In this monthly column writer Lisa Spear indulges her sweet tooth by sampling desserts made at area restaurants.The bitter lavender flower isn’t an ingredient I would expect to find in a cream puff, so it caught me by surprise when I...

By LISA SPEAR

A Japanese maple tree with windswept branches leans to one side as if hanging off a mountain cliff —  but this tree has never seen high altitudes and the air here is mostly still.The tree lives in Jim Gipe’s backyard in Northampton in a shallow...

By LISA SPEAR

For me, there is nothing better than a hot serving of fries, doused in beef gravy.The fries, of course, must still retain their crispy integrity while simultaneously soaking up the savory gravy.Then, there must be globs of mozzarella cheese curd...

By LISA SPEAR

When polio swept the nation in the early to mid 20th century, Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton had a ward full of cribs for sick babies. Some children spent weeks in the hospital, behind glass, not able to touch another human being, survivors...

By LISA SPEAR

About a half dozen actors, wearing jeans and T-shirts, are hunched over, rearing their heads pretending to be unicorns as they gallop around the room full of spectators — most of them kids — in the Eastworks Building in Easthampton.Pam Victor, who is...

By LISA SPEAR

Aisha Russell is a blur of motion, her knees bent in a semi squat, her feet taking tiny, quick steps, as she darts from side to side. Arms raised in front of her, elbows bent, too, she makes circular motions with her hands as if she is washing a...

By LISA SPEAR

Air Force veteran John Paradis’ snoring stutters like a chainsaw before he stops breathing.Paradis, 53, of Northampton gasps for air, choking back to consciousness after his airways collapse over and over again throughout the night. He is fighting to...

By LISA SPEAR

Hard rock music is cranked up in the operating room and the lights are dimmed. The patient, Eileen Conway, 63, is not conscious. Only a square of her stomach is exposed. The rest of her is under a sterile, blue gauze-like fabric.This is the start of...