On March 27 in Clintondale the home of Theresa and Brian Korzeniecki had a fire that killed Theresa Korzeniecki because of smoke inhalation. Her husband, Brian, and children Brian and Marissa were not at home at the time of the blaze.

In response, the Highland community has come out in full support of the family raising $39,000 in six days in a gofundme, which was organized by Highland High School teacher Josh Tatum at his Facebook website. People can contact Mr. Tatum at his Facebook site.

This story tells so much about what a great and supportive community is. When things are tough, Highland comes through.

New Paltz is up in arms over deportation

New Paltz building contractor Luis Martinez, the owner of the Lalo Group, which employs 120 people, was born in Mexico, and came to the United States as a child, is being held by ICE, and possibly is being deported back to Mexico.

There have been a lot of protests in New Paltz, and there will be more. And after that even more. New Paltz is just the last community that is bewildered by the Trump administration. It will have a slow and biting hurt on New Paltz. It will be difficult to explain to the younger members of the community and to families, who attend mass at St. Joseph’s Church why Luis Martinez must leave, when his wife and children do not, as they, unlike him, are American citizens. For many, the Martinezes are family. They are not just a name in the town newspaper, they are real people.

This is a strange America that we are living in.

A Poughkeepsie murder story
The Poughkeepsie Journal is keeping track of the murder of Christopher Grover by his girlfriend and mother of their two young children. Nicole Addimando is accused of killing Grover with his gun and she admits to it. Ms. Addimando has the scars. bruises, and black and blue marks from Grover, who often beat her.

She told a story that I heard before from one of my former employees when she told the jury that, to cover up the beatings, she would make up stories such as she had tripped or fallen.

My former female employee said the same thing, For a while I did not understand how she kept falling and getting black eyes. Then she left him and he showed up at our office drunk. We called the police and they removed this yelling drunk. He drove drunk and had accidents. The second one killed him. I never ran his obituary in our newspaper, and no one complained.

Another story is about a female student at New Paltz High School, who married, and was beaten weekly by her husband. Her father told her that either she leave him or he would kill her husband.

I believe Nicole Addimando completely. She testified that she was frightened, scared and afraid of this man, who bullied and beat her, and she never knew when the next beating would come, but she knew it would happen.

You may know this story intimately and you will not share with anyone. For your own sake, please leave.

Josephine Palladino Rhodes, 101, dies
Very recently Josephine Palladino Rhodes of Highland, died at age 101.

She was the daughter of Michael Palladino, who lived to the age of 94, and Mary Constantino Palladino,who died at age 104. They had eight children, many, who lived to 90, including two, who are still living at 90, Eleanor Spagnola, 95, and Rita Behnke, 93. Last year their baby brother, Lindy Palladino died at age 90. Lindy’s wife, Peggy, is still alive at age 89.

Mary Constantino Palladino was the daughter of Dominic Constantino and Marie Constantino Scale and they lived to 90 and 92 years of age, which explains, why their children lived such long lives.

Lindy was a long time member of the Highland Fire Commissioners his family, including some of his sisters, could be seen yearly at the Hose Company’s chicken barbecue.

Palladino means “champion” in Italian. The Palladino family and also the Paladino family, all of which are one in the same, have had many family members, who are graduates of Harvard, Yale, RPI, the United States Naval Academy, SUNY Binghamton, and many other colleges.

New York State considered best for women
A recent study of the 50 states of the United States lists New York State as the best state for women to live in. Number two is California, followed by Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maine, Minnesota and New Hampshire. New York is ranked first in female earning percentage of male (88.6 percent) and 8th in percentage of management jobs held by women (41.1 percent)

A surprise is the worst of the 50 states: Utah. The bottom ten states are Ohio, South Dakota, South Caroline, Indiana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, Idaho, and Montana.

Sixty years ago for my mother, Adelaide McKinney, an important criteria was would men listen to her and her female friends. She would raise an issue at a New Paltz School Board and none of the all-male board members ever commented on anything she said.

She was at a Republican political gathering as she was a Republican. She spoke to our Republican Assemblyman, H. Clark Bell. She came home angry. He only listened to the men as she got the feeling that she did not exist. That fall he ran against a Democratic newcomer, Maurice Hinchey. I doubt if she voted for Bell and that fall, the Ulster County Republicans swept all but one seat. It was reported that Hinchey had upset H. Clark Bell.

As for the New Paltz School Board, she felt the architect it selected for a major school addition was incompetent. She preferred Bernard Guenther. Normally the building of a school or a major addition takes 10 months to complete. This addition took three years to finish. Every time the general contractor had a problem, and there were many, the contractor could not find the architect, and he lived in New Paltz.