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By RAY DUCKLER

LLeanna Lorden has a diminished role when it comes to face-to-face meetings with students at White Birch Center in Henniker. She was promoted to chief operating officer last summer, shifting to an administrative role filled with meetings and phone...

By RAY DUCKLER

Chris Kane treated old trees like they were his grandparents.He respected old trees, protected them, made sure they lived full, rich lives.“He could identify any plant or tree and know if it was rare or endangered,” said Kane’s lone daughter, Hilary...

By RAY DUCKLER

Lynn Colby wants high school students to remember that it’s not too late to avoid a catastrophe that will forever alter the course of many lives.It altered Colby’s. Her brother, Skipper Kingsbury, got drunk and drove into a tree three days before...

By RAY DUCKLER

To the faster runners who had already crossed the finish line and the slower ones still on the course, the explosions heard in Boston 10 years ago Saturday could have been attributed to a celebration of some sort.Yes, they worried about something more...

By RAY DUCKLER

She marked the day each year by baking a cake and softly humming “Happy birthday” to herself, so her sons never heard.Meanwhile, the cake had frosting on it but nothing else. No swirls or stripes or flowers or candles, and certainly nothing about a...

By RAY DUCKLER

Mark Patterson of Weare had it all figured out.Fresh off six-years of service in the Navy, he’d then finish his business degree at what was then called New Hampshire College. He’d be a college graduate, the first member of his family to do so.He’d...

By RAY DUCKLER

Dean Wilber ignored the writing on the wall that he was too old to continue owning and operating Mapletree Farm in Concord.He did, however, notice the writing on a piece of paper, handed to him by his youngest son last December, and admits he wasn’t...

By RAY DUCKLER

Pat Bonenfant enjoys a challenge.She enrolled in college at age 47, three decades after graduating from Pembroke Academy. She was elected to the Pembroke Select Board in 1981, becoming the first woman in town history to hold that office.And now, after...

By RAY DUCKLER

Cassie Carey, a nationally rising star in hairstyling and design, wanted to blend in, be the commuter in New York City moving through the subways and Grand Central Station with GPS-like efficiency.“It was confusing when I first got there,” said Carey...

By RAY DUCKLER

Pam Smart, whose petition to have her life sentence reviewed and possibly commuted was rejected by the New Hampshire Executive Council three weeks ago, hasn’t given up on her bid to be released from prison.This time, Smart – convicted of masterminding...

By RAY DUCKLER

Before they arrived at his parents’ house in Deering, Jim Cowan warned his future wife that his mother and father were unique.Elizabeth waved it off as something unspectacular, a quirky trait that Cowan saw as embarrassing. Sure enough, though, the...

By RAY DUCKLER

She bought the dog harness two years ago, unsure if she’d ever use it.But Jeannine Robbins of Thornton knew that it was a good idea, that someday she might need one for her golden retriever, Appa. She never figured, however, that the harness would be...

By RAY DUCKLER

She sat in the grass and moved two fingers down the side of the granite marker, as though comforting her son with a gentle touch to his arm.She used the same care as she moved across the top of the gravestone, perhaps feeling his dark hair. Patricia...

By RAY DUCKLER

The Suncook Valley has no choice. The people there must play by Don Chase’s rules.Those are his chat rooms on Facebook, focusing on Suncook and the rest of the towns in that area. You’re invited to discuss all things Valley, but keep it nice, keep it...

By RAY DUCKLER

Two contrasting expressions surfaced during our 2019 coverage of homelessness, illustrating the sadness and hope that can accompany this issue.On one hand, we found Allie Eckersley, whose father, ex-pitcher Dennis Eckersley, is in baseball’s Hall of...

By RAY DUCKLER

For the human side to the story, Monday’s press conference at the Weare Police Department served its purpose.Officer Paul Lewis, his right arm totally bandaged beginning with his knuckles, was grateful he could celebrate his 28th birthday, seven days...

By RAY DUCKLER

More than once over the past five years, Greg Makris had mentioned his desire to leave the restaurant business and the grueling schedule that accompanied it, saying he was ready for retirement so he could spend more time at his second home in...

By RAY DUCKLER

The young woman with the familiar last name was seated in the Friendly Kitchen, her eyes focused on her cellphone, hidden under shoulder-length blonde hair.She’s homeless, short on money, her life stuffed into a knapsack, just like so many others who...

By RAY DUCKLER

Col. Kevin Jordan of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department couldn’t help himself.He had to start his eulogy for Scott LaCrosse with a joke. The one about modesty.At the church in Loudon, Jordan did his best impression of his former colleague,...

By RAY DUCKLER

For the second time in recent weeks, a select board member in Barnstead has resigned, and, yet again, those in attendance at the meeting grew angry, saying their voices were ignored while town officials handpicked a successor.The shocking exit by Sean...