This Month's Features

“We felt it would be much better if many, many more people in their communities were stepping up to the plate and becoming resources to kids.”

The hiking trail winds through a lush rain forest. Only a trickle of sunlight makes its way through the thick tree canopy above, from which a chorus of birds entertains with a symphony of song.

By the age of 18, Teresa Carson was married; by 21, she was pregnant with her son, Robert. “I grew up in a small town in the Midwest and that was what you did,” said Teresa Carson, 50, of Worcester.

An uphill climb can transport you from an Amazon-like jungle to an alpine woodland. Dry stretches of forest and pockets of verdant wetlands lie in the shadow of volcanoes.

Ideally, people would have long-term friends they can comfortably rely on not only for social friendship, but to assist them in time of need, especially when it comes to health emergencies.

In 1733, a Quaker named Amos Janney settled in an isolated corner of Virginia and built grist and saw mills beside a narrow creek. About a decade later, a group of German immigrants established a community in Maryland that became a resting place for pioneers driving wagon trains to the West.

David Davis remembers that November 1963 weekend as clearly as if it happened last month. “I remember everything,” said Davis, 60, of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the events that followed.

Whether from the deck or the sliding glass door in my cabin, there was always something to see, from steep vineyard hills and medieval castles to industrial plants.

Gone are the days when you’d need your own carpenter to install an access ramp to help someone with impaired mobility get up your steps.

Mention Chincoteague Island, Virginia, and you’re likely to be asked, “Isn’t that where those ponies are?” The answer is “yes.”