CHICAGO -- Twelve-year-old Junior Gonzalez walked into the living room and tightly hugged Rosa Valladares as she sobbed.

“Te quiero mucho mijo,” she told him.

“I love you too,” the boy responded in Spanish.

Just a few weeks ago, on Oct. 30, his mother, Esna Aracely Vásquez, 38, had died, leaving the boy forlorn and financially ...Read more

When the pandemic disrupted everything, it also thrust fathers into the home like never before. It was a moment that looked like it could bring some relief to working moms. Dads had the flexibility – and the desire – to take on more responsibility. Then, the world got in the way.

Back in 2020, while Lindsey Jackson and her husband Clarence ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Last Thanksgiving, Bev Gunnarsson and her husband followed public health recommendations and stayed home in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, for Thanksgiving rather than traveling to the New York area to visit their daughters.

For just the two of them, the couple cooked a 10-pound turkey — the smallest they could find. "We had so many...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Every Nov. 1, I engage in an unusual ritual. As soon as the Halloween decorations are down, I unleash a turkey on L.A. — and the world. Not a live bird but a gravy-colored knit chullo (a.k.a. an Andean ear-flap hat), crowned with a cartoonish-looking, Pilgrim-hat-wearing turkey, with flappy knit wings that bounce with my every ...Read more

DETROIT — Sixty Michigan children are now hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 — a 54% increase since Nov. 3, the state health department reported Wednesday.

"We are a little bit on edge at this point," said Dr. Rudolph Valentini, a pediatric nephrologist at Children's Hospital of Michigan. "We currently are managing. ...Read more

For many families, this Thanksgiving will represent a return to normalcy, thanks to COVID-19 vaccines.

But for some parents, the holiday presents yet another dilemma: Should they gather with friends and family, given that children ages 5 to 11 will be only partially vaccinated by Thanksgiving, and younger kids won’t be vaccinated at all?

...Read more

On Oct. 30, Harry Cunnane, the middle son of U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Pa.), celebrated his ninth year of recovery from addiction. To mark the occasion, Inquirer reporter Rita Giordano sat down with Cunnane and Dean to discuss "Under Our Roof: A Son's Battle for Recovery," a Mother's Battle for Her Son, their harrowing, joint account of a ...Read more

“I can only expect my son to respect me as much as I respect him,” said the mother to the “parenting expert.”

In a sense, that’s true, albeit this mom’s definition of respect hardly lines up with that of said expert. She refers, obliquely, to an egalitarian relationship in which the two parties are on a level playing field. It’s a...Read more

While the country is divided over COVID-19 vaccines — and Florida lawmakers plan to pass laws to undermine federal mandates — another ominous problem is going largely unnoticed: Routine immunizations for children, required under state law for school attendance, have fallen during the pandemic.

That means fewer children immunized for ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Shelly Ward-Moore was going through her email on June 16 when she got to The Inquirer’s morning newsletter. The subject line that day was, “Can you help her find her biological parents?”

Believing the line referred to an event that happened this year, Ward-Moore tried to delete the email, but for some reason, she couldn�...Read more

PITTSBURGH — When Katelyn Collins spotted a Harry Potter costume in August, she envisioned how perfect a lightning bolt would look peeking out from beneath her 7-year-old son’s Harry-like dark brown hair on Halloween night.

But the mental snapshot faded quickly as she inspected the costume for far more important qualities than looks.

She ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Joel Gottfried's relatives never know what to get him for his birthday.

That changed a few years ago, when Gottfried began researching his family tree. He started with his father's parents — Jews who fled hardship and persecution in Europe — and managed to document, in minute detail, their arrival at Ellis Island. He loved ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Pamela Mack Jr. has spent much of the last two years launching a grassroots community organization she calls A Million Minds March. She's planning a spring gala fund-raiser to help raise money to buy a building from which she wants to provide mentoring, job training, and grief counseling for young people from parts of ...Read more

CHICAGO — A bouquet and votive candles with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe sit near the wedding portrait of Gardenia Rangel’s parents on a small table in the living room of their old home.

The electric candles haven’t been turned off since her mother and father both died of COVID-19 last February. Every so often, Rangel plays mariachi...Read more

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jason Browning's 10th marathon will be extra special this year.

As he lines up to run in the Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus Marathon on Sunday, Browning's running bib will have his race number, but instead of his name, it will simply say "Nora's Dad."

And at the 7-mile marker, there will be signs bearing his 3-year-...Read more

Before Tyler Blaylock died of COVID-19, his mom said he wished he had been vaccinated against the coronavirus. Tyler’s family wishes that, too.

He died following his bout with COVID-19 on Sept. 16 at the University of Kansas Health System - St. Francis Campus in Topeka, Kansas.

Tyler tested positive for coronavirus on Aug. 16, WIBW reported....Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — With Pfizer officially requesting emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, the process has started for the company’s COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized for children ages 5 to 11.

Currently, the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for emergency use only in those age 12 to 15. It received full approval from ...Read more