Thousands of miles from home in the comfort and relative safety of his Canton apartment, Dr. Hassan Aboukhater cannot seem to sit still. Gathered in the family room with his wife, Noor, and his two youngest children, 17-year-old twins Matthew and Jude, he moves about the space frequently, changing his seat on more than one occasion. He is friendly and talkative, but also restless, his heart still transfixed on the world he left behind in his native Syria.
Black Lives Matter — the Twitter hashtag that became a call to action and eventually a fully realized movement with 23 chapters across the U.S. and abroad — recently became the talk of the town in Canton after a sign bearing those three familiar words turned up on a downtown street corner last week. Within […]
His name is hockey royalty around these parts, but Kevin Rooney has played his way onto the throne. Only five years after delivering Canton High School its first state hockey championship and three years removed from winning a New England prep school title as a member of the Berkshire Bears, Rooney has done it again […]
Editor’s note: The names of two interview subjects have been changed to protect their privacy. It has ravaged families across the region and ripped away loved ones in the prime of their lives. It cuts across all racial, gender, and socioeconomic lines and has found its way into every corner of the state, from the […]
It has invaded Facebook feeds and captured hearts from coast to coast. It has united pro athletes and politicians, soccer moms and CEOs, and it has raised millions of dollars and much-needed awareness for an incurable and devastating disease. It is the now ubiquitous “ice bucket challenge” to strike out ALS, and it has taken […]
The story below originally appeared in the Canton Citizen on November 27, 2013. The Citizen republished it this week in honor of George Sykes, a longtime Canton resident and World War II veteran who passed away on Saturday at the age of 97. (Click here for obituary) *** At 94 years of age and part […]
It was a morning of solemn reflection but also one of redemption and hope as a small group of community leaders gathered at St. Mary’s Cemetery last Thursday to honor the life and legacy of Shaun Ouillette, the young man who was brutally murdered by a fellow Canton High School classmate 26 years ago. Held […]
Last month, on a pilgrimage with three lifelong friends to the Marian apparition site at Medjugorje, Jean Kelleher, a veteran teacher at St. John the Evangelist School, finally received the sign from God that she had been hoping and praying for ever since her cancer diagnosis in April 2011. There, under a red-orange sunset surrounded […]
On a Friday evening in early March, self-proclaimed “homebody” Debbie Hildred took her seat at a Watertown restaurant for a rare night out with friends. A short while
On the morning of last month’s big celebration and fundraiser that her friends and family had planned in her honor, Jean Sicard Kelleher suddenly found herself overcome with emotion and harboring serious doubts as to whether she was actually going to make it through the entire event. Kelleher, a veteran schoolteacher who was used to […]
