Her name was Megan Nieberle. CBS News released at first, so I am not breaking any confidences or being insensitive. She knew people that I’m friends with. I have known her name since this happened and I kept it to myself but now it’s out there along with an obituary.
She was a nurse at Children’s Hospital. she was a mom, a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a niece, a friend. I could go on, but you get the picture.
And she was a nurse, a natural caregiver. I have so much respect for nurses and she was a children’s nurse. She was a local Chester County girl through and through, having also been a proud graduate of Henderson High School in West Chester.
I have no pity or empathy for Steve Jahn who shot her. Random acts like this make me quite run out of the milk of human kindness.
And while I also understand per the other media reports about how it’s hard to 302 someone. I really feel Tredyffrin should’ve tried harder and I really hate anything that sounds critical of law-enforcement because they have such a tough job and we’ve already lost someone in law-enforcement at the same time in Chester County….at the same hospital.
I will also note to everyone again that there is an official obituary at this point. This is it:
There is also very rando stuff floating across social media. That is literally Clickbait that will probably infect your phone or your tablet or your computer. Please don’t click on them, but please do report those because they’re not being put out by the family. They’re being put out by ghouls.
Steven Jahn mugshot
So NBC10 and Deanna Durante said yesterday I think it was that Jahn’s friends were trying to contact police along with his own call Saturday a couple of hours before the murder of Megan Nieberle? NBC10 interviewed a couple different lawyers about it when I was a little confused about because I thought he was like education related law?
Megan’s life mattered. This also could be any of us. I spoke to a couple of people who are my friends who are in and around Berwyn. Both of these friends of mine had been out around a similar time frame and almost went down that road close to that time when the murder was committed.
Life is a fleeting and fragile thing, indeed.
Now let’s go back to what people told police about this guy was being like, and was he not known to the police for past behavior?
Online there have been many people commenting about situations even from within their own families where the police took someone’s weapon, etc.
I don’t know what else to even say at this point. I didn’t know Megan, but this could’ve been any woman on a dark and often too quiet road. and my opinion remains that this maybe could have been prevented.
My heart goes out to her friends and family. I will remember her in my prayers. Heaven gained another angel, who is there way before she should be.
RIP Megan Nieberle.
May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
May God be with you and bless you: May you see your children’s children. May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness From this day forward.
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home, And may the land of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on, May blue be the skies above you, May pure be the joys that surround you, May true be the hearts that love you.
I haven’t written about this yet, but started now. I think I needed to sleep on it some more because I found this so profoundly upsetting and disturbing .
First up: a wrong place, wrong time. A woman in Berwyn murdered by an out of his mind lunatic….whom police had dealt with just a couple of hours before he shot this woman. This was a mom. She was a sister. She was a friend. she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time when someone decided to have a psychotic break. I hope they lock that guy up for a really long time.
According to the timeline laid out, Tredyffrin Police HAD Steven Jahn IN CUSTODAY earlier that evening and perhaps if they had kept a hold of him, this woman might still be alive?
It also speaks to the need for mental health evaluations to be added to requirements for carry permits etc.
I hate to refer to her as just “a woman” or “this woman” but out of respect for her family I am while they try to adjust to something anything but normal.
This woman is known to friends of mine. I have woken up thinking about her these past couple of days. This was about a quasi homeless man on a psychotic break and maybe some sort of substance abuse (who knows?) who murdered a woman who will never wake up again to see the sun rise or take joy in her family, smile at her kids, go for a walk, kiss her husband goodnight. This is a woman with kids and a husband who have to try to make sense of something utterly senseless.
And this piece of crap who shot her? Here is the police comnplaint thingy:
Now was Jahn truly homeless or unhoused? He went to Conestoga and supposedly grew up around Midland in Berwyn? People I spoke to indicated he had lived in Florida, New Jersey, and Maryland before coming back to PA in the beginning of the year? Someone said he had been at some place called the “French Creek Inn” which is some sort of no tell meets meets flop house in East Pikeland? Did anyone check that out? I never heard of that place and someone said it actually came up recently at an East Pikeland meeting?
Anyway, this guy was picked up with his guns at his cousin’s house on Conestoga Road? Look at him? Is that just a full mental break or something else as well? Why do I ask? Because I figured out WHY his name was familiar. 2013. Crazy car accident after hit and runs in East Goshen on North Chester Road. Like 3 hit and runs and his own car upended in the woods.
And next we go to the death of that poor State Trooper Corporal Timothy O’Connor. Fatally shot while performing a traffic stop by one Jesse Nathan Elks. This happened out in West Caln. Another guy who snapped who owned a gun. Elks then ate his own gun.
Timothy O’Connor leaves a wife, daughter, and other family like his beloved parents behind. I literally started crying at one simple comment on the Chester County District Attorney’s Office Facebook Page from his namesake father. All it said was “I love you son.”
So I can’t really find the social media of Jesse Elks but obviously they are out there somewhere because people are posting about it.
Screenshot
When you dig into Elks you find he fathered kids by two women, married one who later divorced him. He was living in a mobile home park in Honey Brook, not sure if it was the township or West Caln area. He seemed to me to be a POS with anger issues and a coward. He took the life of Timothy O’Connor and then killed himself depriving the State Troopers and O’Connor’s family of justice. At least the women who bore his children are free of him…and I hope his kids do okay through this as innocents in his act of murder.
So why did Jesse Elks have a gun?
Look I am not debating the right to own arms. I am asking when the f*ck are they going to add mental health evaluations to the ownership process? It’s the people with the guns doing the killing, so it’s a different conversation to the regular or more typical gun control conversation.
It’s like the fact that sometimes when people have these mental health breaks, law enforcement needs to confiscate weapons sooner, rather than later.
Corporal O’Connor and currently unnamed wife, mother, sister, friend both were taken to Paoli Hospital. What a terribly sad duty for those who work at Paoli. Two tragedies that were random acts of senseless violence. I hope they met on the way to heaven.
I am not particularly eloquent about these senseless acts and I so want to be because these two victims whose souls left their human form at Paoli Hospital deserve that….from all of us.
We live in an awful world right now that needs more happiness. Pray for these families and for these two people murdered through random acts of violence and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This could happen to anyone, and that is the most gut wrenching thought of all.
I close with what Timothy O’Connor’s mom posted. It was public. Mrs. O’Connor, I don’t know you either, but like the currently unnamed murder victim in Berwyn, we share people in common and I am just so damn sorry.
People, we need to strive for a better world. And heaven has two new angels way before they should have been there. And can we also put in a plug for Chester County officials to get a hospital back in the area of where the other two closed with a trauma center?
My parents always had interesting people whom they knew. They were raising us during a time where it was all corporate America all the time in the Main Line/Philadelphia area, and I appreciated all those f the different kinds of interesting people they knew as opposed to just the stiff corporate types. And one of those people was Dr. Donald Rosato.
Well known in equine circles, he also was very much of a quiet philanthropist that you could always count on attending a nonprofit fundraiser and so on. He was a familiar face at Devon, Radner Hunt, Ludwig‘s Corner Horse Show and much more. I also always used to see him in more recent years at benefits for Natural Lands, for example. In more recent years, my mother and stepfather would run into he and Judy at benefits for the English Speaking Union. I think the last time I saw him anywhere was a couple of years ago.
Dr. Rosato was a very congenial man. I was to his home a few times over the course of my life, and one time in particular it was after we went carriaging with him when my sister and her husband were newlyweds. He had given my sister a carriaging day as a wedding present.
I will always remember that afternoon, Chester County was a lot less developed then. Halfway through that afternoon, we stopped down a dirt road or path to have a little picnic at this 18th century stone cottage that he owned that had been restored somewhat, but it did not have modern conveniences. It was frozen in time and it was simply beautiful. That was in the 1990s.
And a thing about Dr. Rosato were his wonderful dogs, as well as his amazingly beautiful horses. I also loved his beautiful restored farm house and his collection of carriages. The only other collection I ever remember that would have even rival his was the one from even further back in my childhood owned by Mr. Gwinn in Gladwyne. But Dr. Rosato’s horses were always better.
Dr. Rosato is someone I never saw without a smile on his face, and he had this remarkable ability to remember people, even if he hadn’t seen them in years. He was also very quietly kind to people who needed kindness.
I learned this morning from a friend the Dr. Rosato passed away a few days ago. He was 90 years old. He has survived by his lovely wife, Judy and his children from his first marriage. He’s also survived by all of the people in the equine circles in Chester County that he was very much a part of.
He was a familiar face on many of the back roads in Chester Springs and West Vincent in his carriages. He didn’t just drag them out for Devon or special occasions, he was a regular fixture on local roads.
The last time I was invited to go carriaging was in 2017. It was at that point in time that I realized how much the entire area had changed and how people did not know how to safely go around carriages on the road.
As a matter of fact, one of the things I remember from that day other than the sheer awesomeness of being in one of his carriages driving around Chester Springs, were a couple of extremely rude drivers in cars.
Of course what used to amuse me were all the people that thought they could just call him up and say take me for a carriage ride. You had to be invited, and it was special. And when you went for a ride with him, you also got a little history of the area. He would tell you about the farms, the area, and the houses.
Main Line Today wrote an article about him a few years ago:
Habemus Papam. He is an American, was an Augustinian and a graduate of Villanova University. Leo XIV.
I honestly never thought in my lifetime that you would have a Pope from the United States.
He’s 69 years old and actually the sister of someone I know was in his class at Villanova.
I am not a big fan of members of the Augustinian order, but I liked what he had to say when he appeared after he was elected Pope by the Cardinals in conclave.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Prevost now Leo XIV dedicated his early clerical career to the Order of Saint Augustine. The media has reported that he was the least American of the American Cardinals. It has also been reported that he was a long shot.
The new Pope has a missionary focus, which I like, and I think is needed in this time.
Gifted New York Times Article
I hope Pope Leo XIV continues a lot of what Pope Francis did.
I also heard an interesting fact the other day that 82% of American Catholics do not go to church. I hope he also as Pope continues to clean up the American Church. And among other things, I hope he gets someone to put the anxious former head of the church in Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput out to pasture for good.
His one brother John was interviewed by ABC News. He seems amiable but unsure as what to say exactly but you know what? The lives of everyone in Pope Leo XIV’s family is also going to change. Will that mean they get things like Secret Service keeping an eye on them or do they just live normal lives? We’ve never had an American Pope, so you have to wonder how does becoming Pope affect the families of the Popes? Especially in a modern world.
His other brother Lou, however, is a cat of a different kind. Sadly.
I’m guessing that is why I have already seen some unpleasant memes from the highly politicized about the new Pope which I think is really sad.
This is kind of a historic moment and I hope he’s a good Pope. I don’t think he’s going to make me more of a devout Catholic per se, but as a catholic, I will be paying attention because he’s the first American Pope.
I hope his tenure is safe for him and his family in the US, and I wonder will he come to the US semiquincentennial next year?
And that is my final thought. Next year this country turns 250 and we have an American Pope for the very first time.
Oh hello dear readers! How are you today on this now cloudy slightly dampish Saturday?
Did you know that I live life in the fast lane?
It’s kind of a no, not really response, but I am once again, fascinated by people whom I choose to have nothing to do with being so fascinated with me.
First up this week was an important local meeting where I shared meeting information for residents who wanted to know the details of the meeting. So I provided the location, and the fact that they could access it on Zoom.
After I posted the comments started. Today when you give people the information they’re seeking and they say they couldn’t possibly make time for what they say is important to them. It’s their community, they expect change, yet they don’t want to participate where they live.
I literally said to one person that they could Zoom it, and I continued that you don’t have to have your camera on or your audio on. You can simply have the meeting on and the volume turned up so when it gets to the part that is of interest, you can come watch it. I literally do that a lot because no, we always don’t have time to go to meetings in person or sit and listen to an entire Zoom meeting. This person subsequently replied along the lines of wow what a privileged statement and how is that a privileged statement?
How is giving someone the meeting information they wanted and giving them their options a privileged statement? Or was it the fact that I said OK I was just providing the information, and said people make time for what’s important to them?
People in communities everywhere often demand to know what’s going on in their communities because heaven forbid they look at their municipal website. But when you give them the information they seek, they couldn’t possibly, they’re too busy, they have kids.
Again, my response is pretty simple. That’s their choice but people make time for what’s important to them.
Is this something I’m supposed to do for them? Or the ones who hold up the yellow flag for kids. Do they think they are the only people who have ever had children or worked while having children or had children and did other things?
Again, people make time for what’s important to them. And the ones who want everyone else to do everything for them, don’t like it when you point that out.
Next up was an unsolicited private message from a local politician, who also happens to be a lawyer.
Let’s begin it doesn’t take a genius to read an agenda. It’s pretty straightforward. These municipal agendas tell you what’s going on in a meeting and when they include a packet with documents that further explain what’s going on in a meeting it’s not so hard to interpret is it? I love it when you get the feels like but of course it’s not an intimidation message when you point out what’s happening at an upcoming meeting…. especially when said municipality has documents to back up exactly what is happening and they are all over their website if you know where to look so how does that work, please?
Then you have the social media circus that you have to wonder is this just being propped up by a particular gaslighting guru?
There’s also one person whom I don’t really talk about except once in a while to ask with genuine curiosity about the obsession with me and other local individuals.
When you encounter someone online, who seems dangerously obsessive, are you supposed to never ask questions about that?
I also can’t figure people out who who participate in the barrage of verbal diarrhea on social media who are mostly people that have been taken off of my blog’s Facebook page or something like that … all people I just simply choose not to be around even virtually on social media.
I really don’t get it.
And then there’s this whole thing about the fact that I am showing up on political platforms like I’m a candidate to defeat except I’m not running for office.
These extraordinarily damaged people literally sit on social media platforms and bash me and others like we are a Bravolebrity. Andy Cohen, where’s our bonus?
I did learn a new term today. Someone said I had TDS. I had no idea what that was so I looked it. it’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome. He’s kind of not my guy and I don’t actually talk about him a lot so doesn’t that actually apply to them because they love him so much?
And then there are the psycho assholes with casseroles types who say I’m an operative for the Democratic Party. What’s even funnier are the Democrats who say I am an operative for the Republicans.
These people? This is what they do all day, every day. And then they also send me private messages if I don’t respond to them on a particular social media platform.
These people have zero boundaries. I am not at their beck and call.
And at the end of the day I am still bemused by the fact that I’m still just one person so why are they so obsessed? And then you have these other people who totally rile these others up because they like to see me gaslit and disparaged. And they also actually like to see me threatened. And yes, law enforcement does keep an eye on this stuff in general, as in not for me, but because that is what they do.
I don’t actually know these people who have decided I am evil. I simply don’t want to interact with them. I’m just out here living my life yet they want to tell me and everyone else how we are supposed to live our lives. They want to tell us how we’re supposed to think and what we’re supposed to do. And if we don’t wish to interact with them? That’s simply not acceptable.
And then when they’re not getting enough attention, they will throw something out there like I’m talking about their families. If I am speaking about their families, it’s only in the context of a question as to who are they anyway?
People don’t have to like me and I don’t have to like them. But that doesn’t mean that they get to just sit and try to destroy everyone’s lives, including mine by claiming that’s what I’m doing. I believe the appropriate term is projection?
So today I was sent proof that West Whiteland Township is making good on their word to secure the historic Joseph Price House at 401 Clover Mill Road on the corner of S. Whiteford in Exton. West Whiteland Township has a property maintenance code that they enacted I guess within the last couple of years so it appears they went over and they had their public works board up the parts of the Joseph Price house that had basically deteriorated, rotted or were broken into. So the house is secure for now and I am told township/police are keeping an eye on it and isn’t that great?
Joseph Price House boarded up
I’m guessing that you all remember I wrote about this again recently right? It’s just when the urban explorers tell you a historic house needs to be boarded up, you know it’s bad, right?
That ownership tags back to a property in Ambler, but not the Borough of Ambler. Here’s an aerial shot of that house:
Interestingly enough, this is another old house and according to Montgomery County was built around 190 one. Sometimes they aren’t particularly accurate so it could be a little earlier and ironically close to the same period of the Joseph Price house correct?
Now the owner of record has lived there longer than 2002, actually the property dates back to being purchased in Ambler around 1985. Anyway, when you look at the aerial shot, you see all those old cars right? What’s so interesting? Is the old cars that West Whiteland has wanted them to remove off the Joseph Price house property, right? And does the Joseph Price house have anything weird on the roof?
So is that a sad coincidence the both properties appear to have old car corpses?
And there is one more coincidence. The Township Manager of Lower Gwynnedd is the former manager of West Whiteland and Tredyffrin. As the Saturday Night Live Church Lady would say, “isn’t that special?”
Also there is this lovely act in PA called Act 135. Could West Whiteland Township put the Joseph Price house into a conservatorship to save the house ?
This afternoon was the long awaited ribbon-cutting of the new West Whiteland Township Public Works complex on Valley Creek Boulevard.
It was a nice afternoon with members of the public and public works. Yes I was supposed to go…and I forgot. Life gets busy and I just plain forgot. Thanks to Bill Rettew of The Daily Local I have photos to share with everyone!
Congratulations West Whiteland Township!
Chair of the West Whiteland Supervisors Raj Kumbhardare provides remarks at the ribbon cutting ceremony. (Bill Rettew photo)
Hester Prynne. I bet most don’t know what I am referring to. Some will recognize the reference to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. And before I get into the crux of this post, allow me to reflect on why many wouldn’t understand the Nathaniel Hawthorne reference. The Scarlet Letter as a novel is about shaming and social stigmatizing of Hester Prynne. But do students even read this book any longer? Are they allowed to?
I wear my scarlet letter as B for blogger or D for Different.
The Scarlet Letter is about 17th century New England. Today one could say the similar behaviors portrayed in this novel (written in the 19th century about life in the 17th century) is sort of life imitates art and art imitates life…and today it plays out nearly every day on social media somewhere. The masses used to whisper behind their hands to their pals in the market square, now they just vomit their word salad thoughts all over social media.
This novel by Nathanial Hawthorne also can be distilled down to a society punishing a woman for refusing to conform to what they determined the acceptable standards to be. Judgement of women. Nothing new there. It takes different forms as time progresses, but it comes back to Different = Bad and one of the Sheeple = Good.
So yesterday a certain wannabe influencer self proclaimed public figure had a rather predictable social media met down. It happened as always on his famous group page which is uplifting and delightful…or so he says, right? I mean gosh that must be totally by accident that he in fact is allowing doxxing of me, right?
File under desperate men do desperate things, don’t they? Including hit up an @everyone when probably not enough people were reading his post?
Let’s break this down shall we?
I’m NOT in his group. I was in it when was it exactly? Two or three years ago? I initially didn’t even KNOW it was HIS group because I was one of the people that he let into the group but blocked. You see if you block people in your group but allow them to be there it pumps up the numbers. And why did he block me in the first place? No one knows. I actually didn’t go into his group very much when I WAS in it because I found it insipid and silly. I could never remember the name of the group – ask my friends – yes OMG I have real friends, he must be jelly right?
Already he was self branding as a public figure and wannabe influencer when he started his preposterous, fake events to meet him and “mingle” (why would you?) I laughed and posted about it- I think most of this influencer stuff is completely fakakta. And why would anyone want to pay to meet him and have cheap bar aps? Seriously?
In October 2023, I believe it was that he called Easttown Township Police on me. I had a conversation with a detective who called to say that oh yes, they had closed an investigation on me that I didn’t know existed in the first place and they found nothing . And why did they find nothing? Because this man puts his life out on public display. He talks about his kids/wife he posts pictures of his kids/wife. He post pictures of his houses everywhere. His cars. His dog. His multiple martini glasses. And what his group is about? Hasn’t it changed like the wind but mostly it’s always been for him to promote his influencerness or whatever?
He called the police after I made fun of his mingle with bad bar food events. It’s not against the law to post about or make fun of public figures/influencers/wannabe influencers is it? It was an event posted publicly and anyone could buy tickets, right?
I DON’T talk about his wife and I certainly don’t talk about people’s children and he’s just not being truthful, he is in fact coloring wayyy outside of those lines, and isn’t that the real deal? And his kids have not been picked on because of me, if that has happened at all. He talks about his kids. Kids are also not responsible for their parents’ antics.
So let’s refresh because he’s a little slow – obviously I’m not in his group and in like 30 minutes after he posted I had about 50 people send me the screenshots, continuing into today. I also have the screenshots of the comments, and I will get to that.
This guy puts it ALL on PUBLIC display even in his group. Every day. 24/7/365 and it makes a person wonder how he has time for his “busy practice” doesn’t it? And then there are the “Face of the Main Line” ads, right? And they are purchased, correct?
I have never said anything about his education, or his wife’s education.
His wife from what I can tell is a well respected doctor, who would have an issue with that? This here is probably the most I’ve EVER said about his wife just because he basically expresses falsehoods about me speaking about her in a pejorative manner and I have not. I wouldn’t. She’s a real doctor doing real things. As opposed as to seeking sympathy post meltdown on social media, right? I will offer the opinion (which is allowed) that if she was on my care team, I would replace her because of his antics.
And his dog? I have been mean to his dog now as well? Does he need a reminder about what he posted about his dog and a vet he used?
I DID ask if he was a licensed psychologist and why is that a bad thing? Don’t you want someone you are seeing for therapy, counseling, whatever to be licensed? By the way note in the screenshots below that he is not licensed at all at this point (checked database this morning) unless he recently applied for one? Does he want to explain that fine or is that my fault too?
And if he is supposed to be a psychotherapist or therapist of any kind, or a counselor, etc. is he exhibiting NORMAL behavior? Or is he twisting things with purpose in the hopes someone harms me?
And because he is essentially nouveau Main Line or tries to be, he wouldn’t know that I am known, and I am hardly hiding. I merely choose with whom I wish to interact.
And I must now ask because I’m genuinely curious, what precisely IS his work in the community for 24 years? Has he actually been on the Main Line for 24 years? Or is that like dog years or something? Did anyone know he existed before he put himself AND his family out on public display a handful of years ago?
I can’t control what he does or whatever freaky types contact him about me. Every pot has it’s lid even on social media, right?
I like that he thinks he has hidden cameras INSIDE my house so he knows what I am doing 24 hours a day, and if so, isn’t that example of what a stalker is, gosh what is? Does he like that post breast cancer I have 1 1/2 breasts, not two?
I should mention that I don’t actually know where he lives in Berwyn – and he posted his Delaware house for sale listing at one point in some public beach centric Facebook group, so umm?? And a reminder: he posts photos of his house or houses himself, so that dog don’t hunt either.
I like that he seems to think that I am still in his group and doesn’t get as I previously stated that I don’t see any of his stuff on social media first person – people send me screenshots. All these fabulous people whom he thinks ADORE him, but do they? Is that the real problem he has? That people pass screenshots around?
Seems to me that someone has his knickers in a twist over his own recent antics? Dude, YOU put this stuff out there – it ALL originates with you. And everything YOU accuse ME of doing you are attempting to do to me? Come on man child, for real ?
I think it’s a wee bit dramatic to say that I “hate” a public figure and wannabe influencer, isn’t it? That would imply a relationship that doesn’t exist.
Is this just trying to raise his image at my expense? Whatever. I guess I just don’t have the same needs as him , do I?
Poor wee man.
Also important to note that photo he used of me without attribution in his meltdown this weekend was from SAVVY Main Line. Yeah babe, that’s me…hiding. I should comment about why that photo was taken. Context is important – It was the 10 year anniversary of being breast cancer free, one year left on Tamoxifen, and I took friends on a special garden tour to celebrate. Caroline who owns and founded and created Savvy was with us that day and was at Lankenau Hospital the day I rang the bell after finishing treatment for breast cancer in 2011.
Here’s a synopsis of that time, those early days of diagnosis, surgery, treatment.
It all began during a routine checkup in March of 2011. I told my gynecologist, that I had found a lump. You should understand that, for me, lumps are not very unusual as I have a familial trait many women have of dense breasts. As she felt my left breast, a look came over her face. “I’m sending you to a breast surgeon. If I miss something I would never forgive myself,” she said.
I think in my heart of hearts I already knew what the result would be, and during the late afternoon of April 28 – just as my high school reunion from Shipley that year was about to begin – I received news no woman wants to hear: “You have breast cancer.” Invasive, lobular breast cancer to be precise. The room swirled for a moment. It was a total out-of-body, this-can’t-be-happening moment.
I spent a few of those early days in front of a mirror, trying to come to terms with how I looked at that moment, and how I might look after (depending on the size of the mass and the margins that needed to come out around it.) I also made my peace with the possibility of losing the entire breast. That was a really hard and weird place to go, but I had to do it. I stood in front of the mirror and covered up one breast. That was when it really hit me: breast cancer hits the core of femininity in every woman it touches.
I had a lumpectomy – also known as a partial mastectomy . Radiation, although easier then chemotherapy, was rough. Not only are you incredibly tired all the time, but you also have to live with perpetual sunburn that really, really hurts. Because my skin is sensitive, I had what can only be described as radiation rash and patches of degraded skin. Sharp, shooting pains running through the surgical site periodically as internal stiches continue to work their way out. Some days I was so tired that all wanted to do is sleep, but I couldn’t. Still, every day of radiation brought me one step closer to the end of that phase of my treatment. This taught me a lot about myself. I learned that I’m much tougher than I thought and that I’ve been blessed. Not only do I have a supportive family, but I also have the most amazing friends in the world.
September 13, 2011 was a sunny Tuesday morning, and I finished my radiation. I was overcome with emotion all morning but did my actual crying in the treatment room when it was over – bittersweet tears of happiness, relief and gratitude that no one saw. I knew I’d never forget the awesome team of technicians and nurses at Lankenau.
A slew of people gathered in the waiting room that day, including the author of Savvy Main Line. When it was all over and I rang the special bell signifying the end of treatment, they cheered. A hospital administrator actually chided us then for being too loud.
I’m now part of the sisterhood – women of different races, ethnicities, ages, sizes and shapes -forever bound together by this disease. So that was why that special garden visit recorded in Savvy where he took their photo from was about. It marked an important milestone in my breast cancer journey.
Now let’s delve into the comments. We’ll start slow with someone about to open a business localish to us. He also sent me an unsolicited message and OMG LOL he blocked me from responding… yet goes and adds his two unsolicited cents as a brand new business about to open over there in the comments from the Main Line Meltdown post? I mean what did I expect from a kibitzer? Guess he just plays both sides against the middle?
The sad thing is I was looking forward to another real deli closer than Philadelphia or the lower Main Line.
#GoBrandon !
Then there is a woman who is her own weirdness. This particular woman has allowed for the past few years in her group (which I never had any desire to join), for people to occasionally have entire threads up about me slamming and essentially disparaging me like I am a public figure or a politician or a celebrity instead of what I am, which is a middle-aged woman living in a community. Yes, there have been screenshots over the years.
This person reappeared a few weeks ago when there was a dust up in my gifting group because I had restated some basic rules like no mattresses, alcohol, prescription meds, etc. Real terrible stuff reminding people about items that may have attached liability issues, right? This woman essentially told an untruth in another thread first by saying I had spies on that woman’s page – it was a public post at least for a while- duh it had a little globe. I ironically stumbled upon the post myself because the woman who started this post kept getting suggested by Facebook as a friend so I finally went to look at her profile out of curiosity and saw this nutso post. Completely by fate I discovered it.
So back to this other woman who decided to tell an outright untruth by saying she was getting private messages from me insinuating many or several. There was ONE private message. This particular woman has had over the years demonstrated oddly competitive and nasty behavior towards me and others on social media I have never understood. ONCE as in the one and only time I saw her in person (I said hello) and she was quiet like an introverted mouse. And if she had EVER called the police on me, the police would’ve called me. It’s how it works.
Should I have sent the message? Perhaps not. But I have had a few years of crap at the hands of this person on social media and there comes a time in your life where you feel the need to take your power back even if it is by merely telling her the post I saw was public and I see her for who she is and always have. It started with her when I started a group and she wanted to join. After she was in the group, she literally tried to take it over. She was removed. So she went to start a competing group, only she was the one competing, not me.
And this woman claims she has no photos of her kids online? Yes she has had them and I have never shared them. If they appeared on a screenshot because she made something public, I have no recollection. Her kids are her kids, no interest to me but it makes a better yarn for her to say so I guess? I finally blocked her after the gifting group thing.
So she pops up here on the Influencer’s Lament, trying to seek relevance again I suppose? Spinning quite literally a yarn. Says she never met me in person. Again, as mentioned, she did once, and she was like a little mouse. Very different from her online persona.
Screenshot
And then there are other people. Mostly ones I blocked because I chose not to interact, and others I removed from various Facebook groups. It’s like they congregate in this group so they can slurp on my social media corpse. Monty Python would tell them I am not dead yet.
None of them know me. I certainly don’t wish to know them.
I am not in the group, and I am sent the screenshots. People are sharing screenshots all over, it’s what people do on social media. So when His Public Figureness refers to “hundreds” of screenshots of him taken by me? Umm duuuuddde, I am not in your group and I blocked you long ago. Yes there are screenshots, sent by other people, and certainly not hundreds. That is actually funny he must think he’s Beyoncé or something. And remember, (and I quote from a Main Line Today ad) he asks constructive questions, providing non-judgmental feedback and insight.
Now, the comments. They hold their own sociological fascination and it’s that gossip pack mentality in action. Am I supposed to be crushed by them? I’m not. I merely marvel. Why do so many people care about me one person? It doesn’t compute. And really it shouldn’t as it is somewhat nonsensical.
Have I lived the perfect life? No. But I like to think I am honest about who I am and I do actually try to be nice to people. Are there some people it is virtually impossible to be nice to? Yes indeed. And if you know me, you know I don’t suffer fools gladly. I try to avoid those people.
Truthfully, those who are mean and spiteful gossips “spreading the love” fall into the category of those people you choose not to have in your life after a point or at all in the first place. Psychologically I can only wonder what they are punishing the world for, but the truth of the matter is none of us are getting any younger. And you also have to accept people are different from you and as human beings we are not designed to be carbon copies of one and other. We are truly allowed to have different opinions and to be different people.
Ahh yes, the old adage you are judged by the company you keep. I remember my own mother telling me that when I was a teenager, and I remember scoffing at the idea. Then I remember being in my mid 20s and figuring out exactly what she was talking about and it was one of those a-ha moments that sometimes your mother is right. A friend of mine and I were talking about it recently and they said their mother said to them “show me your friends, I’ll show you your future.”
“People will question all the good things they hear about you but believe all the bad without a second thought.”
I have learned again among other things that apparently I wish to control local social media. I am amused at the sheer preposterousness of the statement.
Sadly, there is in human nature the desire to gossip or chatter about others. Anyone who says they haven’t done it isn’t being honest with themselves. I have written about it before because it is an interesting study in basic human nature or human flaws, take you pick.
So Westtown East Goshen police a.k.a. WEGO issued the following statement today via CrimeWatch- I will note they didn’t post it on their socials that I can find.
The Westtown E. Goshen Regional Police Department was asked to review information provided by the West Chester Area School District (WCASD) involving Rustin High School after the resignation of the principal. No criminal activity was found, and the matter is closed. For any further information, please contact the WCASD. Created Jan 6, 2025 @ 1:50 PM | Updated Jan 6, 2025 @ 3:04 PM
Michael Marano resigned as the Rustin principal. He’s only the second one I think since they opened the school. And this high school had issues before with the problematic swim coach before Marano came to work there.
So you have the school district are sending out the original notice and then nothing. His wife is also an employee of the school district in and administrative capacity, correct ?
The rumors have been flying since this started. Also flying around? A little teeny weenie snippet of a video that you can’t really prove and yet everybody’s sharing it. I can’t tell you how many people asked me to share it and I said no because I don’t know the man nor can I prove it’s authenticity.
There were even comments received, supposedly from students, but again I don’t know and I’m not going to just publish random comments speculating because nobody knows what went on.
The whole thing is very strange and how does a guy go from being like a superhero principal on the West Chester Area School District Instagram feed a year ago to resigning before Christmas ?
So was he accused of something he didn’t do, or was he accused of something they couldn’t prove? I mean, seriously can we ask at this point given this latest blip out of the police what the sam hell is going on?
If the police have closed their investigation out here then the school district needs to say what’s going on? Don’t they owe that to the parents at a minimum and the students.?
This story right before Christmas made the local TV news and the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily Local . And I know that the police department was not super forthcoming because there was chatter with the media, which in and of itself is not unusual because they won’t comment when they’re investigating. But now this is the only comment so is anybody going to tell people what went on?
Anyway, that’s the latest on this great mystery of life with this particular high school.
Here we are coming towards the end of year seven missing . In Chester County we are now on the third district attorney in office since she went missing.
Say her name. Anna Maciejewska.
I have lost count of how many times I have written about her on this blog, and I never met her. But I still think about her and I think about her especially around the holidays because I think of the little boy she had who is not so little anymore who has probably lost the memory of the sound of his mother’s voice.
I wonder what that boy thinks and feels? I wonder if he is happy? I wonder what his father her husband tells him about his mother? I wonder if he ever talks to his Polish grandparents and how they are?
There has been no activity on the Facebook page for Anna in forever. I went to see if the PA Crimestoppers bulletin was still up for her as a missing person and …oh it can’t be found.
I wonder if the Pennsylvania State Police still think about her because she is their missing person’s case. Or have they just put her in a dusty drawer in a dusty cupboard in a storage room somewhere?
Christmas is coming people. Let’s say her name a little. I’m going to share the old videos that I can still find on YouTube about her.
Anna Maciejewska is still missing. Here’s hoping for a Christmas miracle that the state police remember she’s one of their cases. Here’s wishing and hoping that the current Chester County District Attorney could blow the dust off the case folders and help a little.
