As Philadelphia rounds the corner into spooky season, fans of all things gothic, literary, or historical may be disappointed to learn that the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site remains closed.
The three-story brick building at 532 N. Seventh St. shuttered in summer 2024 for fire safety upgrades costing over $931,000. It was initially slated to reopen that fall, but renovations grewinto a broader improvement project, according to the National Park Service.
More recently, Philadelphia’s tourism agency had said the site was expected to open this fall, and an Oct. 31 event celebrating Poe as the father of the modern detective novel is planned at the site.But the National Park Service says there is still no official reopening date for the public.
“I can tell you that we can offer no date for when the house will reopen,” said park service spokesperson John Warren.
Calls to a supervisor at Independence National Historical Park, which manages the Poe house, went unanswered Thursday and Friday.
Warren said park service officials did not provide more details to him on the timeline, adding that there were “multiple, complex infrastructure projects going on at the site all at once.”
“If you have ever owned an old home, you know that repair projects often lead to discovering more issues, so it’s wisest not to speculate on an end date,” Warren said.
What’s holding things up?
At the site Friday, volunteers tended to flowers and plants while National Park Service workers wrapped up another day renovating the building’s first floor.
National Park Service plasterer and painter Joe Palumbo said the house’s issues should have been addressed a decade earlier. He said when he started working there,the property “smelled awful” from likely water damage.
Palumbo said construction crews redid the restrooms, replastered and painted the first floor, and rehabbed the woodworking.
He estimated it would take another week to complete first-floor renovations. From there, outside contractors are set to replace the carpets and blinds.
Palumbo said a plan to renovate the building’s exterior is “on hold,” and he is not sure why.
What’s the significance of the site?
Built in the 1800s, the home is the only remaining residence where Poe lived during his six years in Philadelphia from 1838 to 1844.
Retired National Park Service worker Helen McKenna spent 25 years at the site, educating people about Poe and his ties to Philadelphia. During her time working there, the house had exhibits, poetry recitations, a short biographical film, and a reading room styled after one of Poe’s published articles.
Back then, the house still had the original plaster, which was moldering and falling away from its lath. Of course, she said, the walls would have been gleaming white when Poe lived there in 1843 and 1844.
The neighborhood was not even part of the city at that time, she said, and Poe would have traveled on horse-drawn omnibuses. These kinds of details help people imagine Poe, she said, not just as a literary figure, but as a person.
To her, the house captures thecontrast between Poe’s literary stature — with his influence stretching across detective fiction, science fiction, poetry, and short stories — and the alcoholic, struggling writer who lived there with his mother-in-law and his wife, who had tuberculosis.
“There’s that sense of place. This grand, admired author was living in really humble circumstances on the outskirts of the city,” she said. “He didn’t own the place, he was paying rent, and he wasn’t always able to pay the rent.”
What did Poe do while in Philly?
Many cities have memorials to Poe, McKenna said. That is because he traveled. He was born in Boston, grew up in Richmond and in England, lived twice in New York, had a stint in Delaware, and died in Baltimore.
Poe’s time in Philly, however, marked acreative high-water mark, McKenna said.
He moved to Philly after failing to find success with a novel in New York City and turned his attention to short stories. While in Philly, he published “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” McKenna said. He also became known as a charismatic speaker and an acerbic critic.
At his best, McKenna said, Poe was “a genius of compression,” creating haunting, memorable stories at a time when interest in American writers was growing.
“I won’t say that Poe is the best writer that America ever produced, but he’s certainly had a ton of impact, globally,” McKenna said.
After decades as a popular hang-out for generations of Oaklyn kids, the aging hockey rink and adjacent basketball court at Oaklyn-Lions Park have both closed because of safety concerns.
Oaklyn Borough officials announced the closures at the Sept. 8 council meeting following an annual safety inspection that recommended the areas be closed because of concerns about the surface, boards, and fencing. The courts closed the following day and it’s unclear how long the repairs could take and how much they’ll cost.
Currently cordoned off by temporary fencing and caution tape, the wooden boards around the rink have come apart in various spots as weeds have sprouted through cracks on the surface.
The outdoor hockey rink at Oaklyn-Lions Park could be seen cordoned off on Sept. 17 after being closed due to safety concerns.Lacey Latch
Right behind one of the hockeynets, two holes in the boards and gaps in the upper protective fencing — all large enough for street hockey balls and pucks to soar through — directly face a neighboring playground.
On the basketball court, only one backboard remains standing — albeit crookedly.
But in spite of the current state of things, the area was still being used up until the sudden closure last week, said lifelong Oaklyn resident Alex Lewis, 36.
Like many other Oaklyn kids, Lewis grew up playing soccer at the hockey rink that for years was informally used for both sports.
“We had this really vibrant soccer-loving community,” Lewis said.
“It was so much the thing to do for our group that if we had a three-day weekend for school, we’d be down there all three nights playing soccer until we basically couldn’t walk anymore,” he said. “It was incredible.”
Eventually, the long-standing shared use of the space was paused in 2006 when an ordinance was passed banning all non-hockey equipment within the rink, Lewis said.
The ordinance has remainedin place since then and precipitated a noticeable drop in the rink’s usage, Lewis said.
“There was still a vibrant hockey-playing community, as there should be, which is awesome,” Lewis said. “But the overall use of the court declined and the quality of the court and the upkeep of the court itself declined over that same amount of time.”
That steady decline has been clear to Lewis and others who spent years playing at the park.
Large holes in the boards and gaps in the protective fencing can be see at the outdoor hockey rink at Oaklyn-Lions Park on Sept. 17.Lacey Latch
Another lifelong Oaklyn resident Billy Gamba, 29, was one of the many hockey players who spent countless hours at the rink learning the fundamentals of the sport.
Almost every night growing up, Gamba and his friends would descend on the rink, he said, honing their skills and eventually passing them on to the players coming up behind them through impromptu clinics.
“We would just meet down there and we pick teams and just play for all hours of the day and throughout the night,” Gamba said.
The rink wasn’t only a draw for Oaklyners either, he said, attracting players fromother communities, including Audubon, Collingswood, and Haddon Township.
In spite of its heavy use over the years, Gamba said he doesn’t remember any major repairs taking place at the rink in his lifetime, save for a quick patch-job when he was about 10 years old.
“I used to play down there like four or five nights a week and it just got worse and worse over time,” he said.
“Over the years I stopped playing because I don’t want to get hurt down here,” Gamba said. “I’ve seen guys get seriously hurt down there, whether their stick gets caught in the boards and they jab themselves in the stomach or their wheels or skates catch that deep crack and they fall.”
Just like Lewis, Gamba, and countless other residents, Oaklyn Mayor Greg Brandley has memories as a kid on the courts.
“Growing up in Oaklyn, I played on those courts my whole life as a little kid so it’s very sad to see this happen right now,” Brandley said of the closures.
“It’s something for the kids that we have to get reopened again,” he said.
But repairs won’t be as simple as just pouring a new layer of concrete, Brandley said.
Only one backboard remains standing on the basketball court at Oaklyn-Lions Park, pictured here on Sept. 17.Lacey Latch
Because the rink has a special surface, he said, the borough will have to consult with engineers on the necessary work and the estimated cost. After that, the discussion will then shift to how to find money for the project in the budget, he said.
As a result, it’s still much too early to put a realistic timeline or price tag on the project, he said.
With that said, Lewis has already gotten a jump on the process.
Last fall, Lewis and the semipro soccer club he founded, Oaklyn United FC, organized a tournament at the courts to help fundraise for the needed repairs.
While the money raised was “just a drop in the bucket” toward the tens of thousands of dollars that will likely be needed for the repairs, Lewis said, it was about trying to give back to “this public resource that in many ways was kind of the birthplace of OUFC.”
And while he’s disappointed that the courts deteriorated to the point of closing, he’s eager tohelpfix it up and make it even better.
With soccer gaining popularity in the U.S., Lewis noted that it could be the perfect time to formalize the shared-use of the court for both hockey and soccer, which is as simple as painting a few extra lines, he said.
“We’re talking about restoring a public asset that if it doesn’t get restored, it’s just kind of sitting there in this blighted state in what is otherwise kind of the center of the universe for our town,” Lewis said.
“It’s a great art, is rowing. It’s the finest art there is. It’s a symphony of motion. … When you near perfection, you’re touching the Divine.”
— George Y. Pocock, renowned rowing coach and boatbuilder
“If you want to be a Schuylkill Dragon, don’t be a schmuck.”
— Judy Gernon, 81
Boathouse Row, on the Schuylkill, is the epitome of old-money elegance — a Ralph Lauren catalog come to life.
Home to more than a dozen of the city’s storied rowing clubs, it’s atimeless civicfixture. Opulent brick houses with palatial decks. American flags fluttering from poles. Young rowers with sinewy physiques andwell-earned tans, milling about the docks.
There’s a reason it is considered one of the city’s most iconic settings, the subject of postcards and poetry.
Boathouse Row, a picturesque scene located along the east bank of the Schuylkill.TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
About two miles upriver, meanwhile — far from this extravagant scene — sits another boathouse, of far less renown.
To get to it, you have to trek through knee-high grass, past the porta-potties and discarded car tires, and the mosquitoes as big as Buicks. Go past the chain-link fence choked by weeds and the dead trees the city hasn’t yet gotten around to clearing, and soon enough, you’ll reach it.
The humble headquarters of the Schuylkill Dragons.
It is 4 feet by 6 feet. It is packed with faded life jackets, water jugs, a smattering of rusted, secondhand tools. The only thing WASPy about it are the actual wasps — which, at the moment, have infested a corner of the small structure.
It is damp and dirty, thick with dust and cobwebs.
To the ladies of the Schuylkill Dragons — the city’s oldest all-woman dragon-boating team and its unlikeliest sports dynasty — there might be no better place on earth.
The Schuylkill Dragons on June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
A ‘dump truck’ on the water
My introduction to the Schuylkill Dragons came on a Saturday morning this summer, at a team practice along the Schuylkill.
As I followed the team down a dirt path toward the water, a tiny white-haired woman in her 80s sidled up to me.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t come last Thursday,” she said, “‘cause it was raining like a b—.”
The “boathouse” of the Schuylkill Dragons stands on the west bank of the Schuylkill, near the team’s dock. Members of the team built the structure in 2015.Dugan Arnett
For 25 years, the Dragons have been rumbling their way up and down the Schuylkill.
And for 25 years, they have been the river’s most immovableforce — a sweatin’, swearin’, swaggerin’ group of bandits that no one has quite figured out how to tame.
“Underestimate them at your own peril,”says Bob Mina, a longtime member of the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association.
Many are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, and — having endured some of life’s cruelest challenges: cancer, divorce, the loss of spouses — do not find it particularly daunting to propel a two-ton boat upriver until their backs and shoulders scream.
There is Cindy Roberts, a65-year-old retired preservationist known for growling loudly throughout races. And Sue Ferry, 64, who goes by the nickname “Machete” — due to the fact that she once brandished one at practice and used it to hack a path through the weeds to the team’s boat ramp.
Judy Gernon, drummer with the Schuylkill Dragons, yells out calls during a practice ahead of an forthcoming race.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
There is “Crazy Judy” Gernon, a tattooed 81-year-old former Army brat who stands 5-foot-1 (“and a half”) and has never met a sentence she felt couldn’t be enhanced with an expletive (or six). A while back, the team had to convince her to stop flashing people on the river.
Nothing has been able to slay the Dragons. Not injury (they’ve been known to schedule their hip-replacement surgeries around dragon-boating season). Not the city’s rowers (with whom they regularly clash), or the younger, fitter teams they routinely find themselves lined up against (the Dragons have won medals across the globe and are widely considered the gold standard for women’s dragon-boating in the city).
Even their own coaches have occasionally found themselves at the mercy of the Schuylkill’s Bad News Bears.
Years ago, the team was led by a man who worked as an attorney for a prominent pharmaceutical company, a guy with a reputation for navigating the corporate world with iron-fisted efficiency.
“What cracked us up is he had no qualms going into some office and firing everybody there,” says Crazy Judy.
“But to work with a women’s dragon-boating team? He couldn’t say s— if he had a mouthful.”
The Schuylkill Dragons on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
‘Renegades’ of the river
Since hosting its first regatta in 1835, the Schuylkill has been a national hub for U.S. rowing. It has produced Olympic rowing medalists and national collegiate champions, been the training ground for clubs with names like Vespa and Crescent.
It was into this hallowed setting, meanwhile, that the Schuylkill Dragons arrived, in 2001, with all the subtlety of a right cross.
Though not the first dragon-boating team on the river — at least one men’s team started in the mid-1980s — the Dragons quickly established themselves as the most colorful.
“We were like renegades,” says Patti Miller, 72, one of the Dragons’ founding members. “We were a novelty: Who are these Schuylkill Dragons?”
If rowing is jazz — smooth, elegant — then dragon-boating is a half-dozen teenagers in a garage, thrashing on electric guitars and banging on drum kits.
Their stroke is urgent and aggressive. Their boats — usually adorned with large dragon heads and tails — are massive, measuring some 40 feet in length. Unlike rowing, which typically includes no more than eight people to a boat, dragon boats hold 22: 20 paddlers, a drummer (who sits up front, banging a drum to set the paddling pace and barking instructions through a microphone) and a steersperson (stationed in the back and responsible for keeping the boat on course).
Amy Virus, a 52-year-old member of the Dragons, explains it this way:
The Schuylkill is like a smooth-running highway, the rowers and kayakers minding their own business.
“And then a dump truck gets on,” she says, “and gets in [everybody’s] way.”
Video: The Schuylkill Dragons are Philly’s oldest all-woman dragon-boating team
The early years weren’t always easy. To find members, the Dragons handed out flyers and published classified ads in the newspaper: Women wanted to paddle on the Schuylkill.
For years, the team was stationed on the Kelly Drive side of the Schuylkill, their boats tied to a tree on the river’s bank. Before each practice, the women — many postretirement age — had to rappel down a rock wall to board the boat.
Introducing dragon-boating to the Schuylkill, meanwhile, was a little like releasing a pack of honey badgers into a wedding reception.
Years ago, a group of male dragon-boaters — who’d apparently done a little too much prerace imbibing — managed to tip their boat during a race, sending themselves spilling into the river. When a police boat arrived to pull them out of the water, they managed to sink that boat, too.
Lora Dunnigan, one of the coaches of the Schuylkill Dragons, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
It was “basically like West Side Story on the water,” says Mina, of the PDBA, of the rower-dragon-boater tension. “Only without the jaunty musical numbers.”
When the Dragons first started on the river, the mostly male rowers would report the team to the Schuylkill Navy — the river’s rule-enforcement body — for rules violations. Or scream at the women to get out of their way.
Today, the two groups seem to have reached an uneasy detente, though plenty of Dragons believe the rowers would be happy if they packed up their hulking boats and disappeared forever. Says Meg Fasy, 62, “They’re looking at us like we’re a bunch of old broads, I’m sure.”
Which is not to say, of course, that the Dragons do not give as good as they get.
Not long ago, when the team encountered a group of younger male rowers on the river during practice, one Dragon couldn’t help herself.
“I’ve got shoes older than you!” she bellowed.
The Schuylkill Dragons on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
‘I was better than they were’
Because many came of age before Title IX, the Dragons are, for some, the first team they’ve ever been a part of.
Growing up in Massachusetts, Susan Wilson — the Dragons’ oldest member at 83 — spent childhood evenings playing street baseball with the boys in her neighborhood — long, glorious hours chasing fly balls under a fading New England sun.
But at a certain point, the boys all joined organized teams, and Wilson was relegated to the bleachers — a development particularly unjust, she explains, considering “I was better than they were.”
When she eventually discovered dragon-boating several decades later, in her late 50s, it was a revelation.
“The first night I went out on the water, there were whitecaps [and] hail,” says Wilson. “And I went, ‘Oh, yes, this is for me.’”
One after another, members credit the Dragons with bringing them out of their shells, with instilling in them a newfound confidence.
As a young mother, Karen Anderson, 72, says, she was so competition-averse that during her kids’ youth sporting events, “I’d hope for a tie, so everyone left happy.”
Now?
“I never know what’s going to come flying out of my mouth,” she says. “It’s made me really like a crazy woman when I’m racing.”
Consider Marina Della Putta Johnston. On land, she is a mild-mannered, 62-year-old former Italian Studies lecturer at Penn. On water, she’s “The Marinator” — a nickname earned following a race in Sarasota, Fla., in which the boat she was steering inadvertently clipped that of a rival team, dumping its occupants into the lake.
“They flipped,” Johnston says, “and we kept going.”
Beneath all their bluster, the Dragons care deeply for one another.
Stacy Kent Wyckoff, a member of the Schuylkill Dragons, an all-woman dragon-boating team, sits with teammates before the start of practice on the Schuylkill on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
They arrange meal trains when a teammate is sick or injured. They check in on one another. When her husband’s health was declining in 2022, says Stacy Kent Wyckoff, 66, it was the Dragons who helped her through her grief.
“It was just a very healing thing to jump into,” she says.
This is another Dragons specialty — moments of quiet tenderness amid all the grunting and growling and middle-finger salutes.
Two years ago, at a team camp in Florida, a few Dragons were driving from their hotel to dinner. In the passenger seat, 79-year-old Phoebe Wood — who is typically about as sentimental as a court order — suddenly grew nostalgic.
“I just want to say,” she announced, “that I love everyone in this car.”
The Schuylkill Dragons warming up before a practice on June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
‘Solemn and deadly’
At competitions, some teams arrive at the starting line light and loose — laughing, dancing. The Dragons prefer a different approach: “Looking solemn and deadly,” says Wood.
Talking is almost always prohibited in the boat, even at practice — the better to stay focused.
Today, the team has a standing offer: $20 to anyone who pukes during a race.
The Dragons train four days a week in the summer — Tuesday and Thursday evenings, plus Wednesday and Saturday mornings. In the winter, many team members travel more than an hour each weekend to Pottstown, where they train indoors in a simulation paddling pool. Each spring, a group of Dragons attends a grueling preseason dragon-boating camp in Florida, enduring hours-long days on the water.
The Schuylkill Dragons on June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
They have competed across the world — Hungary, Canada, Italy. Members have paddled for Team USA at the dragon-boating world championships, considered the sport’s Olympics.
“If you want to race seriously,” says Mina, “that’s the club you want to go to.”
Indeed, it is not for the faint of heart.
The Dragons have paddled with torn rotator cuffs, artificial hips, wonky knees. You could field a marching band with all the Dragons who are currently in physical therapy for one ailment or another. One local paddler with emphysema used to lug her oxygen tank with her onto the boat.
The Schuylkill Dragons launch off the dock at the start of a practice on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
Today, Philadelphia is home to more than a dozen competitive dragon-boating teams, many of which share a pair of docks on the Schuylkill’s western bank, off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
And while this growth has been viewed very much as a positive, it has occasionally resulted in what the husband of one team member refers to as “Dragon Drama.”
For the Dragons, much of that drama has involved another of the city’s longstanding women’s dragon-boating teams, a rivalry that — like many great conflicts — is rumored to trace its origins to failed romance.
Years ago, according to one version of rivalry lore, the then-coaches of the two teams became romantically involved — which was fine, up until the relationship came to an unceremonious end.
“Then it became, ‘Kill the Dragons!’” says one longtime member of the rival team.
For a long time, the two teams wouldn’t acknowledge each other. Or, conversely, would acknowledge each other too much — lobbing insults from their respective boats before races.
The iciness has since thawed — to a degree.
“We might like them off the boat,” says Anderson. “But on the water … we want to beat their asses.”
The Schuylkill Dragons on June 2, 2026.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
‘You ever heard of dragon-boating?’
The team built its own boathouse, over a single weekend in 2015. They own three dragon boats — long, massive vessels of wood and fiberglass — which they store, patch, and repair themselves. Whereas the clubs of Boathouse Row havestocked bars and gleaming workout facilities — the University of Pennsylvania’s College Boat Club recently underwent a $13.5-million renovation — the Dragons have 70-year-old Julie Regnier, nicknamed “MacGyver” for her proficiency with a two-by-four and a can of epoxy.
Says Linda Breitstein, a 72-year-old Dragon: “These are not women who are used to saying, ‘I’ll call the man to take care of everything.’”
Keeping the team competitive, meanwhile, has required a constant commitment to recruiting, a duty the Dragons have embraced with the intensity of a Southeastern Conference football coach on the hot seat.
They’ve plucked new team members from the gym, from the community garden, from dinner parties. They are not above cornering a fit-looking stranger in the cereal aisle of their local grocery store and extolling the virtues of dragon-boating.
Emma Thomas, center, has served as the Schuylkill Dragons’ tireless team president since 2025. The job includes everything from organizing team events to facilitating the team’s annual training camp in Florida to – on occasion – weed whacking. Thomas joined the team in 2021.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
Once, Anderson found herself at a Bucks County hospital. Her daughter had just gotten out of surgery, and was being wheeled into the post-operation room, but Anderson couldn’t take her eyes off the attending nurse.
“She was tall and she was fit and she had some muscles,” says Anderson, now one of the team’s three coaches. “And I said, ‘I’m going for it.’”
“Excuse me,” she said, as her daughter lay unconscious a few feet away. “Have you ever heard of dragon-boating?”
The nurse joined the team soon after, bringing a neighbor with her.
Though the Dragons are open to women of all ages — their youngest member is 23 — the team has long trended older. As of last year, the average age of the team sat somewhere in the neighborhood of 60.
Lately, there’s been a conscious push to bring in younger paddlers — “our succession plan,” says one former member of the team’s board of directors.The team has instituted an annual rookie camp to scout new members;of the six paddlers who received invitations to join the team this summer, five were under the age of 40.
Short of that, the Dragons have developed a backup plan for ensuring the team’s longevity.
When Crazy Judy told coach Stacey Scanlan recently that they’d have to find a replacement for her eventually, Scanlan shrugged.
“Just don’t die,” she replied.
A steerer on the Schuylkill Dragons, an all-woman dragon-boating team, practices with the team on the Schuylkill.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
The race
On a Saturday afternoon in July, the Dragons gathered in an asphalt parking lot near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, one of a dozenteams across the Northeast competing in the Charm City’s Dragon Boat Challenge.
It was not going well.
Earlier in the day, the team had finished third in a race they’d hoped to win; afterward, they’d stalked silently to their team tent, pulling out knitting needles or hardcover books and keeping largely to themselves.
Now, as they boarded their boat for the regatta’s final event — the 2,000-meter, the sport’s longest and arguably most grueling race — they vowed to salvage their day.
The Schuylkill Dragons’ final competition of the season takes place Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Mercer County Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragons are among nearly 70 teams competing in the event. Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
Ten minutes later, they’d done it, cruising to an easy victory in the eight-team race.
Their smiles returned. They bumped fists. They slapped the side of their boat.
“What a show!” someone yelled from the crowd.
At the awards ceremony a few minutes later, the event’s teams gathered near the water. One by one, they stepped forward to collect their medals. But when it was the Dragons’ turn, the team was nowhere to be found.
“Schuylkill Dragons…” an MC called over a microphone.
“Schuylkill Dragons, are you still here?” he said, finally. “Do you want your medals?”
Far across the parking lot, however, the Dragons were lost in their own little world, giggling and dancing to “Funkytown” and looking to all the world like there was nowhere they’d rather be.
Lynsey Lehr grew up knowing that her beloved Aunt Donna survived a near-deadly hit-and-run as a teenager.
The details of the tragedy were part of the tight-knit family’s history.
Donna Eiser had just finished her freshman year at East Stroudsburg University and aimed to become a physical education teacher. Then one night in August 1974, she was hit by a car a few blocks from her Bensalem home. She spent the next six months in the hospital, relearning how to speak and move. The crash left her permanently disabled, unable to return to school or work, and in need of long-term care.
Lehr’s large family, most of whom lived nearby, rallied. Lehr and her two siblings grew up next door.
“We grew up knowing that there are people who need to be looked out for,” Lehr, 35, said. “She was always one of our pals.”
Her grandmother lived with Eiser and acted as her primary caregiver for the next 43 years, until the grandmother’s death in 2018.
Then the family needed to come up with a plan for Eiser’s future. The Bensalem house was left in a trust to Eiser, and the family wanted to sell it so she could profit from the sale, but Eiser could not live on her own or afford rent elsewhere.
Lehr, a graphic designer at Dietz & Watson in Philadelphia who was still living with her family next door, decided to buy the house and move in with her 71-year-old aunt. She became the 24/7 on-call person; Lehr’s mother shares the rest of the caregiving with her.
These days, Lehr and Eiser can often be found at home together, sewing, playing Yahtzee, and listening to the Beatles.
“My life definitely looks different than some of the people around me,” Lehr said. “While it’s a responsibility, it’s a joy.”
The following, as told to Zoe Greenberg, has been edited for length and clarity.
On deciding to buy the house
Lehr: I couldn’t bear the thought of my aunt losing her mother and then losing her home. The emotional toll just would have been too much. Consistency and routine in her life are important. I was also ready to spread my wings a little bit, even though I was buying right next door.
Eiser: My mother passed away, my father passed away, and I’m disabled. I need someone to help me. So since Lynsey lives right next door, and I’m her godmother and her aunt, she decided to come over and live with me. That helps me out a whole lot.
On becoming a full-time caregiver at 30
Lehr: I didn’t consider not doing it, just because she was my priority. She still is. I don’t know that we’ll stay in the house forever, but I know she’ll be with me forever. She’ll be with one of us forever. At the time it felt like a big responsibility, but it didn’t feel like the alternative was an option I wanted to consider.
Donna Eiser was left permanently disabled by a hit-and-run when she was 19. Here she uses her mobility device in the home she shares with her niece. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
On being both niece and caregiver
Lehr: It’s a hard balance sometimes. I don’t want her to feel that I’m treating her like a child, because she’s not. But there are definitely times when I have to ask her to do the dishes or pick up laundry. I still find her playing a mother role to me, and she always did. As my godmother, she took it very seriously to be a spiritual guide and an emotional guide. I think ultimately we’re friends. I don’t know that there’s any kind of hierarchy.
On forgoing a romantic partner
Lehr: I am not in a romantic relationship, and a part of me feels like this may occupy a lot of my time that I would have normally dedicated to finding myself a romantic partnership. My pursuit of that is secondary to this.
Eiser: I always thought maybe I could, but I can’t handle that. It’d be nice to go out every now and then, but when you find someone who wants to be controlling or wants to have their own way, I say no.
On making it work financially
Lehr: I could not do any of this without my family support. I have an income and I pay my bills, and then my aunt fortunately gets help from Social Security, so she contributes a bit of that for her room and board. Because of her disability benefits, she’s not allowed to accumulate any kind of savings. We make it work.
On comparing her life to her peers
Lehr: I have a lot of friends who have young kids, and I think that the caregiving responsibility is similar. There’s a part of me that mourns living alone because I have friends who have their own apartments, or fewer responsibilities. In a way, that life does sound desirable.
It’s kind of a slow life, especially with her mobility issues. We have to consider what is within her comfort level and we do spend a lot of time at home. But we’re content with that.
Donna Eiser points to the calendar that she uses to help her remember appointments and plans. She’s a major Phillies fan. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
On their 36-year age difference
Eiser: It’s OK to have a young roommate. Sometimes I think, “How come I can’t do what she’s doing?” The older you get, the harder it is.
Lehr: Honestly, I think Aunt Donna’s younger at heart than I am. She’s so creative, she’ll come up with these outlandish projects. Yesterday, she mentioned out of nowhere that she wanted to be a corn on the cob for Halloween. Now we’re planning logistically how that’s going to work.
This story is part of a series about life partners across the Philadelphia area.
If you want to share your story about who you’re navigating life with, romantically or otherwise, write to lifepartners@inquirer.com. We won’t publish anything without speaking to you first.
The Eagles travel to face the Tennessee Titans at 1 p.m. Sunday at Nissan Stadium. Here’s what you need to know about the matchup:
When the Eagles have the ball: All eyes will be on Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons when he lines up over whoever is charged with replacing the injured Landon Dickerson at left guard. All indications point to Drew Kendall being the guy, despite the Eagles’ attempt at subterfuge at open practice portions (see: having Fred Johnson take individual offensive line repetitions at the position). Kendall assuaged some of the interior O-line concerns heading into training camp, but facing Simmons in his first career start will be a challenge. The All-Pro lines up at multiple spots inside, but it’s likely Titans coach Robert Saleh will concentrate his efforts vs. Kendall.
All eyes will be on Drew Kendall (66) Sunday … wherever he lines up. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The Eagles will likely counter by sliding protection to the left, but that will place additional pressure on right guard Tyler Steen. Simmons’ counterpart John Franklin-Myers can be a handful at times. Saleh and defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, upon their arrival, altered the defensive front from a 3-4 to a 4-3 “under” base. That led to the departure of run-stuffing nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat, now with the New York Jets. It’s early, but the Titans allowed 152 rushing yards and two touchdowns to the Jets in the opener, although Tennessee allowed only two total rushing yards over expected. It wasn’t as bad a performance as the numbers suggest.
Nevertheless, the Eagles should have the opportunity to get the ground game going. Saquon Barkley’s 42-yard bolt vs. the Commanders did a lot of heavy lifting in the run game. He was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 7 of 15 carries with 78 of his 82 rushing yards coming after contact. Washington was aggressive and blitzed safeties off the edges, but Sean Mannion’s blocking scheme needs to come up with better answers vs. pressure, especially if he wants to establish outside zone runs. Kendall, who’s more athletic than Dickerson, could allow Mannion to lean more into wide-zone blocking concepts and counter runs.
Aside from Simmons, the Titans aren’t especially imposing up front. Defensive end Jermaine Johnson was acquired in the offseason and he’s a good fit for wide sets. But he’s three years removed from the only season in which he truly delivered on being a first-round draft pick. Tennessee didn’t record a sack in the opener, but did generate pressure a third of the time. The Titans also allowed the Jets only two trips inside the red zone. Saleh doesn’t yet have the players he needs in the secondary to effectively employ the Pete Carroll-type base Cover-3 zone. The coverages looked uncomplicated in Week 1, and yet, there were multiple busted assignments.
Jeffery Simmons (98) is a handful but the Titans’ defense is otherwise nondescript. David Richard
Mannion’s offense produced explosive plays in the opener. But it was terrible on first and 10 and averaged just 0.9 yards. The Eagles had four three-and-outs on 11 possessions and managed just 10 first downs. It was only a one-game sample, but the scheme was fairly static with little misdirection. Jalen Hurts, surprisingly, threw off play-action only twice. Some of that had to do with getting “behind schedule,” as Mannion noted. But there were still carryover issues from last season’s underwhelming offense — bleeding too much of the play clock down being one. Hurts bailed the offense out with his legs and deep-ball accuracy, but the scheme has to give him more time in the pocket. The Titans should be just what the doctor prescribed.
When the Titans have the ball: Cam Ward appears to have carried over some of his rookie-season struggles as a passer. He holds the ball too long and doesn’t take advantage of opportunities to escape pressure. New offensive coordinator Brian Daboll took the Titans job after he interviewed with the Eagles, so maybe he saw something in Ward to develop. But the early signs weren’t promising. Vic Fangio and his defense should be able to get to a hesitant quarterback behind a suspect O-line. Tackles Dan Moore and JC Latham allowed a combined 16 sacks last season and a combined four pressures against the Jets. Center Austin Schlottmann and right guard Fernando Carmona, a fifth-round rookie, could also be exploited.
The Eagles’ pass rush was solid, if not spectacular, last week. They played some containment against the elusive Jayden Daniels, but given the opportunity to pin their ears back with the lead late in the game, they struggled to get home. Edge Jonathan Greenard is out for a second straight week as he recovers from a pectoral injury. Jalyx Hunt and Nolan Smith Jr. were solid on the edge, but they’ll need to start finishing soon. Jalen Carter started strong, but finished meekly. He played 94% of the snaps and might have been gassed, but it was revealed during practice this week that he has a wrist injury. It looks like he’s going to wear a soft cast, which could affect him.
Jalen Carter (right) looked gassed down the stretch against Washington and could be playing with a soft cast this Sunday. David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
The Titans hardly ran the ball in Week 1. Tony Pollard, who is a capable running back, had just seven carries. But he averaged five yards on some nicely designed runs. You have to think Daboll will emphasize the ground game more to offset the load on Ward. The Eagles will make it tough, as defensive tackle Jordan Davis and Co. often do, but I could see Daboll attacking the outside and trying to make the Eagles’ edge defenders tackle in space. Still, when you have Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell capable of reaching sideline to sideline, I don’t think Fangio is going to have to devote more bodies in the box.
The Eagles are a little banged up in the secondary. Cooper DeJean has abdomen and calf injuries, while safety Andrew Mukuba tweaked his knee in practice. DeJean had one of his worst games last week. Was it just a blip or has the move to safety in base personnel affected his play in the slot? He’ll mostly see receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, but Calvin Ridley will also line up inside. No. 1 draft pick Carnell Tate has immense talent, but outside corners Quinyon Mitchell and Riq Woolen should keep him in check with Ward at the controls. Fangio doesn’t like to blitz more than necessary, but simulated pressures could work well against the Titans. Ward will take sacks, but he avoids turnovers. He’s tossed only eight interceptions in 18 games.
Extra point: A lot would have to go wrong for the Eagles to lose. The Titans just don’t match up well on paper. Maybe there’s a special teams flaw the Titans can expose. Kicker Joey Slye has the knuckleball kickoff in his arsenal. Tank Bigsby lost one of the kick returner jobs last season when he struggled to handle the Rams’ unpredictable kicks. He’s back at the position alongside Will Shipley. Could the Titans target him?
This is the second of the Titans’ two season-opening games at home. They’re used to the climate, of course, but having one game in immense heat under their belts could give them a slight edge. The Eagles traveled to Tennessee a day early to get acclimated. They did the same a year ago in Tampa and beat the Buccaneers. I don’t think it will matter much, but it can’t hurt. The Eagles have lost in each of their three previous trips to Nashville. The names Kenny Britt and Corey Graham probably conjure up bad memories for fans. But it’s likely to take more than just one notable performance for the Eagles to exit the Music City without a victory.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced Thursday that it had revamped its selection process, cutting the number of voters to 28 from 50. The decision inspired some disappointment among those selectors who were told their services were no longer required and among those football followers who pay close attention to such things. Mostly, though, it should have reaffirmed that, when it comes to picking who gets to be immortal and who doesn’t, those of us who cover major sports for a living should do our best to stay out of the way.
Every columnist has at least one hobbyhorse, a burr that’s always under their saddle, a thorn that’s always stuck in their side. I have three: the overuse of cliches, irony, and Hall of Fame selection processes. The Hockey Hall of Fame has an 18-member committee that, at the moment, includes a couple of longtime writers. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame keeps its process and the identities of its selectors a secret, which presents its own set of questions and issues.
But the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame rely primarily on writers and reporters, many if not most of whom are still actively covering those sports day to day, to select inductees, with football’s hall taking the additional step of having those media members actually lobby on behalf of particular candidates.
Like I said, I’ve touched on this topic often enough over the years that I’m not going to repeat each of my arguments and objections here. It’s enough to say that, as my colleague David Murphy has also noted, the major problem with having writers as Hall of Fame voters is that they end up having to cover a story that they themselves have created.
They were part of the cause, for instance, for the outrage that ensued last year when Bill Belichick wasn’t inducted in his first year on the ballot, and they are the reason for the annual debates about which alleged PED users should or should not be feted and celebrated at Cooperstown in late July. Those media members who don’t vote are still free to weigh in on the wisdom (or lack thereof) of the choices, but they can do it knowing — and allowing readers and news consumers to know — that they’re not stacking the deck in favor of their preferred candidate or outcome.
I have, of course, plenty of friends and colleagues who do and did take part in these traditions, among them former Daily News and Inquirer writer Paul Domowitch, who was a conscientious Canton voter for 24 years, and Ray Didinger, whom I consider a mentor and who wrote a famous play based around his (eventually successful) attempts to have Tommy McDonald inducted.
I don’t begrudge them or anyone else. I just disagree. The line between covering and/or commenting on the process and involving oneself in it is one I don’t feel comfortable crossing. The standard argument from the voters, generally speaking, is, It’s an honor, and if we don’t do it, who will? To which the correct response is, I don’t care. I just know it’s not my job.
Aaron Nola has a 2.10 ERA in 60 innings over his last 10 starts.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Quick hitters
Aaron Nola’s last 10 starts might just constitute the greatest and most surprising career comeback since Brendan Fraser won an Academy Award for The Whale. …
Only someone as aggressively insincere as James Franklin could take the simple act of saying hello and turn it into another example of his own obnoxious self-importance. …
Matvei Michkov said that he is 29 pounds lighter than he was at the start of last year’s training camp. Good on him for getting in better shape and losing a Denver Barkey’s worth of weight. …
A couple of literary recommendations: You should read Pat Croce’s new book, Enjoy Your Self Now!, if you want to find a deeper sense of personal peace and satisfaction. You should read The Playbook: The Hidden Forces Shaping Winners and Losers in the Modern NFL, by Wall Street Journal editors Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, if you want a better understanding of how and why certain teams and executives within the league — the Eagles and Howie Roseman, in particular — are thriving. …
Telltale game for the Eagles on Sunday. If they can’t beat the Titans — a franchise whose high-water mark was getting name-dropped by Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt in Cast Away a quarter-century ago — it’s definitely time to worry.
It’s hard to lure downtown diners to Bucks County, and Roberto Carollo knows it.
Carollo’s wood-fired pizzeria inside Doylestown’s Main Street Marketplace, Spuntino, has a loyal, longstanding following, so much so that when the Washington Post analyzed 7.5 million nationwide Yelp reviews in 2023, it determined Spuntino to have the highest-rated Neapolitan pie in Pennsylvania.
“We’ve had a lot of love from the people that matter to us, but I still feel like the suburbs are a really tough place to get attention,” Carollo said. “We’ve been here 12 years, but even Doylestown residents are still finding out about us.”
Roberto Carollo makes the Carbonara pizza at Spuntino on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 in Doylestown, Pa.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
But Spuntino’s puffy, leopard-spotted pies are worth a trek from wherever you may be. Thin, chewy, and judiciously loaded, the pizzas are best eaten then and there, at one of the several tables Spuntino claims inside the market. (Takeout — and leftovers — are perfectly satisfying, too.)
Carollo opened Spuntino in Doylestown in 2014 with his brother Salvatore. (They also had a Northern Liberties location from 2015 to 2023. Carollo is now Spuntino’s sole owner.) The brothers are fourth-generation pizza makers, dating back to their Sicilian great-grandfather’s bakery days. They had grown up working in their father’s Philly-area neighborhood pizzerias — “your big 16-inch pies, hoagies, sandwiches,” Carollo said — but they hadn’t made Neapolitan pies before, and they had no experience with wood-fired ovens.
“We kind of just were going in on a prayer,” Carollo said. They had their work cut out for them with this exacting style of pizza. At Spuntino, a 250-gram ball of 48- to 72-hour fermented dough is stretched into a millimeters-thin 11-inch round, then covered with sauce, cheese, and toppings before being pitched into afiery 900-degree oven, where it cooks in about 90 seconds. The pizzaiolo needs to have an eagle eye. “Five or six seconds too long, and the pizza’s burned,” Carollo said.
Roberto Carollo pulls a Ronzio pizza from the oven at Spuntino on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 in Doylestown, Pa.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Evidently, his prayers were heard: Inquirer critic Craig LaBan named Spuntino among the suburbs’ best pizzas in 2017. Carollo said his chops have only gotten sharper since. “[The pizza] is so much better, and I think that’s natural, that’s normal. Anybody who has any profession — a major athlete — when they start at 18, they’re not as good, hopefully, as they are when they’re 25.”
It’s hard to choose among the 23-pie menu, but Carollo always recommends setting a baseline with a Regina, with milled San Marzano tomatoes, Lioni buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, and salty pecorino Romano. My family scarfed one of those down, but our favorites were the Ronzio — with the same tomatoes and mozzarella, plus thin-sliced soppressata, shaved garlic, Sicilian oregano, mild Calabrian chilies, and a drizzle of honey — and the Carbonara, a white pie with pancetta, caramelized onions, fresh mozz, pecorino, and an egg yolk that’s finished with black pepper and olive oil.
The Carbonara and Ronzio pizzas at Spuntino on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 in Doylestown, Pa.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
We’ll be back for what Carollo considers his most underrated pizza — the Tonno, a red pie with Sicilian tuna and red onion — plus another spin through his fellow vendors in the family-friendly Main Street Marketplace, including Hops/Scotch and the Department of Note stationary store and boutique. Carollo makes a very good point, and Spuntino is proof: “There are a lot of places out in the suburbs that are making such amazing pizza.”
Spuntino, 22 S. Main St., Doylestown, 215-340-7660, spuntinowoodfiredpizzeria.com
The Eagles hit the road for the first time this season to take on the Tennessee Titans, a team they haven’t played since the 2022 season, on Sunday (1 p.m., Fox).
The Eagles began their season with a 24-22 victory against the Commanders, while the Titans enter Sunday’s game looking to bounce back after a 23-10 loss to the New York Jets in their season opener.
Starting left guard Landon Dickerson was placed on injured reserve after aggravating a knee injury vs. Washington. The Eagles will have a new starter on the offensive line against the Titans defense.
The Eagles defense generated 47.4% pressure on Washington, according to Bleeding Green Nation, which should be difficult for Cam Ward and his offense to handle.
So what are the experts thinking about the Birds’ first road game? Let’s take a look at who the local and national media are picking.
Inquirer predictions
The Inquirer beat reporters believe there is nothing to worry about for the Eagles against the Titans.
Novozinsky says even a flawed Eagles team should be able to get it done. Here’s more from Novozinsky:
“The Titans are likely the worst team the Eagles are going to face this year. The Jets — the Jets — limited them to 10 points and just 195 total yards. Titans quarterback Cam Ward had a QBR of 34.4 in the game, which was the seventh-worst in football.
Tennessee has a tough defensive front, led by Jeffery Simmons — who took a shot at Jalen Hurts on Wednesday — which could cause some problems for the inexperienced interior, but that’s really the only thing Nick Sirianni should worry about in this one.”
Olivia Reiner noted that the Eagles still have room to improve offensively, but she’s still predicting a 31-17 Birds win. More of her thoughts:
“The run game left something to be desired, especially when it came to getting the outside zone game going. With Dickerson on injured reserve, can the blocking unit bounce back in Week 2?
“There should be opportunities for the Eagles to run the ball. Last week, the Jets rushed for 152 yards and two touchdowns on 39 carries. Breece Hall eclipsed 100 rushing yards. He forced a missed tackle on 36.4% of his runs against the Titans, which was his highest rate in a game since Week 7 of last season (45.5% against the Panthers), per Next Gen Stats.
Can Saquon Barkley have the same effect? If so, the Eagles could go 2-0 to start the season.”
National media predictions
The national media unanimously favored the Eagles heading into Sunday’s road trip:
NFL.com: All five NFL.com editors selected the Eagles. Jeremy Bergman says “no quarterbacks have been better on the road in September than Hurts and Patrick Mahomes (.800 on their careers)” and “the worst offense in the league” against Vic Fangio’s defense will be a hard test for the Titans.
ESPN.com: ESPN experts also unanimously are backing the Birds.
The Athletic: Vic Tafur, NFL reporter for The Athletic, predicts the Eagles will pull off a win against the Titans, as the team has won a league-best 70% traveling under Nick Sirianni.
CBS Sports: The seven-person panel at CBS all picked the Eagles to start the season 2-0.
USA Today: In their first road trip of the season, USA Today analysts believe the better team will be the Birds.
Sports Illustrated: All eight analysts at Sports Illustrated picked the Eagles.
Bleacher Report: Another clean sweep for the Eagles. Analyst Gary Davenport said “to be fair, while the Eagles won in Week 1, they didn’t look especially good doing it — on either side of the ball. But while Philly was grinding out a win, the Titans were getting dusted. At home. By the New York Jets. Saquon goes nuts. Cam Ward flees for his life for four quarters. Fly Eagles Fly and whatnot.”
Pro Football Talk: Mike Florio picked the Eagles for this weekend’s matchup. “The Eagles may not be as good as they’ve been. The Titans seem to be as bad as they’ve been, possibly worse,” he said.
Sporting News: Bill Bender chose the Birds to win by 17.
Local media predictions
Philly Voice: Staff writers at Philly Voice are backing the Eagles.
Bleeding Green Nation: The entire Bleeding Green Nation writers group is picking the Eagles.
Delaware Online: Eagles beat writer at Delawareonline.com Martin Frank noted three things the Titans have working in their favor: the 95-degree temperatures expected in Nashville, the Eagles being 0-3 at Nissan Stadium, and Landon Dickerson’s injury. “None of that is enough to beat the Eagles,” he said. “But it might not be a pretty Eagles’ win, either.”
The Tennessean: Even the Titans hometown paper is going with the Eagles. Tennessee Titans reporter Nick Suss said the Titans’ defensive unit is better than what it showed against the Jets, but the Eagles won’t have to work too hard to win.
Long before Jason Kelce ripped off his pants to reveal his patriotic Speedo & bikini wax, or turned into “Fat Batman” on the sidelines. Even before he invaded WrestleMania 40 with teammate Lane Johnson in green-and-white luchador masks, I photographed him in 2015 at a commencement ceremony for just six high school graduates.
I didn’t know much about the Eagles center who was still two seasons away from his first first-team All-Pro honor, and well before his Mummer’s Super Bowl parade speech would make him a Philly folk hero and a viral celebrity.
I didn’t even know there would be a speaker, let alone a football player. The event was in a small room upstairs at the William Way Community Center, with kids from a charter school for students in foster care, community homes, or shelters.
It was not a media event; he wasn’t there for the cameras. I was the only other outsider, attending just because I was working on a story on one of the students.
She said Kelce was nice and very genuine. And he gave all the graduates iPads. “That was cool,” she recalled recently, “because none of us could afford one.”
But I was really impressed by what he said to the handful of young people and their families. He stayed around afterward and posed for photos, talked about his life — and theirs.
Since that night, I’ve seen him involved in other efforts supporting foster-care children and students, including “A Philly Special Christmas,” which has provided gifts to thousands of children in foster care.
I thought of Kelce this week when I covered two other Eagles giving back (and once again made it — with some off-the-field non-action — into The Inquirer’s weekly Big Picture look back at the week’s best sports photos).
On Tuesday, quarterback Jalen Hurts donated $600,000 for air conditioning at Philadelphia’s largest high school. Asked why he was turning his attention to city schools, Hurts said he was influenced by his educator parents and the people who made a way for him. “It’s about service and showing up for those around you,” he said.
Northeast High School Viking cheerleaders warm up the (sweltering) auditorium.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerStudents and staff react as Hurts arrives.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
When I arrived at Northeast High School and was escorted with all the other news media to a corner in front of the sweltering auditorium (it really does need the AC!), I didn’t want to just wait around with everyone else until the program started. So I excused myself saying I needed to go back out to get something from my car.
Outside, I talked to teachers working with the student greeters and police officers about the arrival of the football player and school district officials, when as luck would have it, a bunch of big black SUVs arrived.
Just like the night with Kelce, I was the only news media there, so I hung back, not wanting to get booted away. But I also knew I would be getting plenty of photos inside, so I didn’t need to be an obnoxious paparazzo. I positioned myself to focus more on the students when Hurts and the Mayor left their cars.
After following their entourages into a holding area conference room laid out with snacks, I left, but not before making a quick photo — a high-ranking member of the Mayor’s staff sneaking a selfie, just to show the universal appeal of a superstar, world-class athlete.
The Mayor’s chief of staff Tiffany W. Thurman takes a surreptitious selfie.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The pep rally was energetic and visually exciting, but still wearing my covering-political-candidates hat and trying to get something different, I skipped Hurts’ post-event media availability and went to scout opportunities for a photo as he left. As you’d expect, for safety reasons there are multiple ways out from school auditoriums.
While the school safety officers cleared all the students from the hallway I was talking with them over the exit plan and found a good spot — across from some Eagles’ Midnight Green lockers.
City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas leaves Northeast High School Tuesday after attending a rally with Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
But, just like in football — and politics — you win some and you lose some. At the last second I heard an officer’s walkie-talkie squawking “they’re going out the back.”
However, I did get to see them leave outside, and photograph students watching from their classroom — with a window AC unit — as the limos drove away.
Hurts signs jerseys and meets with school staff as he leaves.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerStudents watch from their classroom – with a window AC unit – as Hurts drives away.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
From there I went across town to Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls where Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt was at another assembly announcing that he was establishing four new scholarships.
Little Flower president Kristie Dugan positions the students for a group photo with Kristie Dugan positions the students for a group photo with Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt – and the Super Bowl Lombardi Trophy.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
He got to know the school when he was drafted by the Eagles and started a fundraiser for underfunded school sports programs. Little Flower’s basketball team was one of the first recipients. That was two years ago, and he has kept up that relationship with what he calls a “whole bunch of little sisters” in the hundreds of students there.
As Eagles beat reporter Olivia Reiner reported, he was heeding his teacher mother’s advice: “You don’t have to originate in a place to become a part of that place.“
The scholarships are each named after women in his life.
Christian Molnar, the Eagles’ director of team relationships, unpacks the Lombardi Trophy at Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
September 14, 2026: Chris Lewis (right), portraying James Forten, an abolitionist, activist, and sailmaker in colonial America, greets visitors outside Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church as they arrived for an America 250 Conversation hosted by Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton on Sept. 10. The stainedglass window at left depicts Richard Allen, founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816, the first independent black religious denomination in the United States. Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerSeptember 7, 2026: Joe Ackler of Skippack shops for a race T-shirt during a lull between laps in the Philadelphia Cycling Classic on Aug. 30. He is wearing a shirt he bought in 2003 when he attended the Tour de France. Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerAugust 31, 2026: Robin P. Cooper (upper right) watches as Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. (far left) gathers school and city officials for a group photo outside the district bus, stopped at McClure Elementary on the first day of school in Philadelphia. The bus was on its annual back-to-school celebration visit to schools throughout Philadelphia. Cooper later left the bus to join in the photo. Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerAugust 24, 2026: Pencils were sharpened in the first-grade classroom of teacher Lauren Cucinotta at Fanny Jackson Coppin Elementary as she prepared for the start of the new school year for the Philadelphia School District on Monday.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerAugust 17, 2026: Wayne Peters (left) and Bobby White (right) wait for the #406 bus to Camden, on Rt. 70 in Cherry Hill, near the entrance to stores at the Garden State Pavilion shopping center and NJ Transit’s Cherry Hill station. Peters says it “Gotta be the worst bus stop in the state,” with White adding, “You’d think something in Cherry Hill would be better. How hard would it be to put a trash can here?” Before their bus arrives, Peters, trying to be positive about the shelter, reminds him “They fixed a broken window once.”Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerAugust 10, 2026: Cheltenham High School in Wyncote, on the day the Montgomery County district attorney announced charges in connection with two assaults in the school’s football locker room. A photo of the static signs was made more visually interesting by using a slow camera shutter speed to blur the passing cars. Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerAugust 3, 2026: Sign for locally “grown” honey outside the market at Springdale Farms, the only working farm left in Cherry Hill. Before WWII, when it was still known as Delaware Township, there were 82 farms in operation feeding South Jersey markets and supplying the massive fresh vegetable and crop demands of the Campbell’s Soup Company in Camden. Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerJuly 27, 2026: Lyn-el “The Torch” Wright pauses on the City Hall Courtyard’s rendering of William Penn’s Philadelphia city grid plan. Penn designed the 1,200-acre “Greene Countrie Towne” between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers with wide, crisscrossing streets to prevent the overcrowding and fires he had witnessed in London. Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerJuly 20, 2026: Pat Dailey (left) and Ken Hopper with the Tun Legacy Foundation prepare a room at the Wynwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Cinnaminson, N.J., for a surprise 100th birthday party for WWII U.S. Marine Corps veteran Stephen Anderson. Dailey founded the nonprofit that supports veteran causes, Masonic charities, and educational scholarships. The organization is also rebuilding and reestablishing an authentic reproduction of the original Tun Tavern building in Philadelphia. The Tun, constructed in 1693, was the first documented lodge in North America and the birthplace of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1775.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerJuly 13, 2026: The Independence Visitor Center offers free birthday cake to the public on the Fourth of July, in the form of a massive American flag made of 5,000 cupcakes frosted red, white and blue.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerJuly 6, 2026: National Park Police Deputy Chief Rebekah Spedaliere shows off her own bald eagle tattoo while posing for a photo with bald eagle “Indy” and handler Amanda Sweeney with the Auburn University Raptor Center, during ceremonies over the July Fourth weekend. Indy came to Auburn, in Alabama, in 2018 after suffering a wing injury as a young bird and imprinted on humans during rehabilitation, so she couldn’t be released back into the wild. Now, she serves as an ambassador bird, teaching people about raptors, conservation, and the ecosystems that sustain them. Not her first rodeo in Philly, she made her first appearance at the Linc for an Eagles’ game in 2023. Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerJune 29, 2026: Shecky Perlman as Ben Franklin is inside the Free Quaker Meeting House on Independence Mall as he and other historical reenactors receive their diplomas after weeks of intensive, immersive training for the 21st season of Historic Philadelphia’s Once Upon a Nation program — where costumed actors perform first-person interpretations of real 18th-century Philadelphians in the Historic District and at Valley Forge National Historical Park.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerJune 22, 2026: A downed utility pole serves as a quiet place to eat, away from the crowd at the Odunde Festival, billed as the largest African street market in North America.” Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerJune 15, 2026: Bob Myers, president of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, owner/operator of the 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, as well as a future Philadelphia WNBA team, talks to reporters after Mike Gansey made his first appearance as Sixers president of basketball operations at the Penn Medicine Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex in Camden. Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerJune 8, 2026: Obet Montalvo, a digital strategist with Radicle Digital, finds a quiet nook at the Convention Center on Thursday June 4, 2026, while attending Netroots Nation, the country’s largest annual gathering for progressive political activists, and organizers. The fan fest is an outgrowth of the blog Daily Kos, and brings together thousands of grassroots organizers to participate in training sessions, panel discussions, and keynote addresses.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
NEW YORK — Zack Wheeler threw “about three strikes in the bullpen,” by his best recollection. But that wasn’t why he slowed his walk across the outfield before a May 12 start in Boston.
“Man,” he exhaled to catcher/confidant J.T. Realmuto, “this is cool.”
Wheeler doesn’t usually do sentimental. Not publicly, at least. He’s 36, with gray wisps in his beard befitting a father of four small children. He’s still the Phillies’ ace, too, and baseball’s highest-paid pitcher (non-Shohei Ohtani division) at $42 million per year.
Wheeler would rather not waste time, then, on things that don’t matter or aren’t within his control. No-nonsense to his core (save for the occasional cameo on his wife’s TikToks), you have a better chance of getting the password to his email than getting him to go deep on overcoming venous thoracic outlet syndrome, the scary-sounding, career-threatening condition that befell him 13 months ago.
So, why the pause for reflection four months ago on the grass in Fenway Park? It sure seemed like a break from his typical tunnel vision to appreciate something that was nearly taken away.
“Part of that’s me probably winding down my career,” Wheeler said the other day after running sprints in the outfield here. “I’ve only got one more year on this contract. I don’t know if I’m going to play after that. But just going into those stadiums that maybe I won’t go back to — Anaheim, Detroit, Boston — we’re not going to play those teams there next year. So, kind of just soaking that in and enjoying it a little bit more this year than most years.”
Phillies ace Zack Wheeler has one season left on a three-year, $126 million contract.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Wait, let’s pause. When Wheeler signed an extension in March 2024, he initially wanted only a two-year deal. The Phillies talked him into three, for a total of $126 million. And at a news conference in Clearwater, Fla., he hinted it might be his last contract.
“I don’t want to play until I’m ‘old, old,’” he said then.
OK, sure. But did anyone really believe him? Wheeler was at the peak of his powers, healthier and better in the first half of his 30s with the Phillies than in his late 20s with the Mets. Besides, 40 is the new 30 in pro sports.
And here’s Wheeler now, pitching as well as ever — 2.99 ERA and 177 strikeouts in 150⅓ innings — even after a procedure last Sept. 23 in which surgeons removed his top rib to relieve a compressed vein.
Surely, he won’t walk away after only one more season. Will he?
“Honestly, I mean, it’s just still up in the air,” Wheeler said. “I think a lot of things have to kind of play out for me just to be able to see.”
Presumably, that includes the outcome of another Red October.
The Phillies are closing in on a fifth consecutive playoff appearance, and their chances of making a deep run hinge on the starters, notably Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, and Jesús Luzardo, if he’s able to overcome an inflamed left shoulder. Aaron Nola, Wheeler’s close friend and longtime running mate atop the rotation, can help, too, if he continues his second-half revival.
But there’s also baseball’s looming labor fight over a salary cap. With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire Dec. 1, the owners almost certainly will lock out the players.
What if an agreement isn’t reached in time for a 162-game season in 2027? How would that affect Wheeler’s plans?
“I don’t know,” he said, smiling. “I think it’s just going to be [a decision] at that point in time, whether it’s this or that, honestly.”
Fair enough. Say this, though: A year ago, even some Phillies officials wondered if Wheeler’s retirement, whenever it happens, might not be entirely on his own terms. Wheeler insists he never had a doubt.
Zack Wheeler (right) and Aaron Nola have been mainstays in the Phillies’ starting rotation since 2020.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
‘To be expected’
As Wheeler comes up on one year since his surgery, it was fitting that he pitched this week in Washington, where his injury odyssey began.
Wheeler allowed two runs in five innings on Aug. 15, 2025, in Nationals Park and felt fine after coming out of the game. But when he developed a bubble in his armpit that looked like a lymph node, head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit recommended that they get it checked by the Nationals’ team physicians.
It turned out to be a blood clot.
Wheeler returned to Philadelphia for a venogram, a test to detect blood flow. The conclusion: The clot was caused by a vein that got compressed between the rib cage and collarbone.
One month after the clot was removed, Wheeler had a second procedure to relieve the vein. Then came the hard part: weeks of physical therapy and rehab, including a strict diet, not easy for an unabashed fast-food and junk-food lover.
It took time for Wheeler to put back the weight. He left spring training at about 195 pounds, roughly 10 pounds less than normal.
And yet, after all that, Wheeler shut out the Nationals on four hits in seven innings Wednesday night in Washington. Among 52 pitchers with a minimum of 150 innings entering the weekend, Wheeler was 14th in ERA and tied for 10th in walks/hits per inning (1.06).
“He’s made it look very easy,” pitching coach Caleb Cotham said of Wheeler’s comeback. “And it’s not.”
If someone had told Wheeler, as he left the hospital last September, that he’d be pitching at this level a year later, what would he have said?
“To be expected,” Wheeler said. “When you have surgery, or anything along those lines, you just have to stay positive and keep a strong mindset, you know? You believe that you’re going to come back and be the same guy, if not better, because you’ve had more time to strengthen and fine-tune everything.
Zack Wheeler says he “expected” to be pitching this well a year after surgery.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“For me, it was just, come back, hit the ground running, and just be the same guy as I was, if not better.”
It did take time for Wheeler to regain the pre-surgery zip on his fastball. Even now, it isn’t completely back. He averaged 96.5 mph in July 2025, according to Statcast; he’s averaging 95.5 mph so far this month.
But Wheeler leans on his secondary pitches more now. His splitter, in particular, is “as good as it’s ever been,” Cotham said. Wheeler has thrown it 15.7% of the time, according to Statcast, and held opponents to a .182 average and .303 slugging.
If anything, Wheeler said the most unexpected part of the season was the depth of a six-start struggle after the All-Star break in which he posted an 8.51 ERA, bottoming out with an eight-run, five-walk, four-homer dud in Seattle on Aug. 24.
The root of the problem was a glitch in his mechanics. Wheeler dropped his glove, causing him to over-rotate and follow through too far to the third-base side. He fixed the issue and has allowed three runs in his last 26 innings.
“I feel like, since I’ve been [with the Phillies], I haven’t had more than two, maybe three starts in a row where it’s kind of gone bad,” Wheeler said. “I think I probably thought I was going to get out of it a little quicker than I did. And I didn’t. So, maybe I should have checked in a little bit earlier.”
It probably cost him a chance for his elusive Cy Young Award, although Brewers sensation Jacob Misiorowski probably wrapped that up months ago. But there’s little doubt Wheeler will be the Comeback Player of the Year.
Zack Wheeler and J.T. Realmuto have played together with the Phillies since 2020.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
‘This is where you want to be’
Eleven days after the removal of his rib, Wheeler was introduced with his teammates before Game 1 of the divisional round against the Dodgers.
It was a helpless feeling.
“Yeah, it was tough,” he said. “Maybe if it was like June or May, I would have been like, ‘All right.’ But being that close to the finish line and the playoffs where, that’s your goal every year is to make the playoffs and see what happens. It was tough.
“But what are you going to do? I’m that type of person where, stuff’s going to happen in your life. Everyday stuff, normal person stuff, baseball-wise stuff, and sometimes you just can’t help. Injuries happen. Car wrecks happen. Stuff happens in life. You just have to learn how to deal with it and figure stuff out.”
It helped that Wheeler overcame injuries early in his career.
Drafted in the first round (sixth overall) by the Giants in 2009, traded to the Mets in a one-for-one deal for Carlos Beltrán, and hailed as a top prospect, he missed 2½ seasons after Tommy John elbow surgery and multiple setbacks during the recovery.
By comparison, coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome was straightforward.
“That was my first injury where I was missing time at any level, even high school, so I was honestly just nervous that I wouldn’t get back,” Wheeler said. “I was unsure, just hoping for the best. But this far into my career, at the level that I’ve been pitching at, I expect to be there and want to be there.”
A year later, it’s like Wheeler was never gone.
“This time of the season, it’s cool, it’s special,” Wheeler said. “This is where you want to be, and these games really, really matter. It’s fun competing in these types of games, these atmospheres, and getting that close to the finish line. You’ve got to really bear down, and I think everybody knows that.”
