Sleep

...ba href=/sleep/a/b in her bedroom that cold February night.

Todd, her husband, wasn't next to her.

He didn't feel well, he told her at bedtime.

He let her ba href=/sleep/a/b and went to another room.

It wasn't loud when the ball first struck.

It was almost silent, but it woke Scarlett anyway.

Todd still wasn't beside her.

But it was early, not even midnight yet.

Besides, he wasn't well.

He had been sick for years.

He had pains in his jaw.

They were used to it.Scarlett realized something wasn't right.

Where was Todd?

She found him in the other room, his eyes rolled and sunken.

The apartment was still.

But unknown to Scarlett, her walls were caving in.

Glass was shattering.

She called the paramedics while an invisible sphere of destruction swung through her Lexington Avenue apartment.They took Todd to the hospital.

"So, how long will he be here?

" she asked a nurse.

Todd was gone, the nurse replied.

He was gone when he arrived.***Scarlett knew what the wrecking ball was.

She just didn't know why God leveled her life with it.

Todd had written about it in his book.

The boom crane, as he called it, was God's painful tool for helping people grow.

It came in many forms.

For Scarlett, it was her husband's heart attack.

Wrecking balls were life lessons, Todd said.

They gave direction to a path of purpose.But that's why Todd asked her to marry him.

God wanted it.

It was their purpose, he said.

And God took him.

What purpose was there in that?

He was only 52.

His birthday was coming in a few weeks.

Scarlett was ...

...ba href=/sleep/a/b on its laurels, Max’s Dau branch has recently bagged another award for its outstanding customer service.

Shining above the rest of Max’s 115 branches nationwide, Max’s Dau was awarded the 1st Ruby’s Champions Club Award on March 18 by Max’s Head Office.

The restaurant, which belongs to the LGC & MTL Foods chain of Max’s outlets, had tallied a perfect score of 100 percent for six consecutive months, from September 2005 to February 2006, in the Mystery Guest Program (MGP).

In the MGP, an undercover evaluator visits a particular branch posing as an ordinary customer.

He would then secretly rate the restaurant on various aspects such as the taste of the food served, overall appearance of the establishment and efficient service, among others.

Just recently, the branch, together with other members of the Max’s Group, received numerous awards in the Max’s awards night held at the Hyatt Hotel on February 21, 2006.

Max’s Dau was named Most Outstanding Branch of the Year while its branch manager, Alvin S.

Buyson, was feted the Branch Manager of the Year award.

The branch is under the auspices of businesswoman, Ma.

Theresa “Tess” Laus, wife of Pampanga business leader Levy P.

Laus.

Other affiliates under the Laus Group of Companies have lauded the management and staff of Max’s Dau for the latest recognition the branch has received.

(March 31, 2006 issue)Write letter to the editor.

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ENETWORK HEADLINE Arroyo involvement in...

...ba href=/sleep/a/b on dirty mattresses, the luckiest of the lot actually has a sheet that has by now become yellow with dirt.

They have been living here for months without even knowing the reason why, without being able to see doctors, lawyers or even volunteers from non-governing organisations.

An hour of air a day, sometimes even that is denied to them if they "do not behave." Without a book or a newspaper to read, or a pen to write with; there is a television in the corner of the "recreation room," but there is not even one bench to sit down upon and the only channel is in Maltese.

"We will become crazy in here." Some of them have actually already gone crazy.

They could no longer withstand the wait, 18 months of imprisonment because they are illegal and with the only chance of getting out being to obtain political asylum in Malta.

They could not stand any more: they went mad, the soldiers forced them to sign a paper and then they were taken away.

Where?

Mohammed shows us a bucket for washing: within it there are some scraps of white rice and slices of boiled potatoes.

"Look what we are given to eat.

Every day it is the same food: macaroni and rice.

Never any meat or vegetables, only an apple now and then." Then he takes a fist of it and puts it in his mouth.

"We have no forks or even plates." Only a cup for the Lipton, as they call the tea.

A man from Sudan touches his chest.

He has asthma but they have given him medicine that had already expired the previous month.

It was an Italian ...