Most of us have at least one person in our family who has served in the military during wartime. These men and women live amongst us, some suffering more than others, some not suffering at all. As they age their sense of self worth comes into focus, and they struggle to explain themselves to younger family members. Talking about traumatic events experienced during war is stressful and exhausting. So the question is “Should we dredge up old painful memories? Are our grandfathers and fathers too old to heal?” Apparently Frazier Sheppard and Laverne Shimanek feel you are never too old to heal. Sheppard (US Army, Vietnam) and Shimanek (US Marine, Korea) are both veterans of war and now they r

It was supposed to be cathartic. Healing. To bring a sense of peace and closure to a difficult experience. Instead it was like opening the wound all over again. Grief is complicated. Father/daughter relationships are complicated. At least mine is. Was. Is. See what I mean? When I saw the announcement for this year’s Panteón Sacramento, put on by La Raza Galería Posada, I saw it as an opportunity for my sister and my son and me to do something that we hadn’t been allowed to do properly: memorialize my father. He died unexpectedly over just a couple of days in May of 2010. He was 68. His third wife took charge of the memorial, which was a sort of open house, and the obituary, whi

A group of Roseville filmmakers have made their dreams reality with an inspiring full-length film. No Parking is a beautiful story written by Seth Shore made into a full-length film directed by Hector Marquez. It premiered with great local acclaim that hopes to propel it to further success as a project that is much larger than the movie alone. Much like the movie’s tagline, “the ride is the destination”, the film is only the beginning of the overall drive for No Parking. Grief coerces Paul and Ray to embark on a high school dream they never entertained with action. An 11 day road trip in a ’73 Volkswagen Bus is impetus for revelation into the human heart at its rawest point; when ‘the da