Mailbag - October 2025

ALL AFLUTTER Raising monarch butterflies is a passion for Joe Cialone and his neighbors, sisters Ceci,10, (middle) and Emie Van Syoc, 7, who prepare here for a release. What started as a mutual interest has bonded them like family. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

A shared passion

We read this article [Caterpillars to Companions: How monarch butterflies turned neighbors into family by Cathy Gordon, Sept. 2025] with great interest as we are huge butterfly enthusiasts!

We would love to make contact with Laura Van Syoc and Joe Cialone because we have had few butterflies and butterfly larva this year in our West University yard compared to other years and are so disappointed and would love to know if Laura and Joe are experiencing the same thing.

In addition, we have tons of milkweed to share with them if they need it.

Marlene Hollier and Frank Foster

Editor’s note: Thank you for reaching out. We’ve passed your correspondence onto Laura and Joe and hope you all connect! 

Connecting neighbors 

Ms. Cathy Gordon: Much enjoyed the lengthy article on those beautiful monarch butterflies. It is certainly a small world that neighbors Mr. Cialone in his 80s and the Van Syoc sisters young enough to be his great-grand-girls are all into monarchs. 

Of interest I just read online is that those east of the Rockies migrate as far north back and forth Canada to central Mexico and some to Florida, while those west of the Rockies head for California or northern Mexico. Furthermore, some migrate less than a hundred miles, and some don’t migrate at all.       

As is often the case with animals, they are in decline for a number of reasons.

Bennett Fisher

Top-notch Buzz feature

Last night, after my husband and I finished dinner, he asked if there was anything interesting to read in this month’s Memorial Buzz. I told him I bet there was and started flipping through the issue that laid on the kitchen table in search of the article that went with the cover photo [Runways and Reins: A trio of friends saddle up at IAH by Cathy Gordon, Sept. 2025]. I ended up reading the entire article to him, something I have never done before. We both learned something new. It was so interesting!

I honestly think it was one of your best features. Thank you for sharing your story. 

Francine Gorelic Todes

Buzzing about The Beehive

We are so blessed to be a part of The Beehive events [as featured in The Buzz about The Beehive: The sacredness of belonging by Michelle Casas Groogan, Aug. 2025]! Such a great group of teens that treat our kids with dignity and true friendship! My son Carter comes home talking a million miles a minute after every Beehive event. He is typically not very communicative but comes alive after these social events.

Susan Collins

Everyone is connected 

Thank you, Cindy Gabriel, for the article Before the Flood, After the Flood [Aug. 2025]. And thank you for the beautifully written obituaries for Blake and Blakely. Your words touched me, and I am sure many others who read the insightful article.

My husband Randy and I were to be at Mo Ranch the weekend after July 4th with our First Presbyterian Church family. Obviously, it was canceled…we had church families that were directly affected with the loss of precious granddaughters. As you said, “everyone seems to be connected to one or more of the grieving families in some way.”

Thank you for sharing your G-d/God given talent of writing with us!

Beverly Schorre

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