At left — that’s me with Mishol Randolph. We were at the Dress for Success Purse and Pearls luncheon yesterday, and Mishol, of Erie, spoke to a sellout crowd that hung on every word.

At 25. Mishol recounted addictions to drugs and alcohol that started before she was a teenager and progressed to heroin. She cleaned up when she became pregnant, but returned to drugs within weeks of giving birth. She landed in prison, but she credits that experience for realizing she would lose her daughter.

Today, Mishol is a sales executive for the Erie Bayhawks, and she is happily raising her daughter Baelyn, 7.

Hers is a story of help from an entire Erie community that supports women. Kudos to the Erie County Treatment Court, a treatment-oriented program associated with the Mental Health Association of Northwestern Pennsylvania; Turning Point, a chemical dependency treatment facility in Franklin;

Mercy Center for Women, Dress for Success and the Erie Bayhawks.

To read more of her story, click here. Mishol also spoke at the 2013 Dress for Success “Something to Share” Gala in New York City in April.

Congratulations to Mishol and all the women who have turned their lives around with the help of Erie organizations.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step grandmom to one.

Last year, my team and I tracked and interviewed countless murder suspects, got the dirt on wealthy families that shaped Erie history and had a rip-roaring good time at the Watson-Curtze Mansion.

I felt like I was at Downton Abbey. And you can too!

It’s a real life game of Clue where actors portray the suspects — and they are stationed in various rooms of the four-story mansion and neighboring Planetarium. Everyone has a story, but you can’t always believe it — because one of them is a murderer!

Is it the doctor? The gardener? The lawyer? The spurned ex-wife? The mistress? The nanny? The long lost son or the guy who pretended to be the long lost son? Clues, clues — you must find all the clues! 

Join us — dress in your best 1920s fashions, enjoy the cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and desserts. And find the murderer!

Saturday, June 15 at  6 p.m. The after party begins at 8 p.m.

Teams of six can register for $250 before May 24. After, teams are $300. The Erie County Historical Society will match individuals and couples with a group if you do not have a team.

If you can’t make the game … join the Roaring 20s themed after party at the mansion. Tickets sold separately at only $20.

Hurry — this event sells out every year! Call 814-454-1813 x24

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three and stepmom of three.

Soap legend Katherine Chancellor of “The Young and the Restless” is a household name in soapdom. Jeanne Cooper played the role of the epic rich woman who battled alcoholism. She was a complicated character ever since 1973 — the first year of the soap. I watched in high school, college and later, but drifted away from it.

Cooper’s son, Corbin Bernsen (of LA Law), announced yesterday that his mother had died at age 84. She had been in and out of the hospital with an infection for the past month. She did participate in Y&R’s 40th anniversary celebration earlier this year.

Cooper was a pretty fascinating woman long before she hit soaps. She was in westerns, The Big Valley, Perry Mason, Bracken World, Ben Casey, and a host of other TV programs of the 1950s and 60s.

Here’s a 2009 interview with Cooper, courtesy of the Archive of American Television. She had a facelift on TV. Here’s a link to that interview. 

Her memoir is called “Not Young, Still Restless.” Read an excerpt here. 

Here’s her bio on SoapCentral.com

Here’s a link to the CBS website

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

It was quite a week for the 82-year-old “Oracle of Omaha.”

He joined Twitter saying, “Warren is in the house.” He also raised the roof and told the world how valuable women are to every business in a magazine article he wrote for Fortune. Read it here. In essence, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO says we need women in every occupation. Women are “the key to American prosperity,” he said.

He encourages women to be confident, and so does “Lean In,” Sheryl Sandberg’s book that discusses how women often hold themselves back. Read what Erie women think right here in a great story by Lindsey Poisson.

Check out Hathaway’s interview with Rebecca Jarvis on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” here.

Here’s an article on how Gen-Y women will close the salary gap. Read it here.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

Erica Erwin’s story in today’s Erie Times-News delves into the Millcreek Township School District’s $8.8 million deficit for the 2013-2014 school year.

Acting Superintendent William Hall announced the bad news last week. He mentioned he had a “wow” moment when he discovered the budget deficit in November. That was November, folks. In another report, a school director also said “wow” in comment to the budget woes last week. Here’s some media advice to the current board and administration:

Don’t say wow. If you want to regain trust among Millcreek residents, wow isn’t going to do it.

Go to the Jay Badams and Matthew Cummings School of breaking bad news. And hurry. Badams, leader of the Erie School District, presented plans to all the media in advance of laying it out to the public and school staffs. In Erie, before he suggested closing schools, Badams told everyone that the Erie district owned a lot of real estate and schools weren’t full. Is that the case in Millcreek? About 16 years ago, boundary changes sent my kids from Vernondale to the new Tracy school — we had heard that eventually Ridgefield and Vernondale would close. Now, we’re hearing it again. Bring out the stats.

Listen to Felix & Gloeckler. The accounting firm advised that trouble was ahead last year. Accountants know budgets. If someone had listened a little earlier — like November — maybe a plan would have been in place right now.

Give William Hall a chance. He lives in Millcreek and has a child in Millcreek schools, according to Marsha Marsh, who was critical of my cynicism on how Millcreek is going to handle this mess. Her vote of confidence is good enough for me — today, but this district needs results and fast. Hall has to get his administration, staff and board to lose the arrogant, know-it-all attitude it has sported throughout the last administration. Now is your chance to wow us, Mr. Hall. Go for it.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three — all graduates of McDowell High School.  

No I am not a University of Michigan cheerleader — Michigan’s wolverines are in the NCAA Final Four and play Syracuse this weekend. But in terms of style, yellow and navy blue are in my final four for spring. The colors are paired up almost everywhere and offer a nice, finished crisp look.

I bought a yellow dress similar to this Ann Taylor frock, at left, at Grove City Outlets a few weeks ago. It was paired with a blue jacket — or lots of blue jackets — navy works. Bright blue works.

I’m going to need a tan to go with that yellow dress — and some warmer weather, but I’m hoping I will be wearing it before May.  I also bought two navy dresses and some navy pants. It seems years have gone by where I couldn’t find anything navy. Now, it’s taking over, and I’m glad. It’s a nice change from a little black dress or slacks.

If you’re adding to your spring wardrobe, the outlets were full of color when my daughter and I shopped.

And in the NCAA Final Four, I am rooting for the Louisville Cardinals. My son picked them to win, and who doesn’t love the school color – red.

Happy Friday!

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one

Sunday,  savvy suds lovers will celebrate the 80th anniversary of Prohibition’s end on April 7, 1933 — National Beer Day, called to my attention by KRUPS, the coffee maker people who dabble in the Beertender – a kitchen appliance that is a mini-keg.

The hoppy holiday makes the night before New Beer’s Eve, and of course it has its own Facebook page.

Where did National Beer Day come from? Prohibition, of course!  On April 7th, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act. It ended the 13 years of alcohol prohibition in the United States. Clever folks made beer the night before to celebrate. 

Even if you don’t like beer, you can celebrate with a shandy, or shandygaff – beer mixed with soda, lemonade, ginger ale or even cider. Wikipedia says a shandy with beer and cider is called a snakebite.

If you’d like a Heineken with that, here’s a picture of the Beertender — the ultimate at home draft beer experience. It costs around $150 and holds five liters of beer that stays fresh for three days. Here comes a weekend to celebrate beer and ingenuity. Cheers!  

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one. 

Nanners (bananas) first entered my vocabulary, thanks to “Rugrats,” one of the many Nickelodeon cartoon shows I watched with my kids. Star of the show toddler Tommy loved nanners and often fed them to his baby brother, Dil while pal Chuckie, twins Phil and Lil and Tommy’s dog, Spike, looked on. Villain Angelica, the oldest of the tots, always said, “You dumb babies.”

Then we had “Bananas in Pajamas” the life-sized bananas with Australian accents. and finally we all grew to love/hate the dreaded banana peel, at left from Mario Kart, made famous by Nintendo EAD.

Throughout the years, my kids learned to love banana bread, and now it’s the one thing I often send off to my son in Virginia Beach.

Funny how a tropical fruit can have such influence on the family.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one. 

When the kids were little and we were on the road, word finds, word puzzles and number games ruled. One fun game was making words out of Easter — this worked well usually for one kid but not all.

Wiki answers suggests: east, tease, teaser, rest, tear,tears, ear, ears, sat, rat, rats, tar, tars, seat, taser, tea, sear, set, star,  erase, east ease, ear, ears, eat, eats, era, eras, art, arts, ate, are, as, steer, seer, star, stare, seat, sear, sea, see, set, sat,  rate, rest, rates, tree and trees.

If you try it with Happy Easter, yahoo.com says you can add all of these: happy, prat, prats, pray, prays, rap, raps, pep, peps, perp, yap, the,there, yet, pet, pets, Pete, Peter, tap, taps, ape, apes, sappy, trap, traps, strap, straps, tarp, part, party, yeast.

No matter what words you make today, have a Happy Easter. At our house, we have Happy Eaters on a day like this. Mmmm, or nom nom as my kids say.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one. 

When my husband and I got married 10 years ago and merged two families, he made a point of entertaining the kids with eggstra special egg chatter. This year, the kids are 21 and older and scattered around the universe. We will only see my two youngest on Easter, but we are eggcited. Here are a few eggsuberant words to liven up your day.

Chocolate-covered strawberries are not eggstravagant treats.

There is no such thing as eggstraneous chocolate.

I will have to count on eggstreme eggcerise to burn off the eggcelent chocolate eggs I consume.

The treadmill often eggsacerbates the pain in my knee.

A coconut egg is eggsactly what I want.

My niece in New Mexico won’t join us for Easter because she is eggspecting.

It’s eggsasperating when we don’t hear from some family members.

I need to eggsamine the peanut butter eggs.

Eggstract those jelly beans from the bottom of the Easter baskets.

If it keeps snowing, we’ll have to eggscavate to find the daffodils.

If the sun shines, it will eggceed our eggspectations.

Dinner will be eggsceptional — my sister makes lamb.

My brother makes German potato salad, and he eggsagerates how much work it is. (Well, not really — it requires an eggstraordinary amount of time.)

My brother and sister love to cook. I make deviled eggs, an eggsample of how much I love to cook. We eggsemplify a modern family.

When my husband reads this eggcerpt, he is going to eggsclaim that I eggscluded a lot of words, but I have to stop.

This is … eggshausting.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.