Saying Goodbye to Freilich Jewelers

By DAVID CRUZ

The door buzzed open at Freilich Jewelers, letting in Marilyn Maldonado, a faithful customer still stunned to learn the news–it would be less than a week until the store she frequented for 32 years would close after 76 years of business in the Bronx. “It’s Marilyn, with a broken heart,” said Maldonado, who has entrusted the store with her personal life’s milestones. “Why is your heart broken?” asked Allan Freilich, the bespectacled owner of the neighborhood jewelry shop. “Because you’re going,” said Maldonado, eventually awash in tears. “Is there someone we can call? We need you here.” “This is

Editor’s Pick Recycle Holiday Trees The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation presents Treecycle at Annual Mulchfest 2016. Recycle your holiday tree into woodchips that will nourish trees and gardens throughout the city. Free mulch collection bags will be provided and patrons may bring home a bag of free mulch for their own garden at the chipping site at Van Cortlandt Park’s golf course at Bailey Avenue and VC Pk. So., Jan. 9 and 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Donors may bring trees from Jan. 2 to 10 to local drop-off sites for future recycling: Williamsbridge

By DAVID GREENE

Feeding the poor and less fortunate in Norwood is no easy task and for the last 12 years members of the Community of Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal have done that. This year the religious order once again joined volunteers in handing out holiday gift bags to 300 families. The crowd gathered outside of Our Lady of Guadalupe Convent on Bainbridge Avenue, next door to the former Shrine Church of St. Ann’s, handing out bags containing everyday food items. They were also handed a second bag filled with a traditional holiday meal that was highlighted with a frozen ham. According to Sister Mary

Dear Loyal Readers! The Norwood News has come out with its final newspaper of the year! It was a great year in news, which became the basis of our Year in Review story that traveled back to the early part of 2015 and all the stories we’ve chronicled. The year was filled with a lot of pluses and minuses, as in any year, and we give our take on how the Bronx fared this year in our editorial found on page 2. Every year has beginnings and endings, the latter being the more sadder of the two. This year Norwood residents

By WILLIAM MATHIS

It’s been an eventful year in Norwood, with developments in housing, politics and parks making headlines. As 2016 approaches, the Norwood News looks back at some of the year’s biggest stories. Housing and Development It was the year of housing in New York as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration worked throughout the city to advance his Housing New York initiative, which would build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing citywide. However, community boards around the city, including in the Bronx, pushed back against two zoning amendments that would have made the building possible. Community Board 7 and the Bronx

By VIVIAN CARTER

Dolph Schayes, a DeWitt Clinton High School alum who became one of the NBA’s greatest players, died of cancer in Syracuse, New York, on Dec. 10. He was 87. Adolph Schayes was born in the University Heights section of the Bronx on May 19, 1928, to Carl and Tina Schayes, Romanian Jewish immigrants who lived at 183rd Street and Davidson Avenue near Jerome Avenue. Schayes had grown to a height of 6’5” by the time he was 11, and eventually topped out at 6’8.” Schayes was a natural for the game of basketball, playing at Creston Junior High School 79,

By DAVID GREENE

Police are looking for the gunman who fired one shot into the back of a man who fled his assailants and collapsed outside of Devoe Park. Officers from the 52nd Precinct were called to the side entrance of Devoe Park, at University Avenue and West Fordham Road at 9:21 a.m. on Dec. 20 when they found a man lying on the ground. The victim, later identified as Albendris Nunez, 22, of the Hudson Heights section of Manhattan, was “unconscious and unresponsive” and rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, but doctors were unable to save him. Police officials say that Nunez was shot by his assailant

By DAVID GREENE

This week we asked readers their holiday wishes for 2016. I wish that this war will stop. That’s one of the main things I look forward to. But it’s hard; it’s not getting better. It’s difficult to avoid certain things. I guess you just have to roll with the punches and try and be more positive. Besides that, myself, I’m just trying to finish school for the holidays and start a new year fresh and hopefully with a new girlfriend. Michael Gordillo I’m just wishing for a better understanding of life. I want to better myself and move out

By DAVID CRUZ

For the past 15 years, toasty whiffs of natural smoke would puff out a tiny shop on East Gun Hill Road in Norwood, emitting an acquired scent. If customers look behind the store’s window pane, a quad of workers carefully roll brown thick cigars. In front of them, a row of brown lounge chairs are available for the casual smoker looking to sit and reflect as they inhale sweet tobacco. “A cigar is meant to relax yourself,” said Francisco Rosario, owner of Rosario’s Cigars LLC. Rosario’s family-operated shop is a true family collaboration in every sense of the word. He