Each edition, Tony Taglavore takes a local person to lunch – someone well-known, influential or successful – and asks, “What’s Your Story?”

“I will never tell you that it doesn’t bother me. It still bothers me. Even at the end of 29 years of emergency medicine, children’s deaths would bother me. Children’s deaths always bothered me.

Speaking of careers, Nelms’ path to her current role as director of sports for the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission was not a straight line.

The Hispanic Heritage Association of Northwest Louisiana (HHANWLA) will host its first “Day of the Dead” festival, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 4, from noon to 10 p.m. at Festival Plaza in downtown Shreveport. Admission is free, while some contests will require an entry fee.

I recently lost a family member. For years, I would text Cathy Lewis every couple of weeks, asking if she could get me in “today.”

“I was on the car lot, and James Burton (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, Grammy Award winner, Elvis’ lead guitarist) comes to look at cars. I had never met James Burton, but obviously knew he was a guitar legend.

The 51-year-old retired Bossier Parish school teacher has an MRI to ensure she’s all clear after having a brain tumor removed in 2020.

That father-son discussion kickstarted a major change to this year’s Revel, which runs Sept. 30-Oct. 8 at Shreveport’s Festival Plaza. “My son likes the Revel a lot,” Lewis said.