Two friends — a rector and his organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square — found the inspiration in the run-up to the Christmas celebration in 1868.
The result of their delayed creativity was “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” composed and heard in a Philadelphia church.
It was a song that spread across the world, and put the 19th-century church on the map.
The silent stars
Three years before, in 1865, the church’s vicar visited the Holy Land.
So moved by what he saw on that trip, the Rev. Phillips Brooks put pen to paper.
The result was a poem:
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie.
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.
In totality, as a piece of music, the song is not exactly upbeat.
The lyrics reflect on the darkness found after midnight. Cries of misery reverberating through dark streets under cover of ink-black skies.
But there’s also everlasting light.
A Christmas miracle
Three years later in 1868, Brooks asked the church’s organist, Lewis Redner, a real estate agent who played the organ for four churches, to set music to those lyrics Brooks penned.
It was to be part of a song that would play during the Christmas holiday in 1868.
And then Brooks waited.
To his congregation, Brooks was an inspiring preacher. In the throes of the American Civil War, he would ride on a wagon to the battlefields around Gettysburg to perform last rites on dying soldiers and offer words of comfort to wounded soldiers — Union and Confederate.
Days turned to weeks, and Brooks was still waiting for the completed song.
But as the holiday approached, the procrastination had reached a fever pitch.
Two days before the Christmas service, on a Friday, Brooks nervously asked about the song.
“Have you ground out the music yet?”
“No,” Redner said.
But he assured Brooks: “I’ll have it by Sunday.”
On Saturday night, Redner wrote in his diary that his brain was in knots over the tune, according to The Inquirer.
Once asleep, he woke with a start.
He wrote that he heard an angel whispering in his ear.
Redner then scribbled down the tune.
And before the Sunday service, he layered on the harmony.
When Scott Edgell was discharged from the military after a service-related head injury at age 20, he thought he would resume life as normal.
But over the next four decades, the Lancaster Countyman was troubled by frequent migraines, memory problems, dizziness, irritability, and balance issues. Even everyday activities, like grocery shopping or eating at a restaurant, became overwhelming.
“I didn’t understand what was happening to my body,” said Edgell, who is now 57.
He realized the head injury he suffered while serving in the military was to blame after watching the 2015 movie Concussion, but struggled to find doctors who knew how to help him.
Just as he started to lose hope in late 2023, he learned abouta Jefferson Health program in Willow Grove for veterans and first responders with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). The clinic provides physical and cognitive rehabilitation to participants over a three-week intensive outpatient program.
Edgell is among the estimated one in four veterans who have had a TBI. More than half a million U.S. military members have been diagnosed with the injury since 2000, according to the Department of Defense.
Many suffer TBIs as a result of combat-related incidents, exposure to blasts during explosions, training accidents, and vehicle crashes.
While some patients can recover completely, up to 30% of those with mild TBIs, also commonly called concussions — which account for the vast majority of TBI cases — experience long-term symptoms.
The lasting effects of TBIs are often overlooked among veterans because of the injury’s invisibility. Yet they can be life-altering, affecting employment, personal relationships, and overall quality of life.
Veterans with a TBI had suicide rates 55% higher than veterans without the injury, one study found.
Jefferson’s program, called the MossRehab Institute for Brain Health, was founded in 2022 and has treated roughly 100 patients. Itruns on donations — the biggest being from the veterans’ wellness nonprofit Avalon Action Alliance, which has provided $1.25 million annually.
Donations allow them to offer the program at no out-of-pocket cost to veterans and first responders, and cover housing, transportation, and meals during the three weeks.
“I walked in those doors at the lowest part of my life,” said Edgell, who participated in June 2024.
Though there’s no cure for his injury, the program has helped him rebuild his life.
“All you can do is learn to manage your symptoms,” he said.
Edgell and his family, including his wife Tami, stepdaughter Monica Bressler, son-in-law Kenny Bressler, and granddaughter Hayvin.
The program
Edgell entered the MossRehab program in June 2024 as part of a cohort of four.
The first step in his rehabwas learning about what was happening to his brain.
His accident occurred back in 1989, when a steel hatch swung shut and hit him in the back of the head during a training exercise at Fort Riley, Kan.
Doctors at the time provided memory exercises, mental health support, and physical rehabilitation to improve his gait, but nothing brought him back to baseline.
Edgell managed to push through his memory problems in college by putting in extra effort into studying, and ultimately became an electronics engineer.
However, it became harder to cope with the symptoms as he got older.
Even brief outings would exhaust him to the point of needing days to recover.
When his wife, Tami, would ask what she could do to help him, he wouldn’t know what to say.
One therapist at the program offered him a helpful analogy: If a normal brain is like a six-burner stove, then having a brain injury is like being down to only three burners.
“You’re trying to do everything with two or three burners that you would normally do with six, and your brain just becomes very fatigued and overwhelmed,” Edgell said.
The program teaches participants to adapt to their brain’s new way of functioning, whether through physical rehabilitation for symptoms such as dizziness, or cognitive rehabilitation to address issues affecting attention, concentration, memory, and mood.
“We’re basically retraining the brain to do something that it’s having difficulty doing because of an injury,” said Yevgeniya Sergeyenko, a physical medicine & rehabilitation physician and clinical director of the program.
Since treatment for TBIs revolves around managing the symptoms — which can vary widely between patients — the program has staff across an array of specialties that patients see throughout their three-week stay.
One provider helped Edgell, who was struggling to get more than a few hours of sleep a night, find medication to help him sleep.
A physical therapist, meanwhile, assisted with his balance and core structure, so he could walk and move around more easily.
Others taught Edgell exercises to improve his dexterity, speech, and memory.
Army veteran Scott Edgell participates in a cohort session at the MossRehab Institute for Brain Health.
Some forms of therapy were less conventional.
There was horticultural therapy — a therapy that involves working with plants — which Sergeyenko said has been shown to lower blood pressure and is intended to help with emotional regulation.
Patients also did yoga and other mindfulness and movement activities intended to calm the nervous system.
Edgell said yoga wasn’t his favorite, but he found art therapy helped him communicate more openly.
One of the exercises at the start of the program asked himto draw a tree. He drew one that “was not doing very well,” he said.
At the end of the three weeks, he drew a lush version full of leaves. The framed drawing now hangsin his dining room.
“I look at that everyday to see where I came from,” he said.
Army veteran Scott Edgell shows drawings of trees representing himself during a cohort session at the MossRehab Institute for Brain Health.
Outcomes
Program organizers say returning to a pre-injury baseline is not always a realistic goal.
“There’s not a medicine that you can give that’s going to make all of your brain injury symptoms subside,” said Kate O’Rourke, the program director at the clinic.
The program aims toimprove function and quality of life.
As of September, the last time outcome statistics were compiled, 82 patients had gone through the three-week intensive. Sixty-five percent saw significant reduction in their symptoms, as measured bytheir Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory scores — which assesses a patient’s severity of neurobehavioral symptoms from 0 to 88. The average reductionwas 13.26 points.
Ninety-nine percent of patients reported that they personally felt they improved after the program.
Current patients (Jeff Todd Malloch and Jessica Mack) and Army veteran Scott Edgell participate in a cohort session with his therapy dog, Lars, at the MossRehab Institute for Brain Health.
Edgell regularly reaches out to staff for advice, and meets with the program’s alumni in monthly conference calls.
He still has bad days sometimes, but he’s able to manage them better.
Before, when he would go to a grocery store or restaurant, he would become overwhelmed by the noise, lights, and commotion.
“I couldn’t catch my triggers before I fell off the cliff,” Edgell said.
He was only able to leave the house four to five times a month.
Working with a service dog at MossRehab inspired him to get one of his own.
Now, when he starts to react, a golden doodle named Lars will nudge him, giving him a moment to let his brain calm down.
Edgell and his service dog, a golden doodle named Lars.
Today, he’s able toleave the house more frequently and for longer.
He and his wife have reconnected with friends and engaged more in social activities.
“I still get tired, I still need breaks, but my recovery time is a lot faster, and it’s not nearly as devastating,” Edgell said.
With the announcement of record sales across the country on Black Friday, including $11.8 billion in online transactions, the holiday shopping season was off to a great start. In the next few weeks, the average person was expected to spend about 10% of their annual shopping budget. By Dec. 25, the National Retail Federation expected a record-setting $1 trillion to be spent nationwide on consumer goods.
As a Christian, I am not supposed to like the commercialization of Christmas. I was taught from childhood that the birth of Jesus is “the reason for the season,” not gifts. In recent years, critics of all faiths — and none — have joined a growing chorus of anti-consumerist sentiment toward the holidays.
But rather than dismissing holiday shopping as a symbol of materialism and excess, I have come to view it as an expression of generosity and joy that captures the purpose of the season.
Rather than dismissing holiday shopping as a symbol of materialism and excess, I have come to view it as an expression of generosity, writes B. G. White.
The tradition of giving gifts at Christmastime was introduced several centuries ago in Europe by Christians who took stories about the gift-giving of an ancient saint, Nicholas of Myra, and turned him into the modern Santa Claus. As the Industrial Revolution created a new middle class and increased the availability of consumer goods, the tradition grew.
The importance of material generosity at Christmas was especially championed by Charles Dickens in his 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, which depicts the infamous Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from a penny-pinching grump to a joyful philanthropist.
Hand-colored plate illustration from the first-edition/first-issue copy of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
Dickens’ largely secular vision of giving gifts at Christmas helped to make a holiday originally confined to Christians more accessible for an increasingly pluralistic world.
Of course, there are problems with the connection between Christmas and shopping. I do not like how it can exacerbate class difference, revealing a vast disparity in the quantity and quality of gifts from one household to the next. The upper and middle classes can use Christmas as another opportunity for an exotic vacation or the acquisition of yet another status symbol.
One only needs, however, to recall the refrain from so many holiday movies to realize that the vast expenditure inherent to the season is not the main problem.
As Charlie Brown struggles in A Charlie Brown Christmas to pull together the perfect Christmas play, he realizes that, while he may need a Christmas tree for the set, it does not need to be particularly tall, pretty, or even upright. A short, scrawny tree will do just fine.
Instead of trying to buy happiness, or a better relationship with a loved one, or the perfect Christmas tree, we can use Christmas to focus on what someone really needs, writes B. G. White.
Christmas is about being content with what you already have and, out of that contentment, being generous to others. Instead of trying to buy happiness, or a better relationship with a loved one, or the perfect Christmas tree, we can use Christmas to focus on what someone really needs.
To keep ourselves focused on others and avoid unnecessarily lavish gifts, my wife and I use holiday sales as a means to get a discount on items that we would otherwise buy for our kids at some other point in the year. We also focus on practical gifts people will actually use — last year, we got a battery caddy for my mom and gardening gloves for my dad. Our son requested an expensive toy this year — an electric train set — so we found a small one that is in good secondhand condition, which reduces waste and expenditure.
Perhaps the greatest reason why I like to give gifts at Christmas is that they embody the heart of the Christmas story — the one, ironically, that so many Christians use to create skepticism about Christmas gifts — in which God “gave” Jesus as a savior for the world (John 3:16).
Perhaps, then, giving gifts does not destroy Christmas; it captures its very essence.
B. G. White is a faculty member in the theology department at Boston College.
Donald Trump has a fixation on putting his name on everything he can find. His latest is the Kennedy Center. Animals mark their territory, but the smell dissipates quickly. The stench from Trump’s antics will take years to remove.
Barry Adams, Malvern
. . .
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has had wonderfully harmonious moments.
The recent addition of Donald J. Trump’s name to the center creates a brash, clanging disharmony.
Consider three examples:
Kennedy inspired the creation of the Peace Corps. Trump eviscerated the U.S. Agency for International Development, leaving children starving and food rotting.
Kennedy instituted the Alliance for Progress, which brought hopes of prosperity and peace to Latin America. Trump ordered the military to murder suspected drug smugglers from Latin America.
Kennedy laid the moral foundation for the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965). Trump directed states to redraw congressional boundaries so as to reduce nonwhite representation.
Bring back harmony and erase Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center. Adding Trump’s name is an insult to the memory and inspirational presidency of Kennedy, who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” In Trump’s case, it’s always been the other way around.
In 2025, facing punishment for misdeeds is no longer a sure thing. Whether it’s a federal conviction for storming the U.S. Capitol, bringing illegal drugs into the country, or defrauding investors, if you support the president, he’ll make it all go away. Donald Trump bragged during his campaign that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue without losing any of his supporters. He may have been right — and he is sharing that immunity with any of his friends who need it.
Wayne Williams, Malvern
. . .
How come Donald Trump can get away with just about anything: demolishing the East Wing, dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, freezing congressionally appropriated funds, just to name a few? And while each of those things occurred when he was president, bending the rules has been his MO, as a business person, since Day One. If you or I did the same thing, they’d throw the book at us. Trump? He gets the U.S. Supreme Court to say a president can’t be held accountable for anything he does while in office. The founders are turning over in their graves. Can you imagine what Trump would do if Joe Biden did everything he has done over the past 11 months?
Biden Derangement Syndrome, indeed.
Michael Miller Jr., Philadelphia
Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.
DEAR ABBY: While attending a friend’s family barbecue, “Willa,” a young mother of four, drank too much and became ill. Drugs may have been involved. Understandably, the three older children became very concerned about their mom’s condition. Willa’s partner, “Ian,” was furious. My husband spent an hour de-escalating Ian’s issues, while I attended to Willa and assured the children their mom would be feeling better after she rested.
The problem I had was with my friend “Julia,” who was the host. Julia is Ian’s mother and the grandmother of the youngest child he has with Willa. After I took care of Willa, the kids and Ian, the older ones asked Julia what was wrong with their mom. I replied that their mom was sick from drinking too much, after which Julia loudly announced, “Your mom’s not ‘sick’ … she’s DRUNK!” Her outburst caused the older kids (ages 6 to 12) to become upset again. Julia maintains she did nothing wrong. What are your thoughts?
— CLEANING UP THE MESS
DEAR CLEANING UP: Julia was probably mad as heck that Willa ruined her party, which is why she unloaded the way she did. That said, the children were clearly worried when they asked what was wrong with their mom. Frankly, I think Julia did the right thing by telling them the truth about their mother’s condition. That way, the next time it happens, and it will, they won’t be terrified that their mother has a fatal illness.
** ** **
DEAR ABBY: I am in a longtime relationship and things are good. I feel loved, and I love him. However, we have opposite opinions about current politics. It is disturbing that he could feel this way. Our discussions usually result in his telling me over and over, louder and louder, “how things ARE” and “what the REAL truth is,” and that I’m “not looking at the whole picture.”
I told him I don’t like the debates we have as I feel very off-balance afterward, and it seems like he’s pushing me to accept his beliefs. It has now reached the point that if we keep up these “discussions,” as he calls them, I’ll probably have to leave the relationship. I told him I don’t ever want to talk about politics with him again. Is this a good option? Any other ideas? I cannot believe we are so opposite, yet he is very nice to me.
— OPPOSITE IN WASHINGTON
DEAR OPPOSITE: This gentleman may be very nice to you, but philosophically you and he are poles apart. I don’t think it is “very nice” to strong-arm someone into agreeing to something to which they are opposed. Do you really think you can stifle your feelings forever by not discussing this? This is who he is at his core, and he isn’t going to change his convictions. The question you have to answer is whether you are willing or able to do that.
** ** **
DEAR READERS: I wish you all a joyous, meaningful, healthy and safe Christmas. Merry Christmas, everyone!
ARIES (March 21-April 19). You’re gifted with initiative. While others wait for a cue, you sense the moment and jump. And if the scene is missing a leader, you’ll make the call to action, plot the plans and move with the boldness others will model themselves after.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You’re gifted with taste. You’re drawn to the good stuff, and you elevate everything you touch. Today, you’ll use your fine discernment and some practical magic to help someone else shine, which only doubles your own glow.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You’re gifted with decisiveness. Here or there? This one or that? You do a quick read of the moment and know within seconds which way to take it. You choose with a light heart, and all roads converge in happiness.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). You’re gifted with deep feelings. Know that they are a raw form of power. Anything that dulls or distracts you from letting a feeling come through limits your power. You’re brave and ready to face more, feel more and be more.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You’re gifted with creativity. Unusual ways you celebrate the day? Wear something symbolic or odd. Give someone a random compliment that has creative logic. Switch topics based on intuition. It all makes people happy, especially you.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You’re gifted with bravery. You live authentically, communicate honestly, notice and face life instead of turning away. The courage is in you, steady as your heartbeat. When you need it, just listen — it’s been there all along.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You’re gifted with social savvy. Sometimes it’s about knowing the rules, and sometimes it’s about serving the mood of the room. You sense the emotional temperature and know exactly how to warm it or cool it to bring all in to a dreamy harmony.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You’re gifted with leadership. Often your influence is nearly indetectable, even by you, because you lead through inspiration, not dominance. You model and they copy you. The exchange may be subtle, but the results are undeniably real.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You’re gifted with blithe spirit. You bring hope, humor and a touch of wild possibility wherever you go. You’ll lighten the mood with stories of adventures past and plans for adventures future. You remind people that joy is a choice.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You’re gifted with unwavering focus. You don’t have to try hard because this power comes naturally to you and works like gravity to keep your goals orbiting close. Today a subtle but potent action will shift your future toward the dream.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You’re gifted with charm. You’ll listen more than you respond, but when you respond, it’s not what they were expecting. You follow the emotional thread, the imaginative thread or the absurdist thread. It makes you unpredictable in the best way.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You’re gifted with compassion. In your heart of hearts, you know people aren’t so much “good” or “bad” as they are “conscious” or “unconscious.” Your compassion contributes to the wholeness of the world.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Dec. 25). Welcome to your Year of Luminosity. The “brightness” dial of your life turns up and your soul glows with new energy. Your sense of humor becomes your superpower, attracting exciting people and opportunities. Problems that once consumed you shrink to manageable size. More highlights: Money through bonuses, gifts and lucky breaks, parties you’ll talk about forever, and a relationship that makes everything more fun. Aries and Libra adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 5, 16, 28, 39 and 50.
No injuries were reported after a Christmas Eve fire at a rowhouse in Chester spread to neighboring homes, displacing five families, officials said.
Shortly before 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, firefighters responded to the 900 block of West Seventh Street and found heavy fire in a rowhouse. A second alarm was struck about seven minutes later.
Mayor Stefan Roots said three homes sustained heavy fire and water damage. He did not provide any information on what caused the fire.
The American Red Cross responded to the scene and assisted a total of 13 people from five families who were displaced, said spokesperson Alana Mauger.
Twenty-four hours after two gas explosions ripped through a Bucks County nursing home, the dead and injured had been identified, survivors were accounted for, and the cleanup was underway. But unanswered questions about the blast’s cause mounted.
On Wednesday morning, Peco provided a drastically different account of when its crews responded to reports of a gas odor on Tuesday, saying technicians had actually arrived hours — not minutes — before the blast at Bristol Health & Rehab Center.
Then, the energy company went silent, declining to answer any additional questions as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) took over a sprawling investigation that will also involve other federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies.
Meanwhile, the new operator of the 174-bed nursing home, Saber Healthcare Group, is also coming under scrutiny amid questions about the poorly maintained facility on Tower Road that it took over from another provider just three weeks ago.
It could take months to get answers about what caused, and who is at fault for, the blast that killed two people and left 19 hospitalized, one in critical condition.
Experts and attorneys told The Inquirer the investigation will likely focus heavily on the actions of Peco and the nursing home’s operators.
“If the facility doesn’t maintain the equipment and the gas in their own facility, then they would be responsible,” said Robert Mongeluzzi, an attorney who has represented victims of gas explosions. “If there were reports of the gas leak, and Peco is notified and the facility isn’t cleared … there’s going to be responsibility on both of them.”
Windows and debris at the site of the Bristol Health & Rehab Center on Wednesday.
In a statement, the NTSB said investigators will not be able to fully evaluate the natural gas service line until “a safe path is cleared.” That effort alone could take several days. The agency provided no timeline for its initial findings.
Saber Healthcare Group took over operations at the nursing home on Dec. 1. Prior to that, the facility had been managed by another privately run for-profit healthcare company, the Ohio-based CommuniCare Health Services.
CommuniCare, which had operated the home since 2021, racked up a long list of code violations for unsafe building conditions and substandard healthcare. Just two months ago, state inspectors cited the facility for lacking a fire safety plan, failing to maintain extinguishers, and allowing conditions that would cause poor smoke ventilation.
Federal inspection records also show numerous citations over previous years for substandard healthcare, poor infection control, and mismanaged medical records, earning the facility a one-star rating. CommuniCare incurred more than $418,000 in fines due to violations in 2024, records show.
“We have worked to improve and fix prior issues, and we will continue that work in the wake of this tragedy,” Saber said in a statement Tuesday.
Attorneys watching the news unfold questioned whether Saber should have evacuated residents sooner on Tuesday. Peco’s own guidelines urge people who smell gas to evacuate the building immediately.
“If you or I smelled gas in our apartment or house, we’d be like, ‘Where is it?’ You have to get everybody out,” said Ian Norris, an attorney at Philadelphia-based McEldrew Purtell who has sued Saber and other nursing home operators accused of negligence. “In a nursing home, you have a higher standard of care. They are dependent residents who are there on the basis that they need help.”
A Saber representative said the company was looking into the evacuation procedures. In its statement Tuesday, the company said “facility personnel reported a gas smell” to Peco. The statement made no mention of an evacuation effort.
The smell was confined to the kitchen area of the nursing home, according to the Saber representative.
A Peco gas technician arrived at the nursing home on Tuesday afternoon. He was working alone in the basement below the kitchen area to address the issue, and as he went to his truck to retrieve more tools, the building erupted, said Larry Anastasi, president of IBEW Local 614, the union that represents Peco workers.
Whether Peco’s gas lines played a role in the blast remains unknown. But the utility company’s aging gas infrastructure will likely come under closer inspection as the probe progresses, according to attorneys with knowledge of investigations following such explosions.
One detail that became clear Wednesday was that Peco’s gas meter was located in the basement of the nursing home — not outside and aboveground as required by a 2011 order from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC).
The PUC, like Peco, declined to comment and referred questions to the NTSB.
Workers set up fencing at Bristol Health & Rehab Center on Wednesday.
While the age and condition of the gas line near the nursing home were not clear, Peco has acknowledged it had 742 miles of substandard gas lines across the state — including cast iron, plastic, and uncoated steel piping — that needed replacing. The lines accounted for 5% of Peco’s gas service but 82% of leaks, according to a report from the PUC.
Peco plans call for all of those lines to be replaced by 2035 and to invest roughly $6 billion to inspect, modernize, and perform maintenance on all of its systems over the next five years.
Richard Kuprewicz, an expert on gas pipeline safety and investigations, said it is too early to tell if Peco or the nursing home acted improperly. He warned against jumping to conclusions the day after the explosions.
“We just don’t have the facts on this,” Kuprewicz said. “The tragedy is they had an explosion from a gas release that they knew was occurring. People will raise questions about this for months.”
In the immediate aftermath Tuesday evening, Peco spokesperson Greg Smore said in a statement that the company’s crews had responded to the nursing home “shortly after 2 p.m.” Tuesday and that while they were on site, the explosion occurred. The blast was reported just before 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, according to Bristol Fire Chief Kevin Dippolito.
But in a revised statement Wednesday morning, the company backtracked, saying its crews actually arrived “a few hours” before the explosion. It would not provide a specific time.
Peco said it shut off natural gas and electric service “to ensure the safety of first responders and local residents.” But, again, it would not say when.
Depending on where the gas leak was, Kuprewicz said, significant amounts of gas could continue to seep out after a shutoff.
“There isn’t one standard answer for all this,” he said. “Even when you shut it off, it doesn’t [always] stop flowing.”
Inquirer staff writers Samantha Melamed and Barbara Laker contributed to this article.
The Chicago Bears game was a breaking point for Jalen Carter.
His shoulders had bothered him since training camp, and on the day the Eagles’ defense was gashed for 281 rushing yards in a Black Friday blackout, Carter’s deficiencies showed on the film, he said. The Eagles even took him off the field on early downs.
There’s a lot of hand-to-hand combat that happens at the line of scrimmage, and Carter couldn’t strike and use his hands the way he usually does. He didn’t have the strength in part because the shoulder pain and mobility limitations made it so that he couldn’t lift weights. Even pushups were painful.
Carter said Wednesday that he got multiple shots in both shoulders. He feels a lot better now, but the procedures may have been temporary fixes. Carter said he probably won’t feel 100% during the upcoming playoff run and will likely have to revisit the injuries in the offseason.
Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter shown against the Detroit Lions on Nov. 20.
“I can’t get too excited because I’m still working on it every day, still getting the strength back,” he said.
Carter is in line to make his return Sunday vs. the Buffalo Bills after missing the previous three games. Carter said he wanted to play every snap, but the Eagles will likely work him back slowly. While conditioning was an issue earlier in the season, Carter said he was able to run and lift and feels like his conditioning won’t slow him down.
Carter practiced Tuesday in some capacity, though the Eagles weren’t required to give an injury report. Carter was listed as a full participant Wednesday. He said he can feel the difference in practice during practice periods against offensive linemen.
The Eagles’ defensive front has played well in Carter’s absence. Carter loved watching Jordan Davis, Moro Ojomo, Byron Young, and even Brandon Graham — who moved to the interior with Carter out — help the Eagles go 2-1 over the last three games. But he wanted to be out there.
“You want to get out there but you can’t rush the process and hurt it even more,” he said.
The Eagles barely missed Carter vs. Las Vegas and Washington, but the team waiting for him Sunday in western New York is a different challenge with one of the better quarterback-running back combinations in the NFL.
Carter and Bills running back James Cook overlapped at Georgia. And Josh Allen is a “dog,” Carter said.
“I remember when we played them two years ago and I missed a sack on him,” he said. “We got to get that back.”
Injury report
Lane Johnson (foot) remained out during practice Wednesday, as did Nakobe Dean (hamstring).
Landon Dickerson (illness) also missed Wednesday’s workout, as did A.J. Brown, who had a dental procedure.
Ramesses Dreuitt Vazquez scooted his wheelchair on a Mount Airy playground, pressing the ground with his sneakers to approach the man credited with saving his life.
Now the 10-year-old Philadelphia boy smiled through his scars, reaching his arm out to greet Wongus, who bent down and hugged him.
Wongus, 26, was nervous to see Ramesses, unsure what to expect. On the night of the Jan. 31 crash, Wongus used his jean jacket to smother flames on Ramesses’ back. He then comforted Ramesses in the back seat of a police cruiser as they raced to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. The child’s clothes had burned away; his sneakers had melted to his feet from the heat.
In the 10 months afterward, Ramesses fought for his life at a Boston hospital. He had 42 surgeries for burn wounds that affected 90% of his body, and had fingers and ears amputated. He was moved to a rehabilitation hospital in South Jersey before being released earlier this month.
He reunited with his rescuer on Tuesday night at an event to mark what would have been the 38th birthday of Ramesses’ father, Steven Dreuitt Jr., who died when the car he was driving caught on fire.
Family and friends gathered on the park’s basketball court to release balloons.
Wongus asked Ramesses how he felt about getting swag from the Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies while in the hospital. “I’m really not much of a baseball fan; I’m more of an Eagles fan,” replied Ramesses, wearing a knit Eagles hat.
The boy’s light and casual tone made Wongus smile.
“I’m glad to see him with his family and to see how well he’s doing — seeing him just trying to function as a kid again and scooting around in the wheelchair on the basketball court,“ Wongus said.
The balloon release was organized by Alberta “Amira” Brown, 60, Dreuitt’s mother and Ramesses’ grandmother. During the balloon release, she andRamesses’ mother thanked Wongus for saving him.
“If it wasn’t for this person here, Ramesses would not be here today,” Brown said, as family and friends applauded.
Brown also asked those in attendance to supporther son’s other child, Dominick Goods, an 11th grader at Imhotep Institute Charter High School in East Germantown.
Both grandsons, she said, need the community’s love and support: “I have one that is completely, completely mentally distraught and one is physically distraught.”
Dominick, who is Ramesses’ half brother, lost his father and his 34-year-old mother in the plane crash. Dominique Goods Burke, who was engaged to Dreuitt, was in the car’s passenger’s seat. The Mount Airy couple had picked up Ramesses from his mother’s home in Germantown and then headed to the Roosevelt Mall to run an errand. Goods Burke escaped from the car with severe burns and internal injuries.
Dominick turned 16 two weeks before his mother died in Aprilat Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
“I want each and every one of you to imagine what a 15-year-old kid went through that night, being left home alone and waiting for his parents and his brother to come home, and no one ever did,” Brown said.
“Don’t forget my grandson Dominick. I beg of you,” she said.
Dominick Goods, 16, lost both of his parents in the jet crash in Northeast Philadelphia on Jan. 31. The teen and his family gathered at a Mount Airy playground to celebrate what would have been his father’s 38th birthday. The teen’s grandmother, Alberta “Amira” Brown (right), asked those gathered to support him.
After watching balloons float skyward amid shouts of “Happy birthday, Steven,” Dominick drifted away from the crowd of about 40 people for a few moments alone.
Ramesses, bundled under a fuzzy white blanket, playfully chased after his mother, Jamie Vazquez Viana, in his wheelchair, teasing about rolling over her feet.
“Hey, that’s not fair,” she said.
She declined to talk to a reporter but has shared some details of her son’s recovery on a GoFundMe page.
“Ramesses is my little warrior who fought death and won, but he now faces a lifetime of reconstruction surgeries, intense therapy, and long-term burn care,” Vazquez Viana wrote.
Wongus smiled through tears as he watched Ramesses chat with his 12-year-old cousin, Anthony “AJ” Jenkins, about video games. His cousin, who gave him an Xbox game for his birthday in October, asked if he had been playing it.
Ramesses explained why he had not.“I have to sign in and put in my dad’s email and his number and all that, and I don’t have that,” Ramesses told his cousin.
Jenkins, a seventh graderwho is one of Brown’s seven grandchildren, said he cried during the balloon release, envisioning his uncle watching them.
Family, friends and community members came out for the balloon release to celebrate the life and birthday of Steven Dreuitt Jr., who would’ve turned 38 on Dec. 23. He died in the Jan. 31 plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia.
“I imagined in my mind that my uncle asked God, `Can I just look down there for a minute?,’ and he sat on the clouds and he watched as his balloons came up to him,” Jenkins said.
Later in the evening, at his grandmother’s house, Dominick lit a candle for his father, while Ramesses looked on.
Jenkins said he again pictured his uncle’s spirit. This time, clasping both his sons’ hands to help them light it.
Ramesses Dreuitt Vazquez, 10, watches his older brother, Dominick Goods, 16, light a candle to remember their father, Steven Dreuitt Jr., who died in the Jan. 31 plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia. The brothers celebrated what would have been their father’s 38th birthday on Dec. 23.
Jenkins said he is awed by his cousins’ physical and emotional strength. Ramesses “keeps pushing hard” to get stronger, even though his father is gone. Dominick had clung to hope that his mother would survive and was devastated, the cousin said.
“It’s been really hard for him. I couldn’t be in that place. I’d be stuck. I couldn’t be strong enough,” Jenkins said. “They inspire me to be a better person. I want to show my uncle and his two sons that I am working hard for them.”
Before heading over to the playground on Tuesday evening, Dominick gave Ramesses an early Christmas gift.
Ramesses’ eyes grew wide as his mother helped him unfurl tissue paper to reveal a coveted pair of 2025 Air Jordan 8 “Bugs Bunny” Nike sneakers.
“You like them. I can see it on your face,” his mother said.
“I’m gonna hide them,” Ramesses replied. He didn’t want anyone to take them from him.
